CHAPTER 8.

CRITICAL
LITERACY
Prepared By:
Diadio, Kyla Mariz
Ferolino, John Lloyd
 What is critical literacy?
■ 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., 2009).
■ 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 (Univerrsity of Melbourne, 2018).
■ Educational researches discuss critical literacy as a theory of social practice, as
the negotiation of and the creating of meaning for social justice (Green, 2008).
Critical Literacy and 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) argues 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.

Freebody and Luke (cited in Luke, 2000) developed a four-tiered approach to early
reading instruction that has now been widely adapted across Australian school.
These approaches are necessary but not sufficient sets of social practices requisite
for critical literacy. A recent version of the model offered the following description
(Freebody, 1992; Luke & Freebody, 1997):

• Coding Practices: Developing Resources as a Code Beaker

• Text-Meaning Practices: Developing Resources as a Text Participant
• Critical Practices: Developing Resources as Text Analyst and Critic
 There are a number of classroom activities that can be used to
apply the aforementioned approaches.

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 of 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 needs to be persuaded, as invisible, as someone who agrees with the
author’s views)?
Another approach for analyzing texts is to use a checklist such as CARS (Credibility,
Accuracy, Reasonableness, Support), which was originally developed for use in
evaluated web sites.

■ Credibility. Evidence of authenticity and reliability is very important. Tests that help the rader
judge the credibility o f a text include examining the author’s credentials and the quality of
content.
■ 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.
■ 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.
■ 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 corroboration.
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 judgements about where the truth actually lies. Sometimes these
judgements are relatively easy. News reports, fairy tales, everyday texts are good
materials for text clustering.