Why is Critical Literacy SO important?

We humans inhabit an incredibly diverse, complex, challenging, and yet potentially infinitely rewarding world.  We have access to a vast array of knowledge sources, opinions, perspectives, stories, and ideas. Without a broad set of skills to process and make sense of these texts, however, it is easy to become overwhelmed, misinformed, or even fearful. This is especially so for young children, who are working hard to form foundational understandings about themselves and the world around them. 

Doing critical literacy, according to Vasquez (2014), is " looking at an issue or topic in different ways, analyzing it, and suggesting possibilities for change and improvement." Additionally, "any issues and topics that capture learners’ interests, based on their experiences, or artifacts with which they engage in the material world as they participate in communities around them can and should be used as text to build a curriculum that has significance in their lives." As such, critical literacy must look different in different classrooms, schools, homes, and other contexts. A great place to start is with children's questions to create a community of inquiry, driven by a growing sense of empathy for self, others and the living world. 

Critical literacy places children's active meaning-making and wellbeing at the heart of the curriculum. It invites children to share their thoughts, feelings and experiences in response to texts; to question or problematize "simple" or "truthful" messages; to ask whose voice/perspective is presented and whose is not; to examine power relations and injustice/justice; and to envision how texts might be constructed differently to support equity and justice. 

We live in an interdependent physical and social world that demands cooperation for all to thrive. We need to teach children to do better than the generations that came before them. Critical literacy is not optional, it is necessary for a better future.