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This article focuses on critical literacy as a way of being and doing around the globe. Orientations to critical literacy, models for instruction, key aspects, and new directions are shared.
New definitions of what it means to be literate and how to teach literacy have arisen from changing student demographics and students with different linguistic repertoires. New technologies have further contributed to changing definitions of literacy. Young people are grappling with the traditional demands of academic literacies while simultaneously interrogating "fake news" and managing their everyday life worlds, which are increasingly crowded with dynamic digital doings. In this article, we outline our understanding of critical literacy, explore its historical roots and theoretical perspectives, discuss critical literacy as a way of being around the globe, highlight orientations to critical literacy and influential models for instruction, share key tenets, and suggest new directions.
We begin by defining the term "critical." In the field of language arts education, confusion remains regarding the difference between "critical" from the Enlightenment period, which focused on critical thinking and reasoning, and "critical" from Marx as an analysis of power. At the center of these debates are definitions for critical literacy and attempts by some educators and researchers to pin down a specific definition. Theorists and educators including Comber (2016), Vasquez (2010, 2014b), and Luke (2014) have maintained that as a framework for doing literacy work, "critical literacy" should look, feel, and sound different in different contexts; the model(s) used as part of one's critical literacy toolkit contribute to the kinds of work accomplished from such a perspective.
This framing has been referred to by Vasquez (2010, 2014b) as a way of being through which to participate in the world in and outside of school. She continues by stating that such a frame does not necessarily involve taking a negative stance; rather, it means looking at an issue or topic in different ways, analyzing it, and suggesting possibilities for change and improvement. For example, children might investigate their local wetlands and work out ways of enhancing the quality of the water; in another class, they might study the ways in which cartoons work to portray those in power and those on the margins, then produce their own. How teachers negotiate critical literacy...