How does one, at age 43, start to embark, for the very first time, on the critical literacy trek? They say that it takes 21 days to create a new habit, thereby destroying an old one; hence, although such is difficult, it is not impossible. Something has to die (be destroyed) in order to be resurrected (born again). This is exactly how I am feeling as a result of this course.
As stated in my previous report, I was never one to question the accuracy of historical fact(s) and figures. Instead, I was quite content to simply absorb the information (history being my favorite subject), believing and trusting in the role models (teachers, books) that were dispersing the facts. In this way, I found myself identifying and agreeing with Gina in the Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years text (p 20). I looked upon myself as an empty vessel to be filled, in much the same way that a sponge absorbs and retains water. Memorizing facts, if only to regurgitate them back on a test or exam, was something that I excelled at. Unfortunately, the educational system still appears to reflect this very format.
The same can be stated for a great many University level courses; at least, until I enrolled in this particular Masters program.
Although there have been moments of frustration, exasperation, disillusionment, anger and bewilderment at exploring beyond my safety net, I find that I am learning to enjoy the challenge invoked by the critical literacy approach. Much like the Gnostic soul searcher that I am in terms of my personal spirituality, I feel like I have been in a deep sleep for most of my life, only to be part of a current global awakening. I am finding this to also reflect how I am feeling with respect to critical literacy.
We are what we say and do. The way we speak and are spoken to helps shape us into the people we become. Through words and actions, we build ourselves in a world that is also building us. In keeping, we can redefine who we are. In essence, this is where critical literacy begins. In a world viewed by as neither finished, just or humane, depending on one’s belief system, it is of the utmost importance to question power relations, discourses and identities.
Critical literacy challenges the status quo. We know we are on the right track when we begin to question the social construction of the self, for it is in this approach that we are serving to challenge the status quo. In rethinking our lives, as a means of doing our best to better promote social justice in place of social inequity, the world of critical literacy connects the political, the personal, the public, the private, the global, the local, the economic and the pedagogical. Nothing escapes the re-vamping of one’s pedagogy.
Critical literacy, then, is an attitude towards history, as Kenneth Burke might have said, or a dream of a new society against the power now in power, as Paulo Freire proposed (What Is Critical Literacy, Shor).
Critical literacy is a pedagogy for those teachers and students morally disturbed by “savage inequalities” as Jonathon Kozol named them, for those who wish to act against the violence of imposed hierarchy and forced hunger (What Is Critical Literacy, Shor).
Friere was of the belief that the teacher had to be the expert; that the teacher had to be the most knowledgeable. The difficulty herein lies in thinking that the teacher is the only one with knowledge, for in saying too much or too little, too soon or too late, ultimately damages the group process.
Although I wholeheartedly adhere to the definition of critical literacy as attributed to Friere (cited above), I believe that there are different means in which one can go about working towards achieving this goal. In keeping, I believe that each of us has a dual role to play, for all are both teachers and students, experts and novices.
As one explores the relationships between texts, contexts, relevance, authenticity and diversity, one can see that there exists a connection between critical literacy and reading. Originally, Freebody and Luke (1990) argued that reading involved four chief roles; namely, (1) code breaker (translation: How do I crack this?), (2) text participant (translation: What does this mean?), (3) text user (translation: What do I do with this, here and now?) and (4) text analyst (translation: What does this mean to me?)
In more recent iterations of their model of literacy, Luke and Freebody (1997, 1999) have changed the terminology from “roles” to reflect a sociological, rather than psychological, approach to literacy. They have moved from four roles, to four practices, to four resources, which are considered elements of literacy as a cumulative and socially situated repertoire.
Their key argument remains that a social view of reading directs teachers’ attention to socio-political contexts and issues in reading instruction. They suggest that critical literacy practices might include, amongst others:
• asking in whose interests particular texts work
• examining multiple and conflicting texts
• examining the historical and cultural contests of discourses in texts
• reading texts against one another
• comparing the vocabularies and grammars of related texts
• investigating how readers are positioned by the ideologies in texts
• making multiple passes through texts
• transforming and redesigning texts
(Critical Literacy: Maximizing children’s investment in school learning, Comber).
Children begin schooling with different literacies and they leave school having taken up, discarded, adapted and appropriated others (Critical Literacy: Maximizing children’s investment in school learning, Comber).
There is no neutrality associated with critical literacy.
The manner in which it shall be achieved is multiple, dynamic and forever changing. There are no set techniques that have been developed that one can follow with ease.
To be for critical literacy is to take a moral stand on the kind of just society and democratic education we want for our children, our students, ourselves (What Is Critical Literacy, Shor).
I see the mere identification that such an approach to literacy, both crucial and critical, is of absolute necessity. I shall continue to embrace the newness of this literacy approach, both for myself, and my prospective students.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years
Rethinking Our Classrooms: Teaching for Equity and Justice
Critical Literacy: Maximizing children’s investment in school learning
(website article by Barbara Comber)
http://www.unisa.edu.au/cslplc/publications/Critical%20Literacy%20Comber.html
What Is Critical Literacy (website article by Ira Shor)
http://www.lesley.edu/journals/jppp/4/shor.html
