ABSTRACT
A critical literacy curriculum needs to be lived. It arises from the social and political conditions that unfold in communities in which we live. As such, it cannot be traditionally taught. Furthermore, as teachers, we need to incorporate a critical perspective into our everyday lives (Vasquez, Tate, & Harste, 2013) in order to find ways to help children understand and act upon the social and political issues around them. As hooks (1994) reminds us, teaching should be the kind of work that engages not only the student but also the teacher. Incorporating a critical perspective into our everyday lives as teachers is therefore about living critical literacies by experiencing firsthand what it would mean to take on this perspective as a way of framing our participation in the world. This kind of experience helps us to better understand what it would take to create spaces for critical literacy in the early-years classroom. Resource Box I.1 includes a list of texts focused on living critical literacies as adult learners.
