What is Critical Literacy Pedagogy?

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 literacy as a tool for transforming the world.

To understand CLP fully, let's look at each word in the term.

Critical:

Critical here refers to critical theory. "Critical theory" is an umbrella term for many different theories (e.g., critical race theory, feminist theory, queer theory) that inspire people to question taken-for-granted assumptions and to challenge the dominant messages present in the texts they read and the media they consume. Texts and media always communicate ideologies that serve someone's interest. A critical reading of a text, then, requires readers to identify those ideologies and to question, challenge, and critique them as necessary in an ongoing pursuit of emancipation. Any reading of a text inspired by critical theories requires readers to remember that they have agency and do not have to be objects of someone else's designs. Critical theories encourage people to develop sociopolitical consciousness as they analyze issues related to power and become aware of the ways power shapes the social, political, and economic workings of the world. As people develop sociopolitical consciousness, they will also discover ways to transform the world to make it more just and equitable. Brazilian philosopher and critical educator Paulo Freire and his colleague Donaldo Macedo described the kind of reading that leads to sociopolitical consciousness as "reading the word and the world." Reading the word and the world means using texts, observations, and inquiry to learn about the workings of the world so that inequities and injustices can be identified, challenged, and ultimately transformed to make the world more just.

Because some critical theories, like critical race theory, have been perversely and intentionally misrepresented by politicians, I want to be clear about what critical theories actually aim to do. Critical theories are liberatory and justice-oriented. They are not intended to discriminate, and they are based on the belief that through consciousness raising and collective effort, people can change the world to make it better. They help people identify problems so they can work together to solve the world's problems. Teaching inspired by critical theories is aimed at raising students' awareness and encouraging them to question the messages they hear–even messages from the teacher. Teaching inspired by critical theories helps students question, challenge, and ultimately think for themselves.

These theories are positive and powerful and inspire teachers to adopt certain dispositions toward the content they teach. In English language arts (ELA), for example, critical theories encourage teachers to reconsider their curricula and ask: Whose voices are privileged in the texts I assign? Whose voices and perspectives are silenced? How can I adapt my syllabus and assignments to address this silencing? What do I need to learn in order to teach texts that are culturally relevant and sustaining? Imagine how much more impactful an ELA course is when students see themselves, their lives, their interests, their cultures and their communities reflected in what they study in class–that powerful impact is the result of teaching inspired by critical theories.

Literacy:

From a sociocultural perspective, literacy is another an umbrella term for all the specific ways a person reads, writes, reasons, makes meaning, uses knowledge, and communicates with (and from) texts. Literacy involves strategically using literacy practices to accomplish goals with texts. Literacy practices are what people do, using technologies, texts, and tools that require reading, writing, speaking, and listening to accomplish their goals. These practices also include applying ways of thinking and using knowledge with and from texts. Such a view of literacy demands that educators view literacy as a verb instead of a noun. Literacy is something students demonstrate and perform, not something they either have or don't have.

What counts as and how to use literacy in each discipline (i.e., subject area) in schooling (e.g., English language arts, the sciences, social studies, mathematics) are unique. This concept is called disciplinary literacy, which recognizes that–at least to some extent–what counts as reading, writing, and effective communication is different in each subject area or discipline. How a person reads, writes, speaks, listens, demonstrates, and approaches texts is influenced by the socially negotiated norms and values of the discipline they're studying. As an example, in ELA classrooms, students are expected to read a short story, understand the plot, interpret it, and determine its themes. Those are all literacy practices valued in ELA. To read a short story, then, requires much more than merely decoding the words on the page or screen. It requires specific literacy practices that reading a primary document in a social studies course does not require. And making sense of a primary source in a social studies course demands unique literacy practices from those required to read a scientific report. A disciplinary literacy perspective is helpful for secondary ELA teachers because it supports them in thinking about the demands their discipline places upon students. A disciplinary literacy perspective helps teachers have clarity about what they expect their students to know and do with texts, which facilitates effective lesson planning and meaningful student learning.

Pedagogy:

Pedagogy is an approach to teaching–it is how an educator enacts their teaching in the classroom. Pedagogies are influenced by a teacher’s values and beliefs, by their training in a teacher-preparation program, by their teaching experiences, by their thoughts about youth in general and about their students specifically, by their state’s standards and their district’s policies, by their administrators, by their peers, and a host of other factors. Any approach to teaching inspired by critical theories is a critical pedagogy. I place literacy between critical and pedagogy to reinforce the disciplinary literacy perspective discussed above.

Now, let's bring this all back together: Critical literacy pedagogy (CLP) is an approach to teaching inspired by critical theory (or theories). CLP is any teaching that engages students in using literacy practices to understand how knowledge is connected to power and that supports students in using their knowledge to critique abuses of power and to advocate for a more just world. CLP is teaching focused on literacy instruction that inspires students to change the world.

Resources

On Critical Theory and Critical Pedagogy:

·      Department of Philosophy, Stanford University. (n.d.). Critical theory (Frankfurt School). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/critical-theory/#DialEnli

·      Freire, P. (2018). Pedagogy of the oppressed. Bloomsbury. (Original work published in 1970).

·      Freire, P., & Macedo, D. (1987). Literacy: Reading the word and the world. Bergin & Garvey.

·      Giroux, H. A. (2020). On critical pedagogy (2^nd ed.). Bloomsbury Academic.  

·      Janks, H. (2012). The importance of critical literacy. English Teaching: Practice and Critique, 11(1), 150–163.

·      Luke, A. (2012). Critical literacy: Foundational notes. Theory Into Practice, 51(4), 4–11.

·      Morrell, E. (2008). Critical literacy and urban youth: Pedagogies of access, dissent, and liberation. Routledge.

·      Vasquez, V. M., Janks, H., & Comber, B. (2019). Critical literacy as a way of being and doing. Language Arts, 95(5), 300–311.

On Disciplinary Literacy in ELA:

·      Moje, E. B. (2015). Doing and teaching disciplinary literacy with adolescent learners: A social and cultural enterprise. Harvard Educational Review, 85(2), 254–278.

·      Moje, E. B. (2008). Foregrounding the disciplines in secondary literacy teaching and learning: A call for change. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 52(2), 96–107.

·      Rainey, E. C. (2017). Disciplinary literacy in English language arts: Exploring the social and problem-based nature of literary reading and reasoning. Reading and Research Quarterly, 52(1), 53–71.

On Sociocultural Perspectives of Literacy:

·      Gee, J. P. (2015). Social linguistics and literacies: Ideology in discourses (5th ed.). Routledge.

·      Scribner, S., & Cole, M. (1981). The psychology of literacy. Harvard University Press.

·      Street, B. V. (1984). Literacy in theory and practice. Cambridge University Press.