Lesson 8: Critical Literacy

Polytechnic University of the Philippines

Sta. Mesa Manila

College of Education
Department of Business Teacher Education

A Self-Learning Outcome-Based Education (OBE)

Instructional Materials in EDUC 30173
Building and Enhancing Literacy Across the Curriculum
with Emphasis on the 21st Century Skills

Lesson 8
CRITICAL LITERACY

Contributors:

DR. CARMENCITA CASTOLO

EDUC 30173: Building and Enhancing Literacy Across the Curriculum with Emphasis on the 21 st Century Skills Page
1
Lesson 8: Critical Literacy

MS. RUTH PERIDA

LESSON 8:
CRITICAL LITERACY

Learning Outcomes

After completion of this lesson, you will be able to competently do these:

Upon completion of this module, the student will be able to:

1. characterize critical literacy,

2. discuss a brief background of critical literacy theory, and
3. apply principles of critical literacy in designing lessons and classroom activities.

Course Materials

The concept of critical literacy is theoretically diverse and combines ideas from various
critical theories, such as critical linguistics, feminist theory, critical race theory, as well as reader
response theory and cultural and media studies (Luke et al., 1999). Critical literacy is a central
thinking skill that involves the questioning and examination of ideas, and requires one to
synthesize, analyze, interpret, evaluate, and respond to the texts read or listened to (University of
Melbourne, 2018). Critical literacy uses texts and print skills in ways that enable students to
examine the politics of daily life within contemporary society with a view to understanding what
it means to locate and actively seek out contradictions within modes of life, theories, and
substantive intellectual positions (Bishop, 2014). Rather than promoting any particular reading of
any particular group or text, critical literacy seeks to examine the historical and contemporaneous
privileging of and exclusion of groups of people and ideas from mainstream narratives

EDUC 30173: Building and Enhancing Literacy Across the Curriculum with Emphasis on the 21 st Century Skills Page
2
Lesson 8: Critical Literacy

(Lankshear& McLaren, 1993). It is a kind of literacy about structures, structural violence, and
power systems.

Since the 1990s, critical literacy theorists have outlined emancipatory theories of learning
(Freire&Macedo, 1987) that addressed the complex relations of language and power through
social critique, advocacy and cultural transformation (Knoblauch & Brannon, 1993). Educational
researchers discuss critical literacy as a theory of social practice, as the negotiation of and the
creation of meaning for social justice (Greene, 2008, cited by Alata&Ignacio, 2019). While there
is no single model of critical literacy (as there is no single model of youth organizing), the
emphasis of Freire’s (1970) action-reflection cycle of “praxis” has offered participants a concept
through which to construct meanings that support their literacy for civic engagement
(Lankshear&McClaren, 1993).

Critical Literacy and the Arts

The creation of artistic products by an individual and the perception and rejection upon
others’ artworks showcase the power of critical literacies at work within Arts contexts, Luke
(2000) argued that it is the primary aim of critical literacy to:

1. allow students to see how texts work to construct their worlds, their cultures, and
their identities in powerful, often overtly ideological ways; and
2. understand how they use texts as social tools in ways that allow for a
reconstruction of these same worlds.

The arts, literacies, and reality are dynamically linked and the understanding attained by
critically reading aesthetic texts involves perceiving the relationship between the art, its creator,
and its context. Both the practice and understanding of art forms, and being critically literate are
interconnected. Indeed, critical literacy makes possible a more adequate ‘reading’ of the world,
on the basis of which people can enter into ‘rewriting’ the world into a formation in which their
interests, identities, and legitimate aspirations are more fully present and presented more equally
(Morgan, 2002, in Alata&Ignacio, 2019).

Approaches to Critical Literacy

EDUC 30173: Building and Enhancing Literacy Across the Curriculum with Emphasis on the 21 st Century Skills Page
3
Lesson 8: Critical Literacy

Freebody and Luke (1990) developed a four-tiered approach to early reading instruction that
has now been widely adapted across Australian schools. These approaches are necessary but not
sufficient sets of social practices requisite for critical literacy.

 Coding Practices; Developing Resources as Code Breaker– How do I crack this

text? How does it work? What are its patterns and conventions? How do the
sounds and the marks relate, singly and in combinations?
 Text-Meaning Practices: Developing Resources as Text Participant– How do the
ideas represented in the text string together? What cultural resources can be
brought to bear on the text? What are the cultural meanings and possible
readings that can be constructed from this text?
 Pragmatic Practices:Developing Resources as Text User – How do the uses of
this text shape its composition? What do I do with this text, here and now? What
will others do with it? What are my options and alternatives?
 Critical Practices:Developing Resources as Text Analyst and Critic – What kind
of person, with what interests and values could both write and read this naively
and without any problem with it? What is this text trying to do to me? In whose
interests? Which positions, voices, and interests are at play? Which are silent
and absent?

Textual Analysis

Textual analysis can be guided by asking the learners to make their way systematically
through a list of questions such as the following:

 What is the subject or topic of this text?

 Why might the author have written it?
 Who is it written for? How do you know?
 What values does the author assume the reader holds? How do you know?
 What knowledge does the reader need to bring to the text in order to understand
it?
 Who would feel ‘left out’ in this text and why? Who would feel that the claims
made in the text clash with their own values, beliefs, or experiences?
 How is the reader ‘positioned’ in relation to the author (e.g., as a friend, as an
opponent, as someone who agrees with the author’s views)?

EDUC 30173: Building and Enhancing Literacy Across the Curriculum with Emphasis on the 21 st Century Skills Page
4
Lesson 8: Critical Literacy

Critical Literacy

Another approach for analyzing texts is to use a checklist such as CARS (Credibility, Accuracy,
Reasonableness, Support),originally developed for evaluating websites (Alata&Ignacio, 2019).

Credibility

Evidence at authenticity and reliability is very important. Tests that help the reader judge
the credibility of a text include examining the author’s credentials and the quality of content. It is
necessary to look for biographical details on their education, training, and/or experience in an
area relevant to the information by asking, “Do they provide contact information (email or postal
address, phone number)? What do you know about the author’s reputation or previous
publications”? Information texts should pass through a review process, where several readers
examine and approve the content before it is published. Statements issued in the name of an
organization have almost always been seen and approved by several people.

EDUC 30173: Building and Enhancing Literacy Across the Curriculum with Emphasis on the 21 st Century Skills Page
5
Lesson 8: Critical Literacy

Accuracy

Information needs to be up to date, factual, detailed, exact and comprehensive. Things to

bear in mind when judging accuracy include timeliness and comprehensiveness. We must
therefore be careful to note when information was created, before deciding whether it is still of
value. It is always a good idea to consult more than one text, indicators that a text is inaccurate,
either in whole or in part, include the absence of a date or an old date on information known to
change rapidly, vague or sweeping generalizations, and the failure to acknowledge opposing
views.

Reasonableness

Reasonableness involves examining the information for fairness, objectivity, and

moderateness. Fairness requires the writer to offer a balanced argument, and to consider claims
made by people with opposing views. A good information text will have a calm, reasoned tone,
arguing or presenting material thoughtfully. Like comprehensiveness, objectivity is difficult to
achieve. Good writers, however, try to minimize bias.

Support

Support for the writer’s argument from other sources strengthens their credibility. It can
take various forms such as writing bibliography and references and collaboration. It is a good
idea to triangulate information, that is, to find at least three texts that agree. If other texts do not
agree, further research into the range of opinion or disagreement is needed. Readers should be
careful when statistics are presented without identifying the source or when they cannot find any
other texts that present or acknowledge the same information.

Text Clustering

Text clustering involves confronting students with texts which obviously contradict each
other. The task is to use whatever evidence they can find to try to make judgments about where
the truth actually lies. Sometimes these judgments are relatively easy. News reports, fairy tales,
everyday texts are good materials for text clustering.

EDUC 30173: Building and Enhancing Literacy Across the Curriculum with Emphasis on the 21 st Century Skills Page
6
Lesson 8: Critical Literacy

Readings:

Bishop, E. (2014). Critical literacy: Bringing theory to praxis. Journal of Curriculum Theorizing
30(1). Retrieved from https://journal.jctonline.org/index.php/jct/article/view/457

The University of Melbourne. (2018). Critical literacy: Developing your critical literacy skills.
Retrieved from https://services.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/2824076/
Critical-literacy.pdf

EDUC 30173: Building and Enhancing Literacy Across the Curriculum with Emphasis on the 21 st Century Skills Page
7
Lesson 8: Critical Literacy

Activities / Assessment Tasks

Activity 1

Directions:

Using the CARS checklist, evaluate three websites that you frequently visit, either for the
purpose of studying, working, business or leisure.

Website Credibility Accuracy Reasonableness Support

EDUC 30173: Building and Enhancing Literacy Across the Curriculum with Emphasis on the 21 st Century Skills Page
8
Lesson 8: Critical Literacy

Assessment

Identification:

____ 1.It uses whatever evidence they can find to try to make judgments about where the truth
actually lies.

____ 2. It is a central thinking skill that involves the questioning and examination of ideas, and
requires one to synthesize, analyze, interpret, evaluate, and respond to the texts read or listened
to.

____3.It is a broad term for various research methods used to describe, interpret and understand
texts. It often aims to connect the text to a broader social, political, cultural or artistic context.

____ 4. It involves examining the information for fairness, objectivity, and moderateness.

____ 5. It means being up to date, factual, detailed, exact and comprehensive.

____ 6.These are sources which strengthenthe writer’sargument and credibility and may come in
the form of bibliography, references and collaboration.

____ 7.It is the evidence of authenticity and reliability. It includes examining the author’s
credentials and the quality of content.

____ 8.It is being considerate of claims made by people with opposing views, minimizing
personal prejudices and biases.

____ 9. It considers the values that the author assumes the reader to hold about the topic, the
author’s objective and the target audience.

EDUC 30173: Building and Enhancing Literacy Across the Curriculum with Emphasis on the 21 st Century Skills Page
9
Lesson 8: Critical Literacy

____ 10.It emphasizes triangulation of information, where the writer must find at least three texts
or references that agree with his/her idea.

References

Books and Online Sources:

Alata, E. &Ignacio, E. (2019).Building and enhancing new literacies across the curriculum.
Quezon City: Rex Book Store, Inc.

Bishop, E. (2014). Critical literacy: Bringing theory to praxis. Journal of Curriculum Theorizing

30(1). Retrieved from https://journal.jctonline.org/index.php/jct/article/view/457

Freebody, P.& Luke, A. (1990). Literacies programs: Debates and demands in cultural context.

Prospect: Australian Journal of TESOL, 5(7), 7-16.

Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Herder & Herder.

Freire, P. &Macedo, D. (1987). Literacy: Reading the word and the world. South Hadley, M.A:

Bergin &Garve.

Knoblauch, C.& Brannon, L. (1993).Critical teaching and the idea of literacy.Heinemann:

Portsmouth, NH.

Lankshear, C. &McClaren, P. (1993).Critical literacy:Radical and postmodernist perspectives.

Albany, NY: SUNY Press.

Luke, A. (2000). Critical literacy in Australia: A matter of context and standpoint.

ResearchGate.
EDUC 30173: Building and Enhancing Literacy Across the Curriculum with Emphasis on the 21 st Century Skills Page
10
Lesson 8: Critical Literacy

Retrieved from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/43487602_Critical_literacy_in_Australia_A_m
atter_of_context_and_standpoint

Luke, A.,Lingard, R., Green, B., & Comber, B. (1999).The abuses of literacy.In J. Marshall

(Ed.) Educational Policy.London: Edward Elgar.

The University of Melbourne. (2018). Critical literacy: Developing your critical literacy skills.

Retrievedfromhttps://services.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/2824076/
Critical-literacy.pdf

EDUC 30173: Building and Enhancing Literacy Across the Curriculum with Emphasis on the 21 st Century Skills Page
11