Dear Colleagues,

 

Last week, Kelli Sandman-Hurley wrote:

 

"...I think we may all need to take a closer look at Critical Literacy
rather than critical thinking in the adult education classrooms (and
volunteer-based programs), which was popularized by Freire.  There is a
lot of new literature about critical literacy and a lot to be learned
about critical literacy in the k-12 literature that can be valuable to
us. If we look at critical thinking through the lens of critical
literacy we may have more options and resources with which to teach
these skills."

 

Why use a critical literacy approach in adult literacy and language
learning? What are examples of using this approach in the classroom,
adult education, volunteer, or faith-based program?

 

I offer the definitions below (from Wikipedia) as a springboard for
discussion. On to critical literacies and strategies for teaching and
learning?

 

Jackie 

 

 

 

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_literacy

 

Critical literacy is an instructional approach that advocates the
adoption of critical perspectives toward text

 

... All of these approaches share the basic premise that literacy
requires the literate consumers of text to adopt a critical and
questioning approach. According to proponents of critical literacy, it
is not simply a means of attaining literacy
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy>  in the sense of improving the
ability to decode words, syntax <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syntax> ,
etc. In fact, the ability to read words on paper is not necessarily
required in order to engage in a critical discussion of "texts," which
can include television, movies, web pages, music, art and other means of
expression. The important thing is being able to have a discussion with
others about the different meanings a text might have and teaching the
potentially critically-literate learner how to think flexibly about it.

 

...At the heart of this approach to teaching is the belief that while
literacy enables students to make meaning from texts, critical literacy
will empower them to understand how texts are trying to influence and
change them as members of society. 

 

...critical literacy is the belief that interpreting literature is more
than simply decoding the words of a text. It is necessary to understand
that language is a social construct and that it is never neutral.
[Language] is used to inform, entertain, persuade and manipulate. The
philosophy behind critical literacy is that it is necessary to learn how
language works in order to be a more skilled user of language in terms
of both comprehending and composing.

 

Freirean critical literacy is conceived as a means of empowering
unempowered populations against oppression and coercion, frequently seen
as enacted by corporate and/or government entities. Freirean critical
literacy starts with the desire to balance social inequities and address
societal problems caused by abuse of power. It proceeds from this
philosophical basis to examine, analyze, and deconstruct texts. 

 

Australian critical literacy: While Neo-Marxist/Freirean critical
literacy proceeds from a desire to remedy social inequities, this body
of work begins with an analysis of text and proceeds from there. This
school of thought is not necessarily opposed to the use of critical
literacy to address issues of social justice, but its enactment does not
proceed from an assumption of exploitation and abuse of power.

 

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