Teaching literature for the 21st century: ‘Mirrors and Windows’ prism to critical cultural literacy

Abstract

Over the last three decades, in an atmosphere that is quintessentially super-diversified and hyper-active, teaching culture is being celebrated as the emblem of a state-of-the-art branch of teaching and research. Therefore, social activists are today expediting an extraordinary era of multiculturalism, in which the bottom line is to foster cultural literacy and critical literacy as a capstone for social democracy and academic change. Given its ascendency in literature teaching, the current study endeavors to probe into the effectiveness of using literature for promoting critical cultural literacy by adopting a ‘windows and mirrors’ teaching framework. To fulfill this target, research has invested in pre/post-tests as instruments for data collection and analysis, and opted for 30 participants among second-year English as a Foreign Language learners as target randomized sampling. The study findings have revealed that ‘windows and mirrors’ readings of rhetoric have helped to stimulate learners’ empathy, tolerance, and inclusion in others’ cultures, expanded the breadth of their cultural content knowledge, and sharpened advanced critical level literacy. Keywords: Cultural literacy, empathy, inclusion, tolerance, ‘windows and mirrors’ framework.