Refugees from Reading: Students’ perceptions of “remedial” literacy pedagogy

The central theme of this paper is that developmental reading courses in college settings need to be revised in ways that will not perpetuate cycles of remediation that students have experienced in previous educational settings. Developmental reading courses are filled with students who possess poor concepts about themselves as readers. These concepts arise partly from previous histories of remedial educational endeavors. This study suggests that through “critical” metacognition these negative concepts can be addressed in ways that assist developmental readers with renaming their literacy experiences and allowing them to progress.