Critical literacy pedagogy (CLP) is instruction that brings critical theory to life in the classroom. CLP helps students use literacy to understand how power operates in the world, to imagine how the world might be made more just, and to affect needed change. Enacting CLP is challenging, even more so without a theory- and research-informed plan for implementation. Below, I provide three pedagogical moves–or intentional decisions–teachers can make to enact CLP. Pedagogical Mov

Increasingly, when I read the news, I feel like I’m reading George Orwell’s 1984. But when I look up and check the bookshelf, 1984’s  red spine is still there. Specifically, I feel like I’m being asked to believe that “2 + 2 = 5.” That’s one of the ways Orwell depicted a totalitarian government’s attempts to establish complete control over how people perceive reality and what counts as truth. Obviously, two plus two equals four, but sometimes, if those in power say so, it equ

Simply put, critical literacy pedagogy (CLP) is an approach to teaching inspired by critical theory. While the term itself may sound complex, its core purpose is straightforward: to help students use literacy to understand how power operates in the world–and to imagine how that world might be made more just.  Critical literacy pedagogy is at the center of Teaching ELA for CHANGE, which emphasizes questioning injustice, engaging critically with texts and the world, and using l