ABSTRACT
Critical literacy is a contested educational ideal. Even though “critical” pedagogy has been en vogue for the past fifteen years, scholars continue to question what it means to be critical and how such a concept can be implemented across the curriculum. Grounded in the Freirian notions of emancipatory education, critical literacy has emerged as the most talked about alternative pedagogy. Critical literacy stands in contrast to the practice of teaching the classics and a canon of acceptable literary works far removed from the students' experiences for dry memorization exams. As a pedagogical tool, critical literacy draws its practice from “constructivist” approaches to teaching and to learning, from social theory studies of popular culture, and from the ideals of social justice. It draws from the media in its many forms, literature, the role of the state in struggles over race, class, and gender relations, national and international economic structures, and the cultural politics of imperialism, post-colonialism, and poststructuralism. These works of critical pedagogy are particularly useful in critical inquiry, the driving engine behind any critical literacy. They reassert the stance that discursive critical consciousness is necessary to critical education and to democratic public life (Fensham, Gunstone, and White 1994; Giroux 1987; Giroux and Simon 1989; Kellner 1995; McLaren, Hammer, Sholle, and Reilly 1995).
