ABSTRACT
Listening to and reflecting on the accounts of the educators who appear in this book has been an important part of how the author had reconsidered primary literacy during the past number of years. Critical media literacy is an important part of Deena's practice in the secondary-school context, but it is clear from her account, as well as from a number of the primary teachers, that this is a relevant and important practice in primary schools too. Looking more widely at children's experiences with media, with television programmes they choose to watch outside of formal schooled experiences, for example, enables us as educators to develop better understandings of children's literacies and to foster their critical engagement with language and social practices in and out of school. Liz developed the critical skills of the young people she taught by encouraging them to question texts, to challenge the meaning and purpose of text construction.
