Guardiola 1

Jorge Guardiola

Professor Powers

ENGL 1302-219

January 19, 2023

1/20 Homework

Lauren smith states her thesis in the introductory paragraph and it starts with it instead of

ending with the thesis. “Critical pedagogy is an educational movement which gives people the

opportunity to develop the knowledge, skills and sense of responsibility necessary to engage in a

culture of questioning. These abilities allow young people to challenge perceived inevitability of

social injustice, and engage in meaningful participation and leadership. Critical literacy is a key

feature of critical pedagogy, which teaches analysis and critiquing skills around the relationships

between texts, language and power.” (Smith 15) the author starts with a big statement referring

to a certain group being young people and giving out various ideas and key points for later use.

Arguments are later added to the paragraphs to support her thesis and to have a clear

visual of her stance. “Political agency refers to the idea that centralised and nationalised concepts

of political participation are limited and do not take into account the ways in which people

engage with political and social issues within local and individualised environments.” (Smith 16)

the author by using participation again refers to the idea given out in the thesis about young

people engaging and participating.

To support the argument the author brings up the participation of young people in the UK

and their purpose of having democratic involvement. “It is important that these new voters are
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provided with the resources to be knowledgeable, form opinions about what they are being asked

to vote for, and have the interest to involve themselves in the election process.” (Smith 16). The

prior statement gives a more detailed idea and it continues with evidence to support the argument

“A deal was struck for the Scottish Independence Referendum in 2014 which gives 16-year-olds

the right to vote (Hennessy 2012).” (Smith 16).

The author overlooks the fact that there are more sources instead of just stating the library

to increase information literacy for example, “At present, there is no formal acknowledgement of

critical information literacy in UK curricula (or indeed worldwide) in primary, secondary, further

or higher education, and therefore engagement with critical elements is often dependent upon

individual librarians and the environments in which they work.” (Smith 23) the author mentions

also the environment while that is true the library is somewhat outdated in the year 2023 now

that we have computers and the internet.

The author Lauren Smith makes a well-illustrated job of breaking down the different

information and ideas presented at the beginning of the article. The author makes really good

points and me having no background on the topic understood the theme of the article and how

the author is trying to present the viewers his points of young people in the political life and what

measures can increase the amount of young people inside that system.