Digital safe spaces: A critical take on two digital moments

This paper explores the digital engagement of English additional language students with minimum previous exposure to technology, in an undergraduate English classroom in Johannesburg. Within a critical pedagogy and critical literacy framework, and using Canagarajah's (1997, 2004) and Pratt's (1991) exploration of 'safe houses', the paper agrees that the digital world offers students from under-resourced contexts a safe space in which to negotiate meaning. I look at two digital narrative texts produced by the students from a critical position to understand their engagement with digital literacy, and the patterns that emanate from their digital representations, to postulate what implications safe houses and critical pedagogy might have for English teaching in South Africa.