Becoming Critical: Moving Toward a Critical Literacy Pedagogy An Argument for Critical Literacy

This article recounts what happened in “Literacy-Based Reading Programs in the Elementary School,” a graduate class at a major university in the Southwest as two university instructors introduced elementary classroom teachers to critical literacy as a lens for reading and responding to children's literature. The instructors created distinct spaces for the teachers to acquire and practice their role as text critics who analyze texts with the understanding that texts are not neutral but represent particular perspectives. The instructors believed that by demonstrating ways to critically analyze texts and by providing the critical tools to understand and interrogate invisible unquestioned social practices, the teachers would be able to draw upon these understandings and experiences to build a foundation for critical literacy in their own classrooms.