Critical literacy involves the analysis and critique of the relationships among texts, language, power, social groups and social practices. It shows us ways of looking at written, visual, spoken, multimedia and performance texts to question and challenge the attitudes, values and beliefs that lie beneath the surface.Critical literacy includes:
- examining meaning within texts;
- considering the purpose for the text and the composer’s motives
- understanding that texts are not neutral, that they represent particular views, silence other points of view and influence people’s ideas
- questioning and challenging the ways in which texts have been constructed
- emphasising multiple readings of texts. (Because people interpret texts in the light of their own beliefs and values, texts will have different meanings to different people.)
- providing students with opportunities to consider and clarify their own attitudes and values.
- the way texts and their discourses work to represent reality and define what is necessary for us
- a sympathetic understanding of the people who are affected (shaped) by those discourses
- ways we can engage with those texts and their debates
Features of a critical literacy approach
We deconstruct the structures and features of texts. We ask questions of the text. We consider the structure and style of the text and ask: For what purpose has the text been constructed in this way?
We no longer consider texts to be timeless, universal or unbiased. Texts are social constructs that reflect some of the ideas and beliefs held by some groups of people at the time of their creation. As we examine the underlying values and consider the ways in which we, as readers and viewers, are positioned to view the world, we are able to develop opposing interpretations.
We explore alternative readings. We consider what has been included and what has been left out.
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