AY 2020-2021

Ed. 110 – Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum

Indicative Content
Critical Literacy
Explore
Lesson 1 History of Critical Literacy Theory
Module 8 Lesson 2 Critical Literacy and the Arts
Enhance
Reflect
Evaluate

LEARNING OUTCOMES
On completion of this lesson, one should be able to
1. characterize critical literacy
2. discuss a brief background of critical literacy theory; and
3. apply principles of critical literacy in designing lessons and classroom
activities.

EXPLORE
The concept of critical literacy is theoretically diverse and combines ideas from
various critical theories, such as critical linguistics, feminist theory, critical race theory, as
well as reader response theory and cultural and media studies (Luke et al., 2009). Critical
literacy is a central thinking skill that involves the questioning and examination of ideas, and
requires one to synthesize, analyse, interpret evaluate, and respond to the texts read or listened
to (University of Melbourne, 2018). Critical literacy uses texts and print skills in ways that
enable students to examine the politics of daily life within contemporary society with a view
to understanding what it means to locate and actively seek out contradictions within modes of
life, theories, and substantive intellectual positions (Bishop. 2014). Rather than promoting
any particular reading of any particular group or text, critical literacy seeks to examine the
historical and contemporaneous privileging of and exclusion of groups of people and ideas
from mainstream narratives (Lankshear & McLaren, 1993). It is a kind of literacy about
structures, structural violence, and power systems.
Since the 1990s, critical literacy theorists have outlined emancipate theories of
learning (Freire & Macedo, 1987) that addressed the complex relations of language and
power through social critique, advocacy, and cultural transformation (Knoblauch & Brannon,
1993). Educational researcher discuss critical literacy as a theory of social practice, as the
negotiation of and the creation of meaning for social justice (Greene, 2008). While there is no
single model of critical literacy (as there is no single model of youth organizing the emphasis
on Freire's (1970) action-reflection cycle of "praxis" has offered participants a concept
through which to construct meanings that support their literacy for civic engagement
(Lankshear & McClaren, 1993).

History of Critical Literacy Theory

Much of the earliest scholarship on critical literacy is grounded in Freirian pedagogy.
In 1987, Freire and Macedo published their expansive volume on literacy and critical
pedagogy. In it, they argued that those who are critically literate can understand not only how
meaning is socially constructed within texts, but also the political and economic contexts in
which those texts were created and embedded (Freire & Macedo, 1987). While Freire and
Macedo were perhaps the first to initiate a dialogue around the idea of critical literacy in their
collection, it was not until 1993 that Lankshear and McLaren issued what was to become the
seminal text devoted to the topic. In it, they stated that literacy is more complex than the
traditionally defined skills of reading and writing. Rather, they argued that such a traditional

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definition of literacy is ideologically aligned with particular postures of normative socio-

political consciousness that
are inherently exploitative. By contrast, critical literacy emphasized the social construction of
reading, writing, and text production within political contexts of inequitable economic,
cultural, political, and institutional structures. Lankshea and McLaren argued for critically
reflective teaching and research focused on both the forms that literate skills fake as social
practices and the uses to which those skills are employed.
The authors identified three forms of educational practice that critical literacy can take
on, varying by their commitment to inquiry and action: liberal education, pluralism, and
transformative praxis. Liberal education here means an approach to disciplinary knowledge
where intellectual freedom exists and where disparate interpretations are considered, but
inevitably contradiction is avoided and rational argumentation wins out. In pluralism, there is
an emphasis on reading to evaluate principles that support a loose conception of tolerance.
Tolerance here is aligned with a notion of diversity that is a rounded on benevolence toward
those who are not mainstream (and in the process maintains the mainstream). Against these
approaches, the authors forwarded “transformative praxis" as that which takes the radical
potential of critical literacy into direct emancipatory action in the world. Praxis is here
defined through the Freirian (1970) process of naming the conditions of oppression and
struggling collectively with others in a cycle of action-reflection-action against such
oppression. Lankshear and McLaren of argued that a guiding principle behind the processes
of transformative critical literacy praxis involves an analysis "attempting to understand how
agents working within established structures of power participate in the social construction of
literacies, revealing their political implications” (p.7).
Critical literacy praxis, which Lankshear and McLaren also called "political and
social literacies," involves textual studies that are analyzed at the discursive level in which the
texts were created and in which they are sustained. While the authors understood that this
move might lead to such literacies being seen “potentially subversive” they forwarded a key
distinction centering on the difference between political indoctrination and the development
of a critical consciousness-or what Freire (1970) called "conscientization."
At the turn of the millennium, just before the 2001 re-authorization of the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) as the controversial No Child left Behind
Act (NCLB), Janks (2000) posited four possible orientations for future approaches to critical
literacy education based on different perspectives on the relationship between language and
power: (a) to understand how language maintains social and political forms of domination: (b)
to provide access to dominant forms of language without compromising the integrity of non-
dominant forms; (c) to promote a diversity which requires attention to the way that uses of
language create social identities; and (d) to bring a design perspective that emphasizes the
need to use and select from a wide range of available cultural sign systems. Although
frequently taken in isolation, Janks argued that it is through the interdependence of these
approaches that learners can most fully engage theories and pedagogies of critical literacy.

Critical Literacy and the Arts

The creation of artistic products by an individual and the perception and rejection upon
others' artworks showcase the power of critical literacies at work within Arts contexts. Luke
(2000) argues that it is the primary aim of critical literacy to:
1. allow students to see how texts work to construct their worlds, their cultures, and their
identities in powerful, often overtly ideological ways; and
2. understand how they use texts as social tools in ways that allow for a reconstruction of
these same worlds.

The arts, understanding attained by critically reading aesthetic texts involves literacies,
and reality are dynamically linked and the perceiving the relationship between the art, its
creator, and its context. Both the practice and understanding of art forms, and being critically
literate are interconnected. Indeed, critical literacy makes possible a more adequate 'reading'

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of the world, on the basis of which people can enter into rewriting the world into a formation
in which their interests, identities, and legitimate writing aspirations are more fully present
and present more equally (Lankshear & McLaren, 1993, cited in Morgan, 2002. p. 6).

Enhance

Freebody and Luke (cited in Luke, 2000) developed a four-tiered approach to early
reading instruction that has now been widely adapted across Australian schools. These
approaches are necessary but not sufficient sets of social practices requisite for critical
literacy. A recent version of the model offered the following descriptions (Freebody, 1992;
Luke & Freebody, 1997):
Coding Practices: Developing Resources as a Code Beaker How do I crack this text?
How does it work? What are its patterns and conventions? How do the sounds and the marks
relate, singly and in combinations?
Text-Meaning Practices: Developing Resources as a Text Participant How do the ideas
represented in the text string together? What cultural resources can be brought to bear on the
text? What are the cultural meanings and possible readings that can be constructed from the
text?
Pragmatic Practices: Developing Resources as Text User- How do uses of this text
shape its composition? What do I do with this text, here and now? What will others do with
it? What are my options and alternatives?
Critical Practices: Developing Resources as Text Analyst and Critic - What kind of
person, with what interests and values, could both write and read this naively and without any
problem with it? What is this text trying do to me? In whose interests? Which positions,
voices, and interests are at play? Which are silent and absent?
There are a number of classroom activities which can be used to apply the
aforementioned approaches.

Textual Analysis

Textual analysis can be guided by asking the learners to make their way systematically
through a list of questions such as the following:
*What is the subject or topic of this text?
*Why might the author have written it?
*Who is it written for? How do you know?
*What values does the author assume the reader holds? How do you know?
*What knowledge does the reader need to bring to the text in order to understand it?
*Who would feel 'left out' in this text and why? Who would feel that the claims made in the
text clash with their own values, beliefs, or experiences?
*How is the reader 'positioned' in relation to the author (e.g., as a friend, as an opponent, as
someone who needs to be persuaded, as invisible, as someone who agrees with the author's
views)
Another approach for analysing texts is to use a checklist such as CARS (Credibility,
Accuracy, Reasonableness, Support), which was originally developed for use in evaluating
web sites.
Credibility
Evidence of authenticity and reliability is very important. Tests that help the reader judge
the credibility of a text include examining the author’s credentials and thr quality of content.
It is necessary to look for biographical details on their education, training, and/or experience
in an area relevant to the information by asking. "Do they provide contact information (email
or postal address, phone number]? What do you know about the author's reputation or
previous publications"? Information texts should pass through a review process, where
several readers examine and approve the content before it is published. Statements issued in
the name of an organization have almost always been seen and approved by several people.

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Accuracy
Information needs to be up to date, factual, detailed, exact, and comprehensive.
Things to bear in mind when judging accuracy include timeliness and comprehensiveness. We
must therefore be careful to note when information was created, before deciding whether it is
still of value. It is always a good idea to consult more than one text. Indicators that a text is
inaccurate either in whole or in part, include the absence of a date or an old date on
information known to change rapidly; vague or sweeping generalizations; and the failure to
acknowledge opposing views.

Reasonableness
Reasonableness involves examining the information for fairness, objectivity, and
moderateness. Fairness requires the writer to offer a balanced argument, and to consider
claims made by people with opposing views. A good information text will have à calm,
reasoned tone, arguing or presenting material thoughtfully. Like comprehensiveness,
objectivity is difficult to achieve. Good writers, however, try to minimize bias.

Support
Support for the writer's argument from other sources strengthens their credibility. It
can take various forms such as writing bibliography and references and corroboration. It is a
good idea to triangulate information, that is to find at least three texts that agree. If other texts
do not agree, further research into the range of opinion or disagreement is needed. Readers
should be careful when statistics are presented without identifying the source or when they
cannot find any other texts that present or acknowledge the same information.

Text Clustering
Text clustering involves confronting students with texts which obvious contradict
each other. The task is to use whatever evidence they can try to make judgements about where
the truth actually lies. Sometimes these judgements are relatively easy. News reports, fairy
tales, everyday texts are good materials for text clustering.

Reflect
Wrap up/Summary
*Critical literacy is a vital element to teach the pupils in the 21st century.
*Critical literacy is a central thinking skill that involves the questioning and examination of
ideas, and requires one to synthesize, analyze, interpret. evaluate, and respond to the texts
read or listened to.
*Text are always situated in fields of power, with economic, cultural, and social exchange
involved.

Questions to Ponder
On your own, read the questions and instructions carefully. Write your answer
on the space provided.
1. Assess your critical literacy skills by answering the following questions with YES or NO.
a. Do you evaluate your sources before using them in your essays?
b. Do you support your opinions and claims with experts' ideas?
c. Do you read with a critical eye?
d. Do you manage the vast amount of information you need to read?
e. Do you verify data and information before accepting them?
2. Let us explore your personal literacy histories by recalling and writing below your answers
to the following
a. your first memories of reading (what, where, with whom)
b. favorite reading as a child and as an adult
c. the most important book/s or author/s in your life.

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d. the main roles and purpose of reading in your life (as a parent, professional, for pleasure,
religious purposes, etc.)

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