Why Critical Literacy Pedagogy Is Needed Now

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 equals five. Critical literacy, though, encourages me to question messaging and to challenge assertions that sound a lot like, “2 + 2 = 5.” But what if I’d never encountered critical theories in my education? What if I’d never been taught that those in power might try to manipulate me and how I perceive the world? What if I’d never learned that I had agency and did not have to be a puppet controlled by someone else or a parrot mindlessly repeating someone else’s version of reality? This is why critical literacy pedagogy (CLP) is needed: Education should raise students’ sociopolitical consciousness and should prepare them to resist attempts to control how they perceive the realities around them.

In his book On Critical Pedagogy, critical scholar Henry Giroux emphasized that when teachers provide CLP, they enable their students to “use the knowledge they gain both to critique the world in which they live, and when necessary, to intervene in socially responsible ways in order to change it” (2020, pp. 13–14). Giroux has also argued that “critical pedagogy currently offers the very best, perhaps the only, chance for young people to develop and assert a sense of their rights and responsibilities to participate in governing, and not simply being governed by, prevailing ideological and material forces” (2010, p. 335). Across the globe, injustices persist, and young people face countless opportunities to identify threats to their rights, their lives, and life on the planet–and to take action to address them.

Additionally, as I interpret recent events occurring in the United States, I believe that people’s rights are increasingly under threat and that the U.S. is showing troubling signs of authoritarianism. CLP is needed because it supports students in thinking critically, rejecting false narratives, and realizing and accepting their agency and responsibility to act in the world to make it more just and equitable.

In Democracy and Education, first published in 1916, John Dewey reminded readers that the ancient Greek philosopher Plato advocated for education directed toward the public good. In her introduction to John Dewey’s foundational text, professor Patricia Hinchey explained that Dewey’s century-old ideas are still relevant today because “the kind of citizens that schools educate will shape the kind of society the country becomes tomorrow” (2018, p. xviii). She claimed that Dewey’s most enduring idea is “perhaps evident in the title linking democracy and education” (p. xvii). Before Dewey, Thomas Jefferson drafted and submitted to the Virginia legislature “A Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge” (Bill 79). Though Bill 79 was not passed, it argued that government-funded public education was essential to “illuminate” people’s minds that they might know and be able to “guard the sacred deposit of the rights and liberties of their fellow citizens” and to protect themselves from a government slipping into “tyranny” (“79. A Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge, 18 June 1779”). Giroux maintained that a critical education (i.e., an education influenced by critical theories) “produces engaged citizens and makes social action and democracy possible” (2020, p. 8).

CLP views education as a means of supporting the public good, of defending democracy, and of preparing youth to engage as responsible citizens, capable of discerning truth despite propaganda, AI-generated texts, and deepfakes; holding their government accountable; and reshaping the world around them to be more equitable. Through CLP, secondary ELA teachers can help their students see that two plus two never equals five, regardless of what the wealthiest and most powerful people might say.

Last week, students at a local high school coordinated and executed a campus-wide walkout to protest U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) actions in their community and in cities like Minneapolis, where Renee Nicole Good was fatally shot by an ICE agent. These students’ brave decision is exactly the kind of civic engagement that CLP aims to promote. Secondary ELA teachers can support their students in making such brave and civically responsible choices by providing CLP, and what an honor it is to inspire and support youth in advocating for their rights, safeguarding the rights of others, and changing the world!

References

·      “79. A Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge, 18 June 1779,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-02-02-0132-0004-0079. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 2, 1777 – 18 June 1779, ed. Julian P. Boyd. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1950, pp. 526–535.]

·      Dewey, J. (2018). Democracy and education by John Dewey: With a critical introduction by Patricia H. Hinchey. Myers Education Press.

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

·      Giroux, H. A. (2010). Paulo Freire and the crisis of the political. Power and Education, 2(3), 335–340.

·      Hinchey, P. H. (2018). Introduction. In P. H. Hinchey (Ed.), Democracy and education by John Dewey: With a critical introduction by Patricia H. Hinchey (p. xi–xxiv). Myers Education Press.