Why Does Critical Literacy Education Provides to Young People with a Better Understanding of the World?
In the world exist many different ways of teaching. The majority of them seem to be good for the development of today’s young students’ critical thinking skills. One of the newest and most innovating ones is the critical literacy education which according to Luke (2000), provides opportunities for readers to determine their ability to discern the purpose of texts and also their ability to identify ideologies that can lead them to accept, reject or reconstruct them critically. Therefore, using critical literacy within the classrooms could provide many advantages to students in a variety of ways, but principally in emphasizing reading comprehension and the ability to critique, increasing awareness of social issues, and helping them find ways to participate in society in a more active way.
Firstly, critical literacy education emphasizes students’ reading comprehension and their ability to critique because as it is a knowledge construction and/or reconstruction of content, students are able to develop better critical capabilities with the aim that eventually they can empower themselves to embrace their own conceptual perspectives turning them into ideas or solutions when facing a specific issue and that they can share them with others in order to take social actions. Nonetheless, critical literacy education can be limited when attempting to do so because not all schools are willing to correct political inequities and injustices within the context of school-based literacy curricula. However, the findings of Morrell’s research study in 2004 demonstrated that critical literacy education could produce proficiency in academic and other literacies which means that schools should start implementing it in their literacy curricula.
In addition, the increase in students’ awareness of social issues encourages them to understand and question the attitudes, values, and beliefs of written texts, visual applications, and spoken words which help them to actively avoid being misinformed or manipulated. As Ira Shor (1999) stated, “critical literacy thus challenges the status quo in an effort to discover alternative paths for social and self-development” which is in fact, the beginning of an intellectual process that can be very enriching to young students. However, there might be settings where silence is imposed which could be complicated for the development of students’ critical thinking skills. But on the contrary, critical literacy education promotes individual freedom and expression (Morell, 2007), therefore, it could only give to students good improvements throughout their development of such skills, including the opportunity to express themselves without any restriction.
Moreover, as students are developing and mastering the skills mention before along with others, they will help them understand the personal and wider implications of reading a text which goes beyond that just reading. These implications include being able to analyze, critique and question the messages inherently present within any form of text. But apart from that, it is important to stand out that throughout this process, students may encounter with sources and information that can make them doubt on if it is true or false. However, as they may have already developed some other critical thinking skills they will be much better equipped to face and solve the problems of the future. But what is more, the implementation of critical literacy education within classrooms also could help them find ways to participate in society in a more active way (Soarse & Wood, 2010).
To conclude, I think that critical literacy education does provide a variety of advantages and benefits to young students. Because it not only involves learning how to think critically but it also develops in students a deeper understanding of their external worlds giving students the chance to find ways to participate in society, supporting democracy, and making them able to take actions on what really matters. In other words, critical literacy education could improve the way of teaching but most important, it could encourage students to be agents of change.
REFERENCES
O'Byrne, I. (2018, May 11). What is “Critical Literacy” in Education? Retrieved from: https://wiobyrne.com/critical-literacy/
Briles, R. (2012, July 5). Benefits of Critical Literacy in Social Studies Classrooms. Retrieved from: https://sites.google.com/site/criticalliteracyinss/benefits-of-critical-literacy
Shor, Ira. (1999). "What is Critical Literacy?" Journal of Pedagogy, Pluralism, and Practice, Vol. 1(4), Article 2. Available at: https://digitalcommons.lesley.edu/jppp/vol1/iss4/2
Bishop, E. (2014). Critical Literacy Bringing Theory to Praxis. Journal of Curriculum Theorizing, Volume 30(1), p. 59, para. 5. Retrieved from: http://journal.jctonline.org/index.php/jct/article/viewFile/457/pdf
Firstly, critical literacy education emphasizes students’ reading comprehension and their ability to critique because as it is a knowledge construction and/or reconstruction of content, students are able to develop better critical capabilities with the aim that eventually they can empower themselves to embrace their own conceptual perspectives turning them into ideas or solutions when facing a specific issue and that they can share them with others in order to take social actions. Nonetheless, critical literacy education can be limited when attempting to do so because not all schools are willing to correct political inequities and injustices within the context of school-based literacy curricula. However, the findings of Morrell’s research study in 2004 demonstrated that critical literacy education could produce proficiency in academic and other literacies which means that schools should start implementing it in their literacy curricula.
In addition, the increase in students’ awareness of social issues encourages them to understand and question the attitudes, values, and beliefs of written texts, visual applications, and spoken words which help them to actively avoid being misinformed or manipulated. As Ira Shor (1999) stated, “critical literacy thus challenges the status quo in an effort to discover alternative paths for social and self-development” which is in fact, the beginning of an intellectual process that can be very enriching to young students. However, there might be settings where silence is imposed which could be complicated for the development of students’ critical thinking skills. But on the contrary, critical literacy education promotes individual freedom and expression (Morell, 2007), therefore, it could only give to students good improvements throughout their development of such skills, including the opportunity to express themselves without any restriction.
Moreover, as students are developing and mastering the skills mention before along with others, they will help them understand the personal and wider implications of reading a text which goes beyond that just reading. These implications include being able to analyze, critique and question the messages inherently present within any form of text. But apart from that, it is important to stand out that throughout this process, students may encounter with sources and information that can make them doubt on if it is true or false. However, as they may have already developed some other critical thinking skills they will be much better equipped to face and solve the problems of the future. But what is more, the implementation of critical literacy education within classrooms also could help them find ways to participate in society in a more active way (Soarse & Wood, 2010).
To conclude, I think that critical literacy education does provide a variety of advantages and benefits to young students. Because it not only involves learning how to think critically but it also develops in students a deeper understanding of their external worlds giving students the chance to find ways to participate in society, supporting democracy, and making them able to take actions on what really matters. In other words, critical literacy education could improve the way of teaching but most important, it could encourage students to be agents of change.
REFERENCES
O'Byrne, I. (2018, May 11). What is “Critical Literacy” in Education? Retrieved from: https://wiobyrne.com/critical-literacy/
Briles, R. (2012, July 5). Benefits of Critical Literacy in Social Studies Classrooms. Retrieved from: https://sites.google.com/site/criticalliteracyinss/benefits-of-critical-literacy
Shor, Ira. (1999). "What is Critical Literacy?" Journal of Pedagogy, Pluralism, and Practice, Vol. 1(4), Article 2. Available at: https://digitalcommons.lesley.edu/jppp/vol1/iss4/2
Bishop, E. (2014). Critical Literacy Bringing Theory to Praxis. Journal of Curriculum Theorizing, Volume 30(1), p. 59, para. 5. Retrieved from: http://journal.jctonline.org/index.php/jct/article/viewFile/457/pdf
Dear student,
ResponderBorrarHereby I am sharing with you my feedback on your first draft.
Introduction: Good introduction, but a bit of polishing is necessary. A couple of sentences are that clear to me. Besides this, clarify if 'critical literacy education' is a "way of teaching". Using the right terminology will give the reader a better understanding of the addressed points in your paper.
Second paragraph: I expected to find definition(s) of what critical literacy education (CLE) is. As writers, we cannot assume that our readers know such concepts in advance. Therefore, my suggestion is not to go that fast in your paper and start by providing some scholars' definition concerning CLE. What is more, you can talk about the development of CLE in contrast to mainstream education. Certain articles talk about such differences.
After doing all this, you shall start mentioning the benefits that developing critical thinking skills bring to students in the language classroom without forgetting to give some space to opposing viewpoints concerning your arguments. That is what in the end will make your paper an argumentative essay.
* Check out the APA guidelines for citing correctly. Aspects such as mentioning the pages where quotations were taken from and so on are necessary to be revised.
Keep working on your text and send me an email whenever you need further feedback.
Regards,
Jhon Losada