Critical Literacy and Adolescents

Literacy is a term packed with multiple meanings and the utmost importance to our society. On the surface one might think that literacy is the simple process of being able to read or talk. But upon further examination, literacy can also be used to talk about the ability to do certain things or activities. This article will focus on a type of literacy called critical literacy as well as how this critical literacy is used and should be used by adolescents through digital media.

Critical literacy can be a confusing term without any context. Luckily, Warner beautifully provides this when talking about critical literacy in the education system. Warner says that, “Critical literacies frameworks have been taken up by researchers interested in teaching youth to interrogate texts, which contain and represent cultural information, to uncover issues of social injustice and to critique the status quo” (Warner, 145–6). This definition of critical literacy is important in understanding how this form of literacy is used in today’s education system. But, although Warner’s idea of how critical literacy is used in schools is important, students today spend much more time on technology devices than they do reading books or newspapers. Because of this revelation and understanding, critical literacy is important in many forms, but for today’s adolescents its most important for digital media.

With the recent presidential election, it has become more and more aware that people and companies have no problem sharing fake news to push an agenda. Almost all of this fake news that is being pushed onto the public is done so through means of digital media sites, such as Facebook, twitter, and Tumblr. Buckingham writes, “Literacy also involves understanding who is communicating to whom, and why. In the context of digital media, young people need to be aware of the growing importance of commercial influences — particularly as these are often invisible to the user. There is a ‘safety’ aspect to this: children need to know when they are being targeted by commercial appeals, and how the information they provide can be used by commercial corporations” (Buckingham, 48). From what Buckingham has said above it directly enforces the idea of students not knowing what is true because people lie to push an agenda. Students are spending more time than ever on this social media outlets, exposing themselves to many viewpoints and different forms of news. It is crucial for students to not only be able to use critical literacy traditionally, finding deeper meaning in text, but also be able to use it in digital media to know what to believe or not.

Now that it’s clear what critical literacy is and how it can be used this article will focus on how it should be taught to students. In the above video, it is explained that asking students to read for bias in a text is an example of critical literacy. This can easily be translated to a similar lesson in technology. One example would be asking the students to read several different articles that are talking about the same things and then ask them to give them grades on the amount of bias they see. The video also brings up an interesting point, stating that critical literacy also includes the ability to talk about what you read with others. This is important for being able to understand different viewpoints. In the classroom, this might look like reading a controversial topic and then discussing it openly with the class with all ideas being accepted. The importance of critical literacy is reinforced when Allan Luke says, “If whole communities, regions and populations are experiencing not only radically different material conditions and social relations, but actually are working from fundamentally different epistemological standpoints, cultural knowledges, vernacular and scientific ‘truths’ about the world — the very possibility for democratic consensus, much less equitable societies and social justice, becomes more elusive” (Luke, 1) This quote by Luke is crucial in understanding the sheer importance of today’s youth being able to look a critical literacy and know what it is, how to do it, and how important it is for not just them, but the entire country.

Works Cited:

In class:

Buckingham, David. “Digital Media Literacies: Rethinking Media Education in the Age of the Internet.” Research in Comparative and International Education, vol. 2, no. 1, 2007, pp. 43–55.

Warner, Julie. Adolescents’ Literacies With and Through Mobile Phones. Peter Lang, 2015.

Out of class:

The Audiopedia. “What is CRITICAL LITERACY? What does CRITICAL LITERACY mean? CRITICAL LITERACY meaning & explanation.” Online video clip. YouTube, 10 August 2017. Web. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2WyIkK9IOg .

Luke, Allan. “Thoughts on Critical Literacy, Schooling and Social Justice.” The Learning Exchange, 16 Oct. 2017, thelearningexchange.ca/thoughts-critical-literacy-schooling-social-justice/.