ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of some key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of the book. This book demonstrates how intermediality can stimulate thinking in a manner in which multiple texts can be used to create classrooms where community is valued and developed, where students are encouraged to learn privately and collaboratively, where multiple viewpoints are heard and respected, where both the teachers and students generate issues and problems they think are important to pursue. Stimulating students' learning in the study of multiple texts provides a dynamic way for helping students understand the complexity and multiple uses of information they are learning. As a pedagogical tool, critical literacy draws its practice from "constructivist" approaches of teaching and learning, social theory studies of popular culture, and goals of social justice. It draws from many media forms; literature; the role of the state in struggles over race, class, and gender relations; and the cultural politics of imperialism, postcolonialism, and poststructuralism.
