Uncovering the Truth: Educational Empowerment Through Critical Literacy

By Glenn L. Devoogd

This paper is scheduled to be published in October 2002.

We grew up believing that everything we read and everything our teachers taught us was true. We never questioned who was writing the text, who was determining what topics would be included in it, or who was deciding what would be excluded from it. We never questioned if there was any perspective other than the one presented in the daily newspaper or on the evening news. Consequently, we grew up believing that all inventors of importance were white men and that historical events such as the Japanese ? American Internment never occurred. We now know much more than we learned in school. We know there is a need to think critically about the information sources we use ? a need to engage in critical literacy. In critical literacy, readers understand the power relationships between their ideas and the ideas presented by the author of the text. In this process, Luke and Freebody (1999) suggest students play the role not only of code breakers, meaning makers, and text users, but also the role of text critics. In other words, readers have the power to envision alternate ways of viewing the author?s topic. Engaging background knowledge provides the reader with equal footing in this power relationship with the author. This reflects what Durrant and Green (2001) describe as ?a situated social practice model of language, literacy, and technology learning?authentic learning and cultural apprenticeships within a critical-sociocultural view of discourse and practice.? (p. 151) Consequently, students learning critical awareness raise questions about whose voices are missing and who gains and who loses by the reading of a text (see Figure 1 for questions).

Students with critical awareness are expected to not only read and understand the word, but to ?read the world? and understand the text?s purpose so they will not be manipulated by it (Freire, 1970). For example, after viewing an advertisement for soda showing fit teens playing sports and laughing with toothy smiles, a student without critical awareness might begin to associate that image with the soda. Conversely, a student who is critically aware ? one who ?reads the world -- might recognize that drinking soda makes many teens overweight and contributes to decaying teeth. When ?reading the world,? the critically aware student comprehends beyond the literal level and thinks about the function of the text ? in this case, selling soda by creating an image that fun, fit teens enjoy drinking it. Engaging in critical literacy requires the ability to think critically about -- analyze and evaluate -- information sources (texts, media, song lyrics), meaningfully question their origin and purpose, and take action by representing alternative perspectives.

Principles of Critical Literacy A number of essential understandings and beliefs about the power relationship that exists between the reader and the author underpin critical literacy. These principles include the following: Critical literacy focuses on issues of power and promotes reflection, action, and transformation. Whenever readers commit to understanding a text, they submit to the right of the author to select the topic and determine the treatment of the ideas. For example, a poor person might read an article entitled ?Economy Falters as Food Prices Soar? and recognize the power of the author to name the problem and determine and express what he perceives to be the negative effects of higher wages for migrant tomato pickers in South Florida. The reader may use his power to question that perspective and engage in reflection about whose voice might be missing, discounted, or silenced. As a result, he might choose to represent the alternative view of the subordinated group ? the tomato pickers ? and change the title of the text to ?Stability and Prosperity Benefit Migrant Families.? The reader draws from his background knowledge to create this transformation, which might result in taking an action such as making a commitment to buying union tomatoes. In addition, the reader may also gain a new appreciation of the effect of perspective in writing or even a new understanding of the possible positive costs of higher wages. This is an example of how critical literacy focuses on issues of power and helps subordinate groups, such as the tomato pickers, use print skills to help ?politicize themselves and engage in action aimed at challenging existing structures of inequality and oppression? (Cummins & Sayers, 1995, p. 23). This dialogue, which represents a cycle of, ?reflection and action upon the world in order to transform it? (p. 36) is what Freire (1970) calls praxis. By nature this process of thinking is not passive, but active, challenging and disrupting the ideal (Green, 2001) or commonplace (Lewiston, Flint, & Van Sluys, 2002) for the purpose of relieving the inequity and injustice. Techniques that promote critical literacy are dynamic and adapt to the contexts in which they are used. There is no silver bullet of methods in critical literacy that works the same way in all contexts all the time. No technique that promotes critical literacy can be exported to another setting; it has to be reinvented to fit new settings (Macedo & Freire, 1998). This principle is key to any exploration of critical literacy. For example, a teacher might begin using an approach to critical literacy that is delineated in this article or that the teacher saw working in another classroom. But upon reflecting on instructional goals and what is happening in the class, he may adapt the method to make it more applicable ? more meaningful ? in that particular context. The dynamic nature of critical literacy supports this type of adaptation. There is a sense of empowerment and confidence in the act of creation that cannot be achieved by copying. Even when a method has been used, it is never quite the same. This is why critical people are fond of quoting Antonio Machado, the Spanish poet, who said, ?Caminante, no hay camino, Se hace el camino al andar? ? ?Walker, there is no road. The road is made as you walk.? Critical literacy focuses on the problem and its complexity. Educational situations that are fairly intricate are often viewed from an essentialistic ? very simplistic ? perspective. In critical literacy, rather than accepting an essentialist view, we would engage in problematizing ? seeking to understand the problem and its complexity. In other words, we would raise questions and seek alternative explanations as a way of more fully acknowledging and understanding the complexity of the situation. For example, it would be essentialist to merely suggest that unmotivated students should receive an extrinsic reward for reading or be punished for not reading. Problematizing ? or examining the complexity of this situation ? would reveal that the lack of motivation is likely due to a variety of factors including poor quality texts, students? past reading experiences, classroom climate, self-efficacy, purpose, or limited opportunities to self-select, read, and discuss books in social settings. Examining multiple perspectives is an important aspect of critical literacy. Expressing ideas from a variety of perspectives challenges students to expand their thinking and discover diverse beliefs, positions, and understandings (McLaughlin, 2001; McLaughlin & Allen, 2002). Examining texts from a variety of viewpoints is applicable in a wide range of classes including literature, social studies, science, and mathematics. For example, in social studies we might consider looking at Columbus? explorations from multiple perspectives. A student might reflect on whose voices are marginalized, silenced, or discounted and take action by writing a counter narrative, giving voice to the Tainos, the people who inhabited the island where Columbus first landed. Appreciation for and exploration of these alternative perspectives facilitates our viewing situations from a critical stance (Lewiston et al., 2002). The principles of critical literacy help us understand what it is and how it functions. It is a dynamic process that examines power relationships, expands our thinking, and enlightens our perceptions as we read and both the word and the world.

Critical Literacy in Action

We know that critical literacy is a somewhat developmental process. To engage and learn more about understanding critically, it is necessary to begin through practice and reflection upon that practice. Although methods are something most critical scholars shy away from, there are teaching ideas we can use to help students engage in critical literacy. As noted earlier, teachers need to take these ideas and adapt them to their particular contexts. The teaching ideas and resources that follow provide some direction for initial engagement. Juxtapositioning Texts, Photos, Videos, and Lyrics

Juxtapositioning is a technique that helps demonstrate multiple perspectives. It can occur in a variety of formats, using a number of informational sources. In the scenarios that follow, it is used first with texts, then with photos. Theme-Based Focus Groups. When using juxtapositioning in theme-based focus groups about World War II, the teacher read excerpts from The Greatest Generation, a theme-related text that represented the perspective of Ally soldiers. Students then read theme-based books that represented a variety of other perspectives including German soldiers, victims of the Holocaust, victims of the Japanese American Internment, the citizens of Japan, Pearl Harbor and a variety of political leaders including Winston Churchill. After the teacher read, the students, organized in small groups based on the text they have chosen, read and discussed the perspective represented in that text. Then groups reorganized (Jigsaw II) so that every new group was comprised of students who had read different perspectives. After in-depth small group discussion, the students created a visual representation of all the perspectives and discussed the various viewpoints. Figure 2 contains a list of sample texts used for the theme-based focus groups on World War II. Figure 3 contains critical literacy-related titles about other topics. Photo Juxtapositioning. Imagine two pictures on the front page of a newspaper before the attack on Afghanistan took place. One photo shows a seven-year-old boy staring into the camera, raising a pistol in the air while sitting on a man?s shoulders. Around them masses of Pakistani men dressed traditionally with beards push up posters attacking Israel and the United States. The other picture shows a six-year-old boy running away carrying his one-year-old sister on his back and all the while looking back over his shoulder in fear. By showing both pictures and using questions such as those listed in Figure 3 to prompt reflections about the pictures, students come to understand that the photos are not neutral, but rather that each has a strong bias and power to influence our understanding of which is the subordinated group. Problem Posing. In this method, after gaining a literal understanding of the text, the reader asks a number of questions about the text to gain a critical understanding (see Figure 1 for questions). After explaining and demonstrating how Problem Posing works, the teacher guides the students in their first attempts to raise questions about the text, provides sufficient opportunities for students to engage in problem posing with peers, and then encourages students to engage on their own. Because the purpose is to provoke critical understandings of the text, it is not necessary to slavishly list and answer each question, but rather a matter of choosing those queries that will facilitate students? critical understanding. The questions can be used during student led discussions in book club, literature circles, or online discussion boards. Counter Texts. When using this technique, students can examine the message conveyed by a text, photo, or song and then write a counter text, take or sketch a counter photo, or create counter lyrics. For example, after viewing a photo of a polluted beach that accompanied a news story decrying the loss of tourist revenue in that beach area, a student wrote the following counter text:

The news photograph showed a beach area that was closed because the water was polluted and trash had been left all over the beach after high tide. The garbage was mostly used needles and other medical trash. As I was looking at the photograph of the polluted beach area I thought about the beach my family and I visit every summer and I decided that the voice that was missing belonged to the ocean. I thought at first I would write about the people who used the beach, but at least they could see the trash and the warning signs. The ocean had no one to protect it. The picture looks as if some garbage truck was emptied along the shore. There must have been a lot of garbage dumped in the ocean for that much to have made it to shore. The ocean is a natural resource. It?s a lot more than a place to vacation. It gives a home to a lot of ocean animals and it gives us a lot of food. Polluting it hurts everyone. To help fight pollution in our town my friends and I are organizing our football team to help with the Saturday morning anti-litter program.

Teaching ideas such as juxtapositioning, problem posing, problematizing and writing counter texts are adaptable across curriculum areas. They provide opportunities to situate critical literacy in a variety of contexts and encourage teachers and students to view critical literacy as a natural part of learning.

Next Steps Toward Critical Literacy: Seeing a Whole New World

The ideas presented in this article provide information about the nature and practice of critical literacy. It is an introductory work, designed to encourage educators to infuse critical literacy into their teaching. Our hope is that it will help both teachers and students to expand their reasoning, increase their understanding, seek out multiple perspectives, and become active, critical thinkers. Beyond the first steps of understanding critical literacy lays the increasingly fascinating intellectual world that it opens up. It is a world filled with multiple perspectives, one in which the subordinated are acknowledged and valued. It is a world in which we naturally participate in reflection, action, and transformation; a world in which critical literacy is not viewed as a classroom activity, but rather a stance used in all contexts of our lives.

Figure 1: Questions That Promote Critical Literacy

Print (Texts, newspapers, magazines, song lyrics, hypertext, etc.):

Whose viewpoint is expressed?

What does the author want us to think?
Whose voices are missing, silenced, or discounted?
How could you give voice to those who are not represented?

Television/Photographs:

Who is in the video/photograph?
Why are they there?
What does the videographer/photographer want us to think?
Who/what is missing from the video/photograph? (silenced? discounted?)

What action can I take based on what I have viewed?

Critical Literacy

Allen, T.B. (2001). Remember Pearl Harbor: American and Japanese survivors tell their stories. Washington, DC: National Geographic Society.

Appleman-Jurman, A. (1989). Alicia: My story. New York: Bantam Books. (A Jewish child?s experience)

Friedman, I. R. (1990). The other victims: Non-Jews persecuted by the Nazis. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. (The effects after the war)

Hersey, J. (1946). Hiroshima. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.

Kuchler-Silberman, L. (1990). My hundred children. New York: Dell Laurel-Leaf. (Risked life to save children)

Lowry, L. (1989). Number the stars. Boston. MA: Houghton Mifflin Richter, H.P. (1987). I was there. New York: Viking Penguin/Puffin Books. (A soldier?s story)

Volavkova, H. (Ed.). (1971). I never saw another butterfly. New York: McGraw Hill. (Poetry and sketches by children in the concentration camps)

Weisel, E. (1990). Dawn. New York: Bantam Books. (A soldier?s story)

Figure 3: Examples of Trade Books on a Variety of Topics that Represent Critical

Literacy

Browne, A. (1998). Voices in the park. New York: DK. Bunting, E. (1991). Fly away home. New York: Clarion. Bunting, E. (1994). Smoky Night. Ill. D. Diaz. New York: Harcourt Brace. Dorris, M. (1999). Morning girl. New York: Hyperion. Fenner, F. (1991). Randall?s wall. New York: Simon and Schuster Children?s Publishers. Fleischman, P. (1993). Bull Run. New York: Harper Collins. Fox, M. (1989). Feathers and fools. Ill. N. Wilton. San Diego: Harcourt. Hesse, K. (2001). Witness. New York: Scholastic. Hoose, P. (2001). We were there, too! Young people in American history. New York: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux. Jacobs, F. (1992). The Tainos: The people who welcomed Columbus. New York: G.P. Putnam. Lorbiecki, M. (1996). Just one flick of a finger. Ill. D. Diaz. New York: Dial. Yolen, J. (1996). Encounter. Ill. D. Shannon. San Diego: Harcourt.

References

Cummins, J., & Sayers, D. (1995). Brave new schools: Challenging cultural illiteracy through global learning networks. New York: St. Martin?s.

Fehring, H., & Green, P. (Eds.). (2001). Critical literacy: A collection of articles from the Australian Literacy Educators? Association. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Continuum.

Green, P. (2001). Critical literacy revisited. In H. Fehring and P. Green Critical literacy: A collection of articles from the Australian Literacy Educators? Association. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Leland, C., Harste, J., Ociepka, A., Lewison, M., & Vasquez, V. (1999). Exploring critical literacy? You can hear a pin drop. Language Arts, 77(1), 70-77.

Lewison, M., Flint, A. S., & Van Sluys, K. (2002). Taking on critical literacy: The journey of newcomers and novices. Language Arts 79(5) 382-392.

Luke, A. (2000). Critical literacy in Australia. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 43:5, 448-461.

Luke, A., & Freebody, P. (1999). Further notes on the four resources model. Reading Online. Retrieved 3/15/02 from http://www.reading.org/publications/ROL/.

McLaughlin, M. (2001). Sociocultural influences on content literacy teachers? beliefs and innovative practices. Paper presented at the 51st Annual Meeting of the National Reading Conference, San Antonio, Texas.

McLaughlin, M., & Allen, M.B. (2002). Guided Comprehension in action: Lessons for grades 3-8. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.