What is Critical Literacy?
I think that the nature of this Learning Curation is right in line with what I see as a ‘definition’ of Critical literacy. Before I started this course, I had been introduced to Critical Literacy in other TL courses and my understanding is that we need to always look at the sources of where we find our information, what bias may appear in writing, and how personal experience or connection may play a role in our thoughts or reactions to different sources of media. I was also aware that is a very close connection between digital/media literacy and critical literacy (UBC, 2021).
I have created and Canva Image that captures my thoughts on Critical Literacy. I hope that it does not need an explanation, however, short and sweet, it depicts that we should always be thinking critically about what we read and learn, no matter how trusted the resource may be. It is important to look at bias and then question why something may have published. Just because we saw something published, or a trustworthy source provided us with information, does not always mean that we need to believe it to be true.
As an educator, I hope that I practice and model Critical Literacy to my students. As a fresh-faced student teacher, I can remember my first incident with a piece of writing that my practicum class was using in Social Studies. It was about the Canadian Pacific Railway and how it promoted trade in Canada. The content about the railway was not the issue, it was how they addressed how the railway was built. I can still remember that there was one sentence which said something along the lines of, ‘the railway was built by Chinese immigrants and some of them died in the process.’ That was it! Now, this is where my understanding of Critical Literacy comes forward. I have a Chinese background and my grandfather (Gong Gong), and grandmother (Popo) immigrated to Canada from Hong Kong. My personal connection to this statement had a strong reaction and that sparked my Critical Thinking when it came to this piece of text. Now, I feel like my feelings to this text are supported by Coffey’s definition, being: “Critical Literacy is the ability to read texts in an active, reflective manner in order to better understand power, inequality, and injustice in human relationships (n.d.).” My experience with this piece of text brought up feelings of social injustice and inequalities (Coffey, n.d.).
As seen in the video below, it is ok for students to acknowledge these feelings, and then apply that to how other may have experienced injustice in different situations. It is also a great way to gain connections through stories and having shared experiences. I would be curious to see what is happing in current classrooms with the BLM gaining increased awareness over the past year.
As educators, we need to allow our students to experience learning and not simply fill their brains with information, “teachers who recognize the possible value of developing critical literacy do not view their students as vessels to be filled, and instead create experiences that offer students opportunities to actively construct knowledge (Coffey, n.d.).” When researching more on Critical Literacy, I came across this TED talk about creating critical thinkers through media literacy. I feel that this supports a lot of my view on using critical literacy skills with students.
In other readings for this module, Critical Literacy is defined as:
“…a way of thinking that challenges the inherent meaning of information and, by extension, life situations. Critical literacy is rooted in a rich history of approaching language and communication from a questioning and analytic standpoint. Critical Literacy goes beyond simply decoding and understanding texts; it emphasizes in-depth study in which messages and viewpoints are questioned and the power relationships – both in text and between the author and readers – are considered (Roberge, 2013).”
For me, this is what my understanding of Critical Literacy is all about. It is giving students the tools that they can use to read texts and media using different lenses. We need to give opportunities to interact with different media that may or may not be true and analyse and discuss viewpoints and why it would have been published.
The last part of Critical Literacy is being literate. We have discussed how this has evolved over time and what it might mean to be literate in the 21st Century. One can be critical of anything that they read, and that may not always result in the best-case scenario. I remember one of my students back in June 2020 talking about mask wearing (back when it was not mandated in all indoor public spaces in BC) and how they saw a picture online of a person wearing a mask that said, ‘I can’t breathe’ and they laughed and said, “Well why don’t you just take off your mask?!” At first, I was shocked to hear this, but I know that a lot of my students just scroll through YouTube and the web without reading the story to go with it. I also had a little bit of background information on their parents view of the Pandemic, which also played a role in how this student reacted to this photo. Yes, this student was thinking critically about this image, but they did not have the tools to look and see the origin of this image. They had a personal bias, however, they needed to be taught the skills to acknowledge those biases and maybe look to see the other side of the story.
Now, on a lighter note. I will provide you with an article that literally ‘fooled’ me when I read it. I think I just wanted it so much to be true that I believed it! I am such a Disney nut, that it was not until I got to the end of the article and realized the date that I had been tricked! I think it is just a great example of how a bias can make you believe something is true, even if it is not. We are living in a world where many will simply read headlines on their newsfeed and then translate that into ‘News’ which is the exact opposite of being critically literate.
https://dailyhive.com/toronto/disneyland-toronto-islands-resort-canada
Overall, I feel that critical literacy is something that can be taught. It is the idea of doing research on what you are reading and knowing who and where to get our information from. It is also understanding that even our most trusted resources may hold some bias and it is ok if we question that.
Works Cited:
Chan, K. (2020, February 07). Urbanized. Retrieved from https://dailyhive.com/toronto/disneyland-toronto-islands-resort-canada
Coffey, H. (n.d.) Critical literacy. See Library Course Reserves for link.
Roberge, G (2013, June). Promoting critical literacy across the curriculum and fostering safer learning environments. What works? Research into Practice, Ontario Ministry of Education. Retrieved from: http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/literacynumeracy/inspire/research/WW_PromotingCriticalLiteracy.pdf
Sandford, A. (2020, June 07). George Floyd: Protests continue in Europe despite virus restrictions. Retrieved from https://www.euronews.com/2020/06/06/black-lives-matter-protesters-take-to-streets-in-europe-despite-pandemic-restrictions
TEDxTalks, Andrea Quijada. (2013, February 19). Retrieved March 07, 2021, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHAApvHZ6XE
The University of British Columbia. (2021). Module 5: Supporting Learners Through the Library: Critical Literacy. In LLED 462: School Library Resource Centre Programs. Vancouver, BC: UBC.
Ubcotv. (2018, August 01). Retrieved March 07, 2021, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuamzeQX6c4