Critical Literacy

Critical literacy is the ability to read texts in an active, reflective manner in order to better
understand power, inequality, and injustice in human relationships. This article outlines the
history and theory of critical literacy and details its application in the classroom (Coffey,

Key Tenets of Critical Literacy

(Adapted from Vasquez, V (2010) ‘Introduction to Critical Literacy’
1. Critical literacy involves having a critical perspective
2. It also involves using students’ cultural knowledge and multimedia literacy practices
(MML = making meaning in the world through a combination of print-based text, music,
art, technologically based texts such as websites, videos or podcasts?
3. All texts are created by someone, somewhere, for some reason.
4. Texts are never neutral but are created from a particular perspective with the intention of
conveying particular messages.
5. Texts work to position us in particular ways, to have us think about and believe certain
things in specific ways. For example, stories that portray females in need of rescue, such
as Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella, work to convey messages that females are the weaker
or less powerful gender. We, therefore, need to interrogate (question) the perspectives
from which works are written.
6. Readers also read from particular positions, conditioned by our past experiences and our
understanding of how the world works. In other words, our readings of texts are never
neutral. We, therefore, need to interrogate (question) the perspectives from which we
read.
7. What we claim to be true or real is mediated through discourse, defined as ways of being,
doing and acting through which we live our lives; and how we make meaning in the
world is conditioned by these discourses.
8. Critical literacy involves understanding the sociopolitical system in which we live and
should consider and should consider the relationship between language and power.
9. Critical literacy practices can contribute to change and the development of political
awareness, thereby helping people to make informed decisions about issues of power and
control.
10. Text design and production can produce opportunities for critique and transformation.

Some questions to guide a critical reading of a text

Who is in the text/picture/ situation? Who could be there but is not?

Whose voices are represented? Whose voices are marginalized or discounted?
What are the intentions of the author? What does the author want the reader to think?
What would an alternative text/picture/situation say?
How can the reader use this information to promote equity?