Critical Literacy

What is critical literacy and why is it so important for students’ futures to proficiently be taught critical literacy? According to Ernest Morrell et al. in the book Critical Literacy and Urban Youth the acquisition of the dominant critical literacies is pertinent for economic, social and political success. Importantly, Morrell et al. states that critical literacy education leads students towards engaged citizenship and personal empowerment. Critical literacy to me, as a future educator, is being literate in multiple literacies and in the dominant literacies. Being literate in the dominate literacies give these people the potential to shape language and thus meaning, consequently, the meaning of language are constructed within social and political texts.

The question is, what does this all mean to educators? As a future educator, I need to teach my students critical literacy; literacies that will empower them to be active learners and participants in their communities and in American society. Ultimately, learning critical literacy will give students the tools to apply their skills and knowledge so to influence societal change. For instance, in Critical Literacy and Urban Youth by Morrell et al. he had founded a summer seminar program called the Futures Project for underprivileged students in which they learned critical literacies. These students cooperated with teachers on projects pertaining to the sociology of education and the critical methods of educational research. Through these projects they learned critical theory, social theory, cultural studies, educational sociology, legal history, and qualitative research methodology. Ultimately they at the end of the project the students brought forth their findings to university faculty, community activists, delegates, media personnel, and elected officials. Notably, the topics for these projects focused on education and educational reform for the equal access to academic achievement for underprivileged groups. This all ties into what Robert Moses (Radical Equations: Civil Rights from Mississippi to the Algebra Project, see blog: Teaching Science to ALL Students) was arguing about, that underprivileged groups have been denied access to the critical literacies that will foster their economic, political, and social success.

As a future science teacher, I will incorporate critical literacies in science into my teaching. From Morrell at al. in Critical Literacy and Urban Youth, I will incorporate research projects that involve critical inquiry and group work. Importantly, the projects need to impact students’ lives in relation to community involvement and activism.