Critical Literacy

The History of Critical Literacy

Critical literacy has its foundation in both progressive education reforms and the critical theories of the Frankfurt School. Progressive education reformers [Page 403]consider education for citizenship in democratic society. Historically structured in tiers, formal educational systems have reproduced unequal power relations. Progressive educators have questioned the possibility that a democracy can exist without equal access to education for informed decision making and citizenship. Critical literacy is also part of a larger set of critical educational approaches that emerged as pedagogical proponents of dialectical-materialist philosophy. Critical theory from the Frankfurt School developed a link between theory and society that would connect individual practice with society's aims.

Critical approaches to literacy instruction often deal specifically with the relationship between language and power, how language shapes context, and how context shapes language. Critical perspectives also intersect with feminist and poststructural theories in that they recognize not only the construction of local knowledges but also the inherently indeterminate and unfinished nature of any perspective. Any one perspective is always a specific valuation;it may be critiqued from another point of view. Thus, it is never a final truth, but one truth among many.

Critical literacy is often associated with Paulo Freire's work with adult literacy learners in Brazil. Language and literacy were fundamental to social change for Freire. Freire used generative themes to teach reading and writing, which came from culture circles that learners formed to discuss their grievances with the political and economic structure. The themes were then used as contexts to help participants learn to read and write. Freire's method included an emphasis on praxis: in which action arises from critical dialogues and theory building. Fundamentally, Freire believed that through a literacy based on the systematic study of people's own oppressive life conditions as they relate to their sociohistorical context, people would be able to emancipate themselves.

In some Australian states, critical literacy is part of official school curricula and standards. In contrast, critical literacy occupies a more unofficial status in the United States, dependent on the efforts of teachers both in and outside of the classroom. Teachers have increasingly drawn on critical literacy pedagogy to address issues of race, gender, sexuality, and class. In a world in which the media are becoming increasingly centralized, critical literacy is more useful than ever in understanding how power is reproduced or contested through texts and literacy practices.

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