Localities in critical literacy practice: a critical review of the frameworks

Abstract

A large number of frameworks and models have been created to help translate the highly philosophical theory of critical literacy into practice. How these frameworks have been translated into classroom practice is an area much unexplored. The present study critically reviewed the frameworks of critical literacy applied in the classroom practices of language arts and language education within the last twenty years. Adapting the classification put forward by Luke and Woods (2009), the review divides the frameworks into critical pedagogy, textual, and practical approaches. The application of the frameworks identified in this review defies the rigid divisions between critical and textual approaches because text still plays an important role. The additional category of practical approaches is created to refer to frameworks that combine the critical and textual approaches and include more key tenets of critical literacy with a stronger focus on classroom practices. The more recent frameworks are increasingly embracing more key tenets of critical literacy, but the tenet of localities still has no place in these frameworks. Nonetheless, a small number of classroom practices have carefully included localities in the design and enactment of critical literacy.