ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in part 3 this book. The part tackles a unique watershed opportunity for critical literacy to extend beyond present boundaries and catalyse the field further into the 21st century. It focuses on three domains which are central to 21st-century critical literacies: the practical affordances of contemporary texts types and associated shifts in the technologies that shape literacies, critical literacies as emergent processes, and interruptions of the social production of hierarchies that privilege some people at the expense of others. The part challenges educators practically to consider the affordances of different text types, including contemporary and experimental types of literature, and those of multimodal arts-literacies practices. It probes how teachers’ choices in these aspects shape what critical work is possible. The part also focuses on the social production of hierarchies that privilege some people at the expense of others, but offer fresh perspectives and new directions for this work.
