Abstract
Language teachers should not only facilitate learners to learn the language but also facilitate them to realize that every day’s discourses, including language and education, are socially constructed. This is where critical literacy (CL) plays its role as a frame through which teachers can actively and autonomously participate in the world around them and facilitate learners to be able to do so through learning instructions. CL functions as a universal tool, like bricoleur, one can use to see numerous social phenomena from a critical stance. It is a different way, lens, or teaching framework, believing that one should question every day’s discourses instead of just accepting them as they are, with the ultimate goal of promoting social justice. Hence, this paper explains the importance of CL in empowering both teachers and learners, how it works to serve this purpose, and some practical strategies of its implementation in a language class.
Highlights
The role of teachers in students’ learning is undoubtedly very important
Rather than reading texts and accepting them as they are, teachers who engage in critical literacy (CL) practices will be capable of becoming “open-minded, active, strategic readers who are capable of viewing text from a critical perspective” (McLaughlin & DeVoogd, 2004, p. 56)
When learners are guided to learn how to read texts around them from a critical stance, they will eventually be able to view any texts they encounter from a critical stance “as naturally as they view it from aesthetic and efferent stances” (McLaughlin & DeVoogd, 2004, p. 56)
Summary
The role of teachers in students’ learning is undoubtedly very important. Teachers are often thought to be in the position of influencing what learners learn and to some extent how they learn it (Richards & Rodgers, 2014). CL originates from the seminal work of Paulo Freire in Brazil (see Freire, 1972) He showed how adult literacy learners learn to read both the word and the world critically and how this practice helps them realize that the world is socially constructed and they can take a role as agents of change for a better world. It may position readers to think that a dream man should be like the prince, being handsome, tall, and rich It means those not in possession of these characteristics are marginalized by the story. In such cases, a CL education enables teachers and learners to interrogate this positioning to know whose interests certain texts serve. In the Discussion section, the roles of CL to empower both teachers and learners as well as practical strategies of its implementation in English class are further explained
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