B-CLT 120

Critical Literacies for

Teachers

B-CLT 120
 BACHELOR OF EDUCATION IN FOUNDATION PHASE
TEACHING
AND
BACHELOR OF EDUCATION IN INTERMEDIATE PHASE
TEACHING

CRITICAL LITERACIES FOR TEACHERS

YEAR 1
B-CLT 120

Level 5
Credit 10

CURRICULUM AND LEARNING GUIDE

Copyright  SANTS Private Higher Education Institution Pty. Ltd.

PO Box 72328, Lynnwood Ridge, 0040

2020

 All rights reserved. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of research, criticism
or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part of this book may be reproduced
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying and recording, without permission in writing from SANTS.
CRITICAL LITERACIES FOR TEACHERS CURRICULUM AND LEARNING GUIDE

2020 Edition

Programme coordinator Prof Ina Joubert

SANTS Private Higher Education Institution

Author Mrs Louise Du Plessis

Freelance Academic Writer

Reviewer Hettie Sieberhagen

North-West University

Language editor Ms Yvonne Thiebaut

For Words’ Sake

Technical editor Mrs Judith Brown

SANTS Private Higher Education Institution

Graphic artist N/A

Printing BusinessPrint

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CRITICAL LITERACIES FOR TEACHERS CURRICULUM AND LEARNING GUIDE

BACHELOR OF EDUCATION IN FOUNDATION PHASE

TEACHING AND BACHELOR OF EDUCATION IN
INTERMEDIATE PHASE TEACHING

1. WELCOME TO THE MODULE

Dear SANTS student,

We welcome you to the Critical Literacies for Teachers (B-CLT 120) module that forms
part of the Bachelor of Education (BEd) in Foundation Phase Teaching programme
and BEd in Intermediate Phase Teaching programme and wish you success in your
studies.

The purpose of the Bachelor of Education in Foundation Phase Teaching programme

and the Bachelor of Education in Intermediate Phase Teaching programme is to offer
a curriculum that develops teachers who can acquire and eventually articulate focused
knowledge, skills and general principles appropriate for Foundation Phase teaching
as well as Intermediate Phase teaching, as specified in the Revised Policy on the
Minimum Requirements for Teacher Education Qualifications (Department of Higher
Education and Training, 2015).

The Bachelor of Education (BEd) qualification requires that teachers develop a depth
of specialised knowledge, practical competencies (skills) and experience in a
Foundation or Intermediate Phase context. As part of the BEd qualification, you will
need to gain experience in applying what you are learning during a period of
Workplace Integrated Learning (WIL). This means you will spend some time teaching
Foundation or Intermediate Phase learners in an authentic (real) context.

The BEd qualification programme is aligned with the Revised Policy on the Minimum
Requirements for Teacher Education Qualifications, in particular Appendix C of the
policy that outlines the Basic Competencies of a Beginner Teacher (Department of
Higher Education and Training, 2015, Government Gazette, No. 38487, p. 62).

2. OUTCOMES OF THE PROGRAMME

At the end of the four-year Bachelor of Education Teaching programme, you must
demonstrate the following competencies related to your own academic growth and
potential to work with Foundation Phase or Intermediate Phase learners:

BEd (Foundation Phase Teaching)

• Demonstrate competence in speaking, and reading and writing the language/s
of instruction in ways that facilitate own academic learning in a higher education
context.

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CRITICAL LITERACIES FOR TEACHERS CURRICULUM AND LEARNING GUIDE

• Interpret and use numerical and elementary statistical knowledge to facilitate

own academic learning and to manage teaching, learning and assessment.
• Use Computer Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in daily life
and in teaching.
• Use Digital Pedagogies for Teachers to enhance teaching and learning in a
digital information age.
• Use Critical Literacies for Teachers in daily life and in teaching and learning.
• Demonstrate an understanding of the theoretical and pedagogical fields of
study that influence education and teaching and learning decisions and
practices.
• Demonstrate the ability to function responsibly within an education system,
an institution, and the community in which an institution is located.
• Demonstrate a respect for and commitment to the education profession.
• Demonstrate an understanding of:
o The principles underpinning the disciplines for the various learning
areas;
o Pedagogical content knowledge of the learning areas/subjects to be
taught;
o Planning and designing learning opportunities;
o Resourcing teaching and learning;
o Reflecting on teaching.
• Demonstrate competence in selecting, using and adjusting teaching and
learning strategies in ways that meets the needs of both learners and the
context of learning and teaching.
• Demonstrate competence in managing and administering learning
environments and supporting learners in ways promote social justice ideals.
• Demonstrate competence in monitoring and assessing learner progress
and achievement.

BEd (Intermediate Phase Teaching)

• Demonstrate competence in speaking, and reading and writing the language/s
of instruction in ways that facilitate own academic learning in a higher education
context.
• Interpret and use numerical and elementary statistical knowledge to facilitate
own academic learning and to manage teaching, learning and assessment.
• Use Computer Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in daily life
and in teaching.
• Demonstrate an understanding of the theoretical and pedagogical fields of
study that influence education and teaching and learning decisions and
practices.
• Demonstrate the ability to function responsibly within an education system,
an institution, and the community in which an institution is located.
• Demonstrate a respect for and commitment to the education profession.
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CRITICAL LITERACIES FOR TEACHERS CURRICULUM AND LEARNING GUIDE

• Demonstrate an understanding of:

o The principles underpinning the disciplines for the various learning
areas;
o Pedagogical content knowledge of the learning areas/subjects to be
taught;
o Planning and designing learning opportunities;
o Resourcing teaching and learning;
o Reflecting on teaching.
• Demonstrate competence in selecting, using and adjusting teaching and
learning strategies in ways that meet the needs of both learners and the context
of learning and teaching.
• Demonstrate competence in managing and administering learning
environments and supporting learners in ways that promote social justice
ideals.
• Demonstrate competence in monitoring and assessing learner progress
and achievement.

3. PROGRAMME STRUCTURE
The BEd degree is presented on the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) Exit
level 7 with minimum total credits of 498, earned over the four years. The table below
shows the curriculum implementation plan of the BEd degree you are studying. It also
tells you how many credits each module carries. You will also see at which NQF level
the study material has been prepared and which modules you need to pass each year.
This four-year programme has been planned to strengthen the competencies you will
need as a beginner teacher.

Outline of modules of the BEd (Foundation Phase Teaching) programme

Module name Code NQF L Credits Module name Code NQF L Credits

YEAR 1

SEMESTER 1 SEMESTER 2
Critical Literacies for
Academic Literacy B-ALI 110 5 10 B-CLT 120 5 10
Teachers
Introduction to Mathematics
Fundamental Mathematics B-FMA 110 5 10 Teaching in the Foundation F-MAT 120 5 10
Phase
Professional Studies in the
Computer Literacy B-CLI 110 5 10 Foundation Phase 1: F-PFS 121 5 10
Classroom Practice
Education Studies 1:
Education Studies 2: Theories
Theories of Child B-EDS 111 5 10 B-EDS 122 6 12
of Learning and Teaching
Development
Introduction to the Language Introduction to Life Skills
and Literacy Landscape in F-LLL 110 5 10 Teaching in the Foundation F-LSK 120 5 10
the Foundation Phase Phase

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Module name Code NQF L Credits Module name Code NQF L Credits
C-LCX 120
Language of Conversational
C-LCZ 120
Competence: isiXhosa / isiZulu 5 10
C-LCS 120
/ Sepedi / Setswana
C-LCT 120
50 52-62
Workplace Integrated Learning Year 1 F-WIL 101 5 18
Sub-total credits for Year 1: 120 - 130
YEAR 2
SEMESTER 1 SEMESTER 2
English Home and First English Home and First
Additional Language and Additional Language and
F-EHF 211 6 15 F-EHF 222 6 15
Literacy Teaching in the Literacy Teaching in the
Foundation Phase 1 Foundation Phase 2
Home Language and F-HLA 211 F-HLA 222
Home Language and Literacy
Literacy Teaching in the F-HLX 211 F-HLX 222
Teaching in the Foundation
Foundation Phase 1: F-HLZ 211 6 12 F-HLZ 222 6 12
Phase 2: Afrikaans / isiXhosa /
Afrikaans / isiXhosa / isiZulu F-HLS 211 F-HLS 222
isiZulu / Sepedi / Setswana
/ Sepedi / Setswana F-HLT 211 F-HLT 222
Professional Studies in the
Professional Studies in the
Foundation Phase 3: Social
Foundation Phase 2: School F-PFS 212 6 12 F-PFS 223 6 12
Justice and Current Issues in
and Classroom Management
Education
Education Studies 3: Education Studies 4: History of
Curriculum, Pedagogy and B-EDS 213 6 12 Education and Education B-EDS 224 6 12
Assessment Policies
Life Skills Teaching in the
Foundation Phase 1: Mathematics Teaching in the
F-LSK 211 6 12 F-MAT 221 6 12
Personal and Social Well- Foundation Phase 1
being
English First Additional
Language and Literacy
F-FLE 221 6 12
Teaching in the Foundation
Phase 1
First Additional Language and F-FLA 221
Literacy Teaching in the F-FLX 221
Foundation Phase 1: F-FLZ 221 6 12
Afrikaans / isiXhosa / isiZulu / F-FLS 221
Sepedi / Setswana F-FLT 221
48-63 60-63
Workplace Integrated Learning Year 2 F-WIL 202 6 20
Sub-total credits for Year 2: 128 - 146
YEAR 3
SEMESTER 1 SEMESTER 2
First Additional Language and F-FLA 322
English Home and First
Literacy Teaching in the F-FLX 322
Additional Language and
F-EHF 313 6 15 Foundation Phase 2: F-FLZ 322 6 12
Literacy Teaching in the
Afrikaans / isiXhosa / isiZulu / F-FLS 322
Foundation Phase 3
Sepedi / Setswana F-FLT 322
Home Language and F-HLA 313
English First Additional
Literacy Teaching in the F-HLX 313
Language and Literacy
Foundation Phase 3: F-HLZ 313 6 12 F-FLE 322 6 12
Teaching in the Foundation
Afrikaans / isiXhosa / isiZulu F-HLS 313
Phase 2
/ Sepedi / Setswana F-HLT 313
Mathematics Teaching in the Mathematics Teaching in the
F-MAT 312 6 12 F-MAT 323 6 12
Foundation Phase 2 Foundation Phase 3

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Module name Code NQF L Credits Module name Code NQF L Credits
Life Skills Teaching in the Life Skills Teaching in the
Foundation Phase 2: F-LSK 312 6 12 Foundation Phase 3: Creative F-LSK 323 6 12
Physical Education Arts
Professional Studies in the
Education Studies 5:
B-EDS 315 7 14 Foundation Phase 4: Teacher F-PFS 324 7 14
Sociology of Education
Identity and the Profession
50-65 38-50
Workplace Integrated Learning Year 3 F-WIL 303 6 22
Sub-total credits for Year 3: 122 - 125
YEAR 4
SEMESTER 1 SEMESTER 2
First Additional Language and F-FLA 423
English Home and First
Literacy Teaching in the F-FLX 423
Additional Language and
F-EHF 414 7 14 Foundation Phase 3: F-FLZ 423 7 14
Literacy Teaching in the
Afrikaans / isiXhosa / isiZulu / F-FLS 423
Foundation Phase 4
Sepedi / Setswana F-FLT 423
Home Language and F-HLA 414
English First Additional
Literacy Teaching in the F-HLX 414
Language and Literacy
Foundation Phase 4: F-HLZ 414 7 14 F-FLE 423 7 14
Teaching in the Foundation
Afrikaans / isiXhosa / isiZulu F-HLS 414
Phase 3
/ Sepedi / Setswana F-HLT 414
Digital Pedagogies for Mathematics Teaching in the
B-DPT 410 5 10 F-MAT 424 7 14
Teachers Foundation Phase 4
Life Skills Teaching in the Life Skills Teaching in the
Foundation Phase 4: Natural F-LSK 414 7 14 Foundation Phase 5: Social F-LSK 425 7 14
Sciences and Technology Sciences
38-52 28-42
Research in Education B-RED 400 7 22
Workplace Integrated Learning Year 4 F-WIL 404 7 26
Sub-total credits for Year 4: 128 - 128
Total credits for programme: 498 - 529

Outline of modules of the BEd (Intermediate Phase Teaching) programme

Module name Code NQF L Credits Module name Code NQF L Credits

YEAR 1

SEMESTER 1 SEMESTER 2

Critical Literacies for

Academic Literacy B-ALI 110 5 10 B-CLT 120 5 10
Teachers
Introduction to Mathematics
Fundamental Mathematics B-FMA 110 5 10 Teaching in the Intermediate I-MAT 120 5 10
Phase
Professional Studies in the
Computer Literacy B-CLI 110 5 10 Intermediate Phase 1: I-PFS 121 5 10
Classroom Practice
Education Studies 1:
Education Studies 2: Theories
Theories of Child B-EDS 111 5 10 B-EDS 122 6 12
of Learning and Teaching
Development
Introduction to Natural
Introduction to the Language
Sciences and Technology
and Literacy Landscape in I-LLL 110 5 10 I-NST 120 5 10
Teaching in the Intermediate
the Intermediate Phase
Phase
C-LCX 120
Language of Conversational
C-LCZ 120
Competence: isiXhosa / isiZulu 5 10
C-LCS 120
/ Sepedi / Setswana
C-LCT 120

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Module name Code NQF L Credits Module name Code NQF L Credits
50 52-62
Workplace Integrated Learning Year 1 I-WIL 101 5 18
Sub-total credits for Year 1: 120-130
YEAR 2
SEMESTER 1 SEMESTER 2
English Home and First English Home and First
Additional Language and Additional Language and
I-EHF 211 6 15 I-EHF 222 6 15
Literacy Teaching in the Literacy Teaching in the
Intermediate Phase 1 Intermediate Phase 2
Home Language and I-HLA 211 I-HLA 222
Home Language and Literacy
Literacy Teaching in the I-HLX 211 I-HLX 222
Teaching in the Intermediate
Intermediate Phase 1: I-HLZ 211 6 12 I-HLZ 222 6 12
Phase 2: Afrikaans / isiXhosa /
Afrikaans / isiXhosa / isiZulu I-HLS 211 I-HLS 222
isiZulu / Sepedi / Setswana
/ Sepedi / Setswana I-HLT 211 I-HLT 222
Education Studies 3: Education Studies 4: History of
Curriculum, Pedagogy and B-EDS 213 6 12 Education and Education B-EDS 224 6 12
Assessment Policies
Professional Studies in the Professional Studies in the
Intermediate Phase 2: Intermediate Phase 3: Social
I-PFS 212 6 12 I-PFS 223 6 12
School and Classroom Justice and Current Issues in
Management Education
Natural Sciences and
Mathematics Teaching in the
Technology Teaching in the I-NST 211 6 12 I-MAT 221 6 12
Intermediate Phase 1
Intermediate Phase 1
English First Additional
Language and Literacy
I-FLE 221 6 12
Teaching in the Intermediate
Phase 1
First Additional Language and I-FLA 221
Literacy Teaching in the I-FLX 221
Intermediate Phase 1: I-FLZ 221 6 12
Afrikaans / isiXhosa / isiZulu / I-FLS 221
Sepedi / Setswana I-FLT 221
48-63 60-63
Workplace Integrated Learning Year 2 I-WIL 202 6 20
Sub-total credits for Year 2: 128-146
YEAR 3
SEMESTER 1 SEMESTER 2
First Additional Language and I-FLA 322
English Home and First
Literacy Teaching in the I-FLX 322
Additional Language and
I-EHF 313 6 15 Intermediate Phase 2: Afrikaans I-FLZ 322 6 12
Literacy Teaching in the
/ isiXhosa / isiZulu / Sepedi / I-FLS 322
Intermediate Phase 3
Setswana I-FLT 322
Home Language and I-HLA 313
English First Additional
Literacy Teaching in the I-HLX 313
Language and Literacy
Intermediate Phase 3: I-HLZ 313 6 12 I-FLE 322 6 12
Teaching in the Intermediate
Afrikaans / isiXhosa / isiZulu I-HLS 313
Phase 2
/ Sepedi / Setswana I-HLT 313
Natural Sciences and Natural Sciences and
Technology Teaching in the I-NST 312 6 12 Technology Teaching in the I-NST 323 6 12
Intermediate Phase 2 Intermediate Phase 3
Professional Studies in the
Education Studies 5:
B-EDS 315 7 14 Intermediate Phase 4: Teacher I-PFS 324 7 14
Sociology of Education
Identity and the Profession
Mathematics Teaching in the Mathematics Teaching in the
I-MAT 312 6 12 I-MAT 323 6 12
Intermediate Phase 2 Intermediate Phase 3
50-65 38-50
Workplace Integrated Learning Year 3 I-WIL 303 6 22
Sub-total credits for Year 3: 122-125

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Module name Code NQF L Credits Module name Code NQF L Credits
YEAR 4
SEMESTER 1 SEMESTER 2
First Additional Language and I-FLA 423
English Home and First
Literacy Teaching in the I-FLX 423
Additional Language and
I-EHF 414 7 15 Intermediate Phase 3: I-FLZ 423 7 15
Literacy Teaching in the
Afrikaans / isiXhosa / isiZulu / I-FLS 423
Intermediate Phase 4
Sepedi / Setswana I-FLT 423
Home Language and I-HLA 414
English First Additional
Literacy Teaching in the I-HLX 414
Language and Literacy
Intermediate Phase 4: I-HLZ 414 7 15 I-FLE 423 7 15
Teaching in the Intermediate
Afrikaans / isiXhosa / isiZulu I-HLS 414
Phase 3
/ Sepedi / Setswana I-HLT 414
Natural Sciences and
Mathematics Teaching in the
Technology Teaching in the I-NST 414 7 15 I-MAT 424 7 15
Intermediate Phase 4
Intermediate Phase 4
Digital Pedagogies for Economic and Management
B-DPT 410 5 10 I-EMS 420 5 10
Teachers Sciences
40-55 25-40
Research in Education B-RED 400 7 22
Workplace Integrated Learning Year 4 I-WIL 404 7 26
Sub-total credits for Year 4: 128-128
Total credits for programme: 498-529

Language competencies will be assessed during your programme.

The modules in the programme can be divided into four broad types of learning
(Department of Higher Education and Training, 2015, pp. 9-11). Each type of learning
develops specific knowledge, values and attitudes, competencies and skills to
achieve the overall exit level outcomes of the programme.

The different types of learning are:

Fundamental learning, which includes student personal and academic

development

• This type of learning involves academic literacy, critical literacies for teachers,
fundamental mathematics, computer literacy, digital pedagogies for teachers
and the ability to converse competently in a second official language.

Disciplinary learning

• Disciplinary learning refers to disciplinary or subject matter knowledge and

includes the study of education and its foundations as well as the study of
specific specialised (phase specific) subject matter.

Situational learning

• Situational learning refers to knowledge of the varied learning situations of

learners and specifically learning about the context and environments of the
learner and related educational policies.
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Pedagogical learning

• This learning incorporates general pedagogical knowledge referring to the study

of principles, practices and methods of teaching; as well as specialised
pedagogical content or subject knowledge which includes how to present
concepts, methods, strategies, approaches and rules of a specific discipline
when teaching.
• It also includes tools for implementing teaching and learning and assessment
in context.

Practical learning

• This learning involves learning from practice, which includes the study of
practice by analysing different practices across contexts e.g. drawing from case
studies, observation of lessons and videos; and learning in practice in authentic
and simulated classroom environments.
• Workplace Integrated Learning takes place in the workplace and can include
aspects of learning from practice and learning in practice.

Depending on the purpose of a qualification, particular mixes of the five types of

learning are made. These mixes are called the knowledge mix of a module
(Department of Higher Education and Training, 2015, p. 11) and are related to the NQF
level and credit value of a module. The NQF level of knowledge for this module is set
at level 5 and it carries 10 credits. For every credit, you should spend approximately
10 hours mastering the content. You will thus have to spend at least 100 hours studying
the B-CLT 120 material and doing the assignments and other assessments.

The knowledge mix of this level 5 module with the related credits is as follows:

• Disciplinary learning (2 credits);

• Pedagogical learning (2 credits); and
• Fundamental learning (6 credits).

Most modules display an integration of the above-mentioned types of learning. Apart

from the knowledge mix, the programme structure is also based on three broad
organising principles. The modules in this programme have been grouped according
to these principles as illustrated in the following table.

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Organising principles of the programme structure of the BEd (Foundation

Phase Teaching) and BEd (Intermediate Phase Teaching) programmes

Organising
Modules in programme
principles
Personal and Academic Literacy
academic Fundamental Mathematics
development Computer Literacy
(Fundamental Critical Literacies for Teachers
modules) Digital Pedagogies for Teachers
Language of Conversational Competence
Theoretical and Education Studies 1: Theories of Child Development
Conceptual Education Studies 2: Theories of Learning and Teaching
Content Education Studies 3: Curriculum, Pedagogy and
Knowledge Assessment
(Core modules) Education Studies 4: History of Education and Education
Policies
Education Studies 5: Sociology of Education
Professional Studies in the FP / IP 1: Classroom Practice
Professional Studies in the FP / IP 2: School and Classroom
Management
Professional Studies in the FP / IP 3: Social Justice and
Current Issues in Education
Professional Studies in the FP / IP 4: Teacher Identity and
the Profession
Research in Education
Pedagogical FOUNDATION PHASE (FP)
Content Introduction to the Language and Literacy Landscape in the
Knowledge (PCK) FP
(Phase specific Introduction to Mathematics Teaching in the FP
modules) Mathematics Teaching in the FP 1, 2, 3 and 4
Introduction to Life Skills in the FP
Life Skills Teaching in the FP 1: Personal and Social Well-
being
Life Skills Teaching in the FP 2: Physical Education
Life Skills Teaching in the FP 3: Creative Arts
Life Skills Teaching in the FP 4: Natural Sciences and
Technology
Life Skills Teaching in the FP 5: Social Sciences

Languages:
Six language options:

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Organising
Modules in programme
principles
English Home and First Additional Language and Literacy
Teaching in the FP 1, 2, 3 and 4
Choose another (additional) language at Home Language
level OR First Additional Language level: Afrikaans,
isiXhosa, isiZulu, Sepedi, Setswana
Only if Afrikaans is chosen as another language: choose
between isiXhosa, isiZulu, Sepedi, Setswana as Language
of Conversational Competence (LoCC)

Afrikaans Home Language and Literacy Teaching in the FP

1, 2, 3 and 4
English First Additional Language and Literacy Teaching in
the FP 1, 2 and 3
Choose between isiXhosa, isiZulu, Sepedi, Setswana as
Language of Conversational Competence (LoCC)

isiXhosa Home Language and Literacy Teaching in the FP

1, 2, 3 and 4
English First Additional Language and Literacy Teaching in
the FP 1, 2 and 3

isiZulu Home Language and Literacy Teaching in the FP 1,

2, 3 and 4
English First Additional Language and Literacy Teaching in
the FP 1, 2 and 3

Sepedi Home Language and Literacy Teaching in the FP 1,

2, 3 and 4
English First Additional Language and Literacy Teaching in
the FP 1, 2 and 3

Setswana Home Language and Literacy Teaching in the

FP 1, 2, 3 and 4
English First Additional Language and Literacy Teaching in
the FP 1, 2 and 3

INTERMEDIATE PHASE (IP)

Introduction to the Language and Literacy Landscape in the
IP
Introduction to Mathematics Teaching in the IP
Mathematics Teaching in the IP 1, 2, 3 and 4
Introduction to Natural Sciences and Technology Teaching
in the IP
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Organising
Modules in programme
principles
Natural Sciences and Technology Teaching in the IP 1, 2, 3
and 4
Economic and Management Sciences

Languages:
Six language options:

English Home and First Additional Language and Literacy

Teaching in the IP 1, 2, 3 and 4
Choose another (additional) language at Home Language
and Literacy Teaching in the IP level OR First Additional
Language and Literacy Teaching in the Intermediate Phase
level: Afrikaans, isiXhosa, isiZulu, Sepedi, Setswana
Only if Afrikaans is chosen as another language: choose
between isiXhosa, isiZulu, Sepedi, Setswana as Language
of Conversational Competence (LoCC)

Afrikaans Home Language and Literacy Teaching in the IP

1, 2, 3 and 4
English First Additional Language and Literacy Teaching in
the IP 1, 2 and 3
Choose between isiXhosa, isiZulu, Sepedi, Setswana as
Language of Conversational Competence (LoCC)

isiXhosa Home Language and Literacy Teaching in the IP

1, 2, 3 and 4
English First Additional Language and Literacy Teaching in
the IP 1, 2 and 3

isiZulu Home Language and Literacy Teaching in the IP 1,

2, 3 and 4
English First Additional Language and Literacy Teaching in
the IP 1, 2 and 3

Sepedi Home Language and Literacy Teaching in the IP 1,

2, 3 and 4
English First Additional Language and Literacy Teaching in
the IP 1, 2 and 3

Setswana Home Language and Literacy Teaching in the IP

1, 2, 3 and 4
English First Additional Language and Literacy Teaching in
the IP 1, 2 and 3

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Students draw on what they have learnt in the respective (all) modules to learn in and
through practice during Workplace Integrated Learning.

4. PURPOSE OF THIS MODULE

Purpose

Critical literacy concerns asking critical questions on what we take for granted about
how things are and how things work in our social world and how we ‘read’, shape (and
are shaped by), and ‘respond’ to this. The purpose of the module is to enable students
to develop analytic skills and competencies to analyse texts and social structures in
order to understand why and how things are the way they are. They will also be
enabled to develop and mediate such skills in the context of the classroom.

Learning outcomes

At the end of this module students should be able to:

• Understand critical literacies in the context of higher education and in schools.

• Understand identity formation and social structures.
• Understand new technologies and critical literacies.
• Use critical discourse analysis as an analytical tool.
• Develop a critical pedagogy orientation.
• Develop analytic skills in the classroom.

Content

The module provides students with an understanding of what critical literacy is and the
skills and competencies needed to apply critical literacy practices in a higher education
and classroom context. The content of this module comprises:

• Situating critical literacies.

• Identity, texts, social structures, power and authority.
• New technologies and critical literacies.
• Critical discourse analysis.
• Critical pedagogies and critical literacies in the classroom.

Competencies

• Developed general communication skills;

• Developed phase specific knowledge of critical literacy;
• Developed communication skills essential for mediating learning; and
• Critical reflection, reading, writing, and processing information of academic
texts:
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o Compare different view points.

o Synthesise information.
o Critically engage with academic text.
o Analyse academic text.
o Present information in various forms.

5. WORKING THROUGH THE CURRICULUM AND

LEARNING GUIDE
We developed the Curriculum and Learning Guide (CLG) to help you master the
content through a distance education mode. You will not have full time tutoring or
support but the Student Orientation Booklet, accessible at MySANTS, offers
guidelines for distance learning. Aspects such as plagiarism are also explained in this
booklet. Make use of MySANTS as a support system for any academic queries.

These guidelines will help you to:

• Work consistently throughout the semester;

• Manage your time efficiently;
• Complete assignments on time; and
• Prepare for tests and examinations.

As you read the CLG, draw on your own experiences and the knowledge you already
have. The core text and recommended reading texts included in the CLG will also
help you to deepen your understanding of the content and concepts you are working
through.

In the CLG, you will find a glossary (word list). The word list will help you understand
difficult concepts by providing the definitions (meaning) of such words.

You will also find icons (small pictures). The icons indicate the type of activity you
must do. If you do each activity as suggested, you ought to advance and consolidate
your understanding of the core concepts in the module. You will find a list of the icons
used in this CLG on the next page.

Reading and writing activities have been designed to help you make connections
with what you already know, master the content and reflect on what you have learnt.
Scenarios (situations resembling an authentic (real-life) context) and dialogues
provide background to what you are learning. The review / self-assessment questions
are based on the learning outcomes.

Doing each activity will help you understand the content. Get a book or file in which
you complete all your activities. Write full sentences and always use your own words
to show your understanding. Working systematically through each activity, according

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to the estimated time for each activity as provided, will also help prepare you for
assessments (assignments and the examination).

Try to find other students to work with. It is easier to share ideas and complete
activities when working in a study group. Doing so, may help you to master the
content more easily.

Commentaries appear at the bottom of some activities. Commentaries are not

answers but rather a reflection to guide your understanding of the activity and to assist
you in knowing whether your own answer is appropriate or not. These commentaries
alert you to aspects you need to consider when doing the activity.

WRITING ACTIVITY
An activity is designed to help you assess your progress
and manage your learning. Sometimes you will have to
define, explain, and/or interpret a concept. Scenarios and
dialogues are often used to contextualise an activity.
They will also help you bridge theory and practice by
linking the concept and real life situations. When
responding to the activities, use your own words to show
your understanding. Do not copy directly from the text of
the CLG. At the end of most activities, you will find
commentary that aims to guide your thinking and assess
how well you have understood the concepts. The
activities are numbered for easy reference.
READING ACTIVITY
Reading activities may require you to read additional
material not printed in the Curriculum and Learning
Guide. These readings will be either the full text or part
of a core or recommended journal article. Journal articles
will give you an expanded or alternative view on a
concept. You might be required to explain the concept
from a different perspective or compare what has been
stated in the CLG with what you read in the journal article.
STUDY GROUP DISCUSSION
All study group discussions or peer activities require
preparation BEFORE the discussion. Preparation
includes reading and completing activities in writing.
Study group discussions are an opportunity for reflection
and for you to apply what you have learnt. Sharing your
learning experiences may help you to learn with and from
each other. Study group discussions can be done in your
own study group or with a peer.

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REFLECTION
Reflection means to think deeply or carefully about
something. Reflection activities require you to review
critically what you have learnt and link this with your
personal experiences or what you have observed during
Workplace Integrated Learning (WIL).
REVIEW / SELF-ASSESSMENT
Often questions are provided at the end of each unit to
assist self-assessment. These questions are similar to
the type of questions that you may be asked in
assignments or examinations.

6. SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING
As a distance education student, it is your responsibility to engage with the content
and to direct your own learning by managing your time efficiently and effectively.

We designed the following self-directed learning programme template so that you can
plan your time carefully and manage your independent learning. The template will also
help you to keep to due dates and thus complete the assignments on time. Careful
time management and breaking the work up into manageable chunks will help you
work through the content without feeling too stressed. Once you have worked through
the activities you should be able to contribute to discussions in your study group and
during the non-compulsory student academic support sessions with peers and
academic tutors.
When completing the template, consider the following:

• This module is offered in the second semester of your first year of study.
• The semester is 15 - 20 weeks long.
• The module carries 10 credits and has been developed for NQF level 5. It
should take you about 100 hours to work through this module.
• The 100 hours will be spent reading, studying, and completing the activities
in this CLG, as well as the assignments. You will also spend time preparing
and writing the examination.
• The estimated time to read for and complete each activity has been
suggested.
• You will need 5 to 10 hours to complete each assignment. This means you
will need to budget about 20 hours in total.
• You should plan to spend about 10 to 20 hours preparing for the
examination in order to be successful.

Plan your studies and keep pace of your progress by completing the template below.
It is not divided into specific weeks, but into the number of units in the CLG.
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Depending on the nature of the content, it is possible to complete two or more units
in one week. Sometimes, you may only be able to complete one unit in a week. Use
the template as a guide to help you plan and pace yourself as you work through the
content, and activities in each unit.

Add dates to the template indicating when you plan to start working through a particular
unit. In addition, using a SANTS academic calendar will also assist you to pace your
learning. There is also space to indicate the due dates (deadlines) of the assessments.

UNIT IN CLG CONTENT IN CLG DATE PLANNED

What is Critical Literacy

UNIT 1
UNDERSTANDING Situating Critical Literacy
CRITICAL LITERACY The link between Critical
Literacy and Critical
Thinking
UNIT 2 Critical Discourse Analysis
ANALYTICAL TOOLS FOR (CDA)
DEVELOPING AN Literacy models for
ORIENTATION TOWARDS developing Critical
CRITICAL LITERACY Literacy
UNIT 3
Critical pedagogy
DEVELOPING A CRITICAL
PEDAGOGY ORIENTATION Resistance to critical
IN THE CLASSROOM pedagogy

ASSIGNMENT 1

ASSIGNMENT 2

EXAMINATION

7. CORE READING
Core readings are an important part of your studies as you need to refer to these
text(s) when answering some of the questions in the activities.

The text(s) for core reading is available on EBSCOhost. To access the core reading
text(s) use the library tab on MySANTS and click on the EBSCOhost link. Core text(s)
that is not on EBSCOhost, is attached as an Addendum in a CLG with the permission
of the Dramatic, Artistic and Literary Rights Organisation (DALRO).

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Janks, H., Dixon, K., Ferreira, A., Granville, S. & Newfield, D. (2014). Doing
critical literacy: Texts and activities for teachers and students. New York, NY:
Routledge.

8. RECOMMENDED READING
As a distance education student, you cannot only rely on your CLG. We recommend
that you also study the following sources so that you have broader insight into the
study material:

1. Lee, C.J. (2011). Myths about critical literacy: What teachers need to unlearn.
Journal of Language and Literacy Education, [Online], 7(1), pp. 95-102.

2. Lewison, M., Flint, A.S. & van Sluys, K. (2002). Taking on critical literacy: The
journey of newcomers and novices. Language Arts, 79(5), pp. 382-392.

Open source: You can access the recommended reading texts on the internet by
typing the references as listed above into your search engine.

9. ASSESSMENT OF THE MODULE

The SANTS assessment policy is included in the Student Orientation Booklet and is
also available on MySANTS. The policy provides information regarding the types of
assessment you will need to do. It includes information about progression rules,
perusal of marks, or requests for remarking assessments.

In this module, both formative and summative assessment are done over a period of
time (continuous assessment). The activities in the Curriculum and Learning Guide
(CLG) are varied and are aimed at assisting you with self-directed learning. Reflecting
on what you are learning and discussing it in a study group is always helpful. The
personal reflection is aimed at revision, reinforcement, and self-assessment while
informal peer assessment takes place during the group discussions.

9.1 Summary of assessment

The following table provides a summary of the assessment for this module:

TYPES OF FORM OF ASSESSMENT WEIGHTING

ASSESSMENT
Formative assessment Two written assignments (100 60%
marks each)
Summative assessment Examination (100 marks) 40%
TOTAL 100%

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9.2 Self-assessment

An activity aimed at self-assessment is included at the end of each unit. Before you
complete the self-assessment activity, reflect on what you have learnt in the unit.
Revise the main concepts and if there is any topic or concept, of which you are unsure,
go back to the relevant unit and revise it.

9.3 Assignments

To support you in your self-directed learning and to keep track of your own progress,
we will provide guidelines or the memoranda on MySANTS after the assignments have
been marked and returned.

In order to demonstrate that you have gained the knowledge, skills, values and
attitudes described in the learning outcomes of the module, you need to do the
following:

• Complete and submit each assignment (100 marks) before the due date.
• Submit both assignments that constitute 60% of your final promotion mark to
qualify for admission to the examination.

The task brief (specific information regarding what to do and how to prepare for each
assignment) will be explained in the assignment itself. These assignments are
provided at the beginning of the first semester together with your CLG for this module.
The assignments are also available on MySANTS.

9.4 Semester examination

At the end of the semester, you have the opportunity to sit for a formal summative
assessment. This includes the following:

• Write a formal examination, out of 100 marks that will constitute 40% of
your final promotion mark. Please read the SANTS Assessment Policy that
deals with all aspects of the general assessment and the examination
policy.
• A minimum of 40% in the examination is required to qualify for a
supplementary examination.

10. PLAGIARISM WARNING FOR STUDENTS

Plagiarism is a form of academic misconduct that can lead to educational or
disciplinary action and has severe consequences such as, in some cases, civil or
criminal prosecution.

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You are guilty of plagiarism if you copy from another person’s or another entity’s work
(e.g. a book, an article, a website, another student’s assignment or using artificial
intelligence, such as ChatGPT) without acknowledging the source and thereby
pretending it is your own work. You would not steal someone’s purse so why steal
his/her work or ideas. Submitting any work that you have written but have already used
elsewhere (thus not “original”), is also a form of plagiarism (auto-plagiarism). An
example is when you submit the same assignment or a part of it for two different
modules.

Avoiding plagiarism by being academically honest is not difficult. Here is what you
should do:

• Submit only your own and original work.

• When using another person’s or another entity’s (such as artificial
intelligence tools) actual words, sentences or paragraphs, indicate exactly
which parts are not your own (even if presented in the CLG). You must do
this by referencing in accordance with the Harvard style — a recognised
system specified by SANTS, and you must use quotation marks (“...”).
• You must also reference precisely when using another person’s or another
entity’s (such as artificial intelligence tools) ideas, opinions or theory. You
must do so even if you have paraphrased using your own words.
• You must acknowledge any information or images that you have
downloaded from the Internet by providing the URL link (web address) and
the date on which the item was accessed (downloaded).
• Never allow any student to use or copy any work from you and then to
present it as their own.
• Never copy what other students have done to present as your own.
• Do not engage in the unauthorised use of AI tools such as ChatGPT.
• Prepare original assignments for each module and do not submit the same
work for another module.
• Always list any student who contributed to a group assignment. Never
submit the work as if only you worked on the assignment.

The Assessment Policy and Procedures document emphasises the importance of

academic honesty in SANTS students:

“Students may not act in a dishonest way with regard to any test or examination
assessment, as well as with regard to the completion and/or submission of any
other academic task or assignment. Dishonest conduct includes, among other
things, plagiarism, as well as the submission of work by a student for the
purpose of assessment, when the work in question is, with the exception of
group work as decided by the Academic Committee, the work of somebody else

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either in full or in part, or where the work is the result of collusion between the
student and another person or persons.”

All cases of suspected plagiarism will be investigated and if you are found guilty, there
are serious consequences. Disciplinary action that may result includes:

• You may lose marks for the assignment/activity. Your marks may be reduced
by as much as 50%. You may even be given zero.
• The module may be cancelled and you will have to enrol again. This is a
great waste of time and money.
• Your registration for that entire year may be cancelled. That means not all
the marks you achieved in all the modules you enrolled for will count
anything.
• In some cases, prosecutions in courts of law may be instituted.

Plagiarism is considered such a serious academic crime that you are required to
confirm on every assignment that you submit, that the work is your own and that you
are aware of the SANTS Plagiarism Policy and the consequences of transgressing it.

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CONTENT
BACHELOR OF EDUCATION IN FOUNDATION PHASE TEACHING AND
BACHELOR OF EDUCATION IN INTERMEDIATE PHASE TEACHING ................. ii
1. WELCOME TO THE MODULE ........................................................................... ii
2. OUTCOMES OF THE PROGRAMME ................................................................ ii
3. PROGRAMME STRUCTURE ............................................................................ iv
4. PURPOSE OF THIS MODULE ........................................................................ xiii
5. WORKING THROUGH THE CURRICULUM AND LEARNING GUIDE ........... xiv
6. SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING ......................................................................... xvi
7. CORE READING ............................................................................................ xvii
8. RECOMMENDED READING ......................................................................... xviii
9. ASSESSMENT OF THE MODULE ................................................................ xviii
9.1 Summary of assessment ....................................................................... xviii
9.2 Self-assessment ...................................................................................... xix
9.3 Assignments ............................................................................................ xix
9.4 Semester examination ............................................................................. xix
10. PLAGIARISM WARNING FOR STUDENTS .................................................... xix
CRITICAL LITERACIES FOR TEACHERS ............................................................... 1
1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................... 1
2. STRUCTURE AND OUTCOMES OF THIS MODULE ....................................... 2
3. GLOSSARY ....................................................................................................... 3
UNIT 1: UNDERSTANDING CRITICAL LITERACY .................................................. 4
1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................... 4
2. STRUCTURE AND LEARNING OUTCOMES OF UNIT 1 ................................. 5
SECTION 1: WHAT IS CRITICAL LITERACY .......................................................... 6
1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................... 6
2. UNPACKING CRITICAL LITERACY .................................................................. 6
2.1 Terminology related to Critical Literacy ..................................................... 6
2.1.1 Critical ............................................................................................................................ 6
2.1.2 Literacy.......................................................................................................................... 7
2.2 Concepts related to Critical Literacy ........................................................ 10
2.2.1 Language....................................................................................................................10
2.2.2 Text ..............................................................................................................................10
2.2.3 Power relations ..........................................................................................................10
2.2.4 Diversity.......................................................................................................................10
2.2.5 Reading the word and the world .............................................................................11
2.2.6 Reconstructing and redesigning texts....................................................................11
2.2.7 Text design and production .....................................................................................12
2.2.8 The activist agenda of Critical Literacy...................................................................12
3. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CRITICAL LITERACY AND HIGHER
EDUCATION.................................................................................................... 14

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SECTION 2: SITUATING CRITICAL LITERACY .................................................... 15

1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................. 15
2. THEORIES UNDERPINNING CRITICAL LITERACY ...................................... 16
2.1 John Dewey............................................................................................. 16
2.2 Paolo Freire ............................................................................................. 17
2.3 Henry Giroux ........................................................................................... 18
2.4 The South African contribution: Hilary Janks ........................................... 20
3. DIFFERENT VIEWPOINTS OR PERSPECTIVES TO CRITICAL LITERACY . 21
3.1 Feminist poststructuralist theories ........................................................... 22
3.2 Post-colonial theories .............................................................................. 22
3.3 Critical race theory .................................................................................. 22
3.4 Critical linguistics and critical discourse analysis (CDA) .......................... 22
3.5 Cultural, critical media literacy ................................................................. 22
3.6 Queer theory ........................................................................................... 22
3.7 Place-conscious pedagogy...................................................................... 23
3.8 Critical sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology ................................. 23
4. DIFFERENT SITES OR PLACES TO POSITION CRITICAL LITERACY ........ 24
4.1 Identity ..................................................................................................... 24
4.2 Text ......................................................................................................... 27
4.3 Social structures ...................................................................................... 30
4.3.1 Stereotyping ...............................................................................................................30
4.4 Power and authority ................................................................................ 34
4.4.1 Censorship .................................................................................................................35
SECTION 3: THE LINK BETWEEN CRITICAL LITERACY AND CRITICAL
THINKING ................................................................................................................ 37
1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................. 37
2. DEFINING CRITICAL THINKING .................................................................... 37
3. HOW DOES CRITICAL THINKING FIT INTO CRITICAL LITERACY .............. 39
4. HIGHER ORDER THINKING: BLOOM’S TAXONOMY ................................... 39
4.1 Remember............................................................................................... 41
4.2 Understand .............................................................................................. 41
4.3 Apply ....................................................................................................... 41
4.4 Analyze.................................................................................................... 41
4.5 Evaluate .................................................................................................. 41
4.6 Create ..................................................................................................... 42
5. SOLO TAXONOMY ......................................................................................... 46
5.1 Pre-structural level .................................................................................. 48
5.2 Unistructural level .................................................................................... 48
5.3 Multi-structural level ................................................................................ 48
5.4 Relational level ........................................................................................ 49
5.5 Extended abstract level ........................................................................... 49
6. CONCLUSION ................................................................................................. 49

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UNIT 2: ANALYTICAL TOOLS FOR DEVELOPING AN ORIENTATION TOWARDS

CRITICAL LITERACY.............................................................................................. 53
1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................. 53
2. STRUCTURE AND LEARNING OUTCOMES OF UNIT 2 ............................... 53
SECTION 1: CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS .................................................. 54
1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................. 54
2. CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS AS AN ANALYTICAL TOOL .................. 54
3. FAIRCLOUGH’S MODEL FOR CDA DESCRIBED ......................................... 55
4. USING FAIRCLOUGH’S MODEL FOR CDA IN PRACTICE ........................... 56
4.1 Fake News - Twitter ................................................................................ 56
4.2 #MeToo ................................................................................................... 59
SECTION 2: LITERACY MODELS FOR DEVELOPING CRITICAL LITERACY .... 63
1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................. 63
2. INSTRUCTIONAL MODELS FOR CRITICAL LITERACY................................ 63
2.1 Lewison et al.’s model of Critical Literacy ................................................ 64
2.2 The four resources model and Green’s 3D model of literacy................... 68
2.3 Janks’ interdependency model for Critical Literacy ................................. 70
3. CONCLUSION ................................................................................................. 75
UNIT 3: DEVELOPING A CRITICAL PEDAGOGY ORIENTATION IN THE
CLASSROOM .......................................................................................................... 76
1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................. 76
2. STRUCTURE AND LEARNING OUTCOMES OF UNIT 3 ............................... 76
SECTION 1: CRITICAL PEDAGOGY ...................................................................... 77
1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................. 77
2. CONTRASTING CRITICAL PEDAGOGY AND OTHER LEARNING AND
TEACHING PEDAGOGIES ............................................................................. 77
2.1 What is pedagogy .................................................................................... 77
2.2 What is Critical Pedagogy ....................................................................... 77
2.3 How does Critical Pedagogy differs from other learning and teaching
pedagogies .............................................................................................. 78
3. DEVELOPING A CRITICAL PEDAGOGY APPROACH TO TEACHING ......... 80
3.1 Critical Pedagogy in the Foundation Phase............................................. 82
3.2 Critical Pedagogy in the Intermediate Phase........................................... 87
SECTION 2: RESISTANCE TO CRITICAL PEDAGOGY ........................................ 90
1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................. 90
2. FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO RESISTANCE TO CRITICAL LITERACY .... 90
2.1 Students’ resistance to Critical Literacy ................................................... 90
2.2 Teachers’ resistance to Critical Literacy .................................................. 91
3. CONCLUSION ................................................................................................. 91
REFERENCES ......................................................................................................... 94

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ADDENDUM A: STATUE OF WW2 KISS VANDALISED AFTER US SAILOR'S

DEATH ...................................................................................... 100
ADDENDUM B: ONE GREEN PLANET .............................................................. 102
ADDENDUM C: CRITICAL LITERACY’S ONGOING IMPORTANCE FOR
EDUCATION ............................................................................. 103

ACTIVITIES: 1-21

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: The redesign cycle .................................................................................. 12

Figure 2: Madam & Eve cartoon ............................................................................. 31
Figure 3: The Revised Bloom's Taxonomy by Anderson and Krathwohl (2001) ..... 40
Figure 4: Critical Thinking: Bloom’s Taxonomy ...................................................... 43
Figure 5: Solo Taxonomy ....................................................................................... 47
Figure 6: The Five Levels of Solo Taxonomy ......................................................... 48
Figure 7: Fairclough’s Model for CDA..................................................................... 56
Figure 8: Twitter post by Donal Trump @ realDonaldTrump .................................. 57
Figure 9: Instructional model of Critical Literacy that represents the transaction
among personal and cultural resources, critical social practices, and the
critical stance........................................................................................... 65
Figure 10: Green’s 3D model of Critical Literacy ...................................................... 70

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Analysis of a tweet by Donal Trump using Hilary Jank’s example of CDA
................................................................................................................ 58
Table 2: Analysis of an article using Hilary Jank’s example of CDA ...................... 59
Table 3: The four dimensions of taking a critical stance, the beliefs and stances we
adopt that allow us to be critically literate ................................................ 66
Table 4: Interdependent Critical Literacy Synthesis Model.................................... 72

LIST OF PHOTOS

Photo 1: John Dewey............................................................................................. 16

Photo 2: Paulo Freire ............................................................................................. 17
Photo 3: Henry Giroux ........................................................................................... 18
Photo 4: Hilary Janks ............................................................................................. 20
Photo 5: Johnny Clegg .......................................................................................... 24

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CRITICAL LITERACIES FOR TEACHERS

1. INTRODUCTION
As part of the Academic Literacy module (B-ALI 110), you have studied what it means
to be academically literate. Additional to academic literacy, becoming critically literate
involves asking fundamental questions about our social world and how we read,
interact and respond to the world in which we live. This interaction refers to how we
shape our world and are shaped by it. It involves critically viewing the everyday
workings of our social world; all the things we take for granted about how things work
and how we live in our society.

You must understand that you have the power to change how being literate shapes
your worldview. This could enable and empower you to act against social injustices in
the world.

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2. STRUCTURE AND OUTCOMES OF THIS MODULE

After you have studied this module, you should achieve the following module
outcomes:

CRITICAL LITERACIES FOR TEACHERS

UNIT 1 UNIT 2
Understanding Critical Literacy Analytical tools for developing
an orientation towards Critical
Outcomes: At the end of this unit, Literacy
you should:
• know what the concept Critical Outcomes: At the end of this unit,
Literacy means by defining it you should:
and related concepts. • demonstrate an understanding
• identify the role of Critical of Critical Discourse Analysis
Literacy in your life, in and as an analytical tool to develop
outside of school, regarding Critical Thinking.
identity formation, social • demonstrate the ability to use
structures and power, and Critical Discourse Analysis with
authority. text.
• demonstrate an understanding • analyse text through other
by comparing the difference instructional Critical Literacy
between Critical Literacy and models.
Critical Thinking.
• identify and describe the
theorists behind Critical Literacy
by studying its historical
overview.

UNIT 3
Developing a Critical Pedagogy orientation in the classroom

Outcomes: At the end of this unit, you should:

• demonstrate an understanding by explaining how Critical Pedagogy differs
from other teaching and learning pedagogies.
• show an understanding by discussing students’ and teachers’ resistance to
Critical Literacy.

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3. GLOSSARY
Understanding these words will assist you when working through this unit.

Activist agenda - Efforts to promote, impede, direct, or intervene in social,

political, economic or environmental reform with the desire
to make changes in society
Analytical - Systematic, logical, orderly, accurate
Bias - Inclination or prejudice for or against a person or group,
especially in a way considered as unfair
Critical - Comes from the Greek word krinein, which means to judge
and or decide
Critical theory - A philosophical approach to culture and literature that
considers the social, historical and ideological forces and
structures within which the culture and literature is based
Discourse - A connected series of written or spoken communication or
debate, a series of utterances; a text or conversation
Equality - The state of being equal, especially in status, rights or
opportunities
Ideology - A system of ideas and ideals that forms the basis of
economic or political theory and policy; a set of beliefs
characteristic of a social group or individual
Instructional - Guidelines or sets of strategies on which the approaches to
models teaching by instructors are based
Interdependency - The dependence of two or more people or tings on each
other
Normative - Establishing, relating to, or deriving from a standard or norm
Oppressors - People or a group that keeps someone in subjection and
hardship, especially by the unjust exercise of authority
Philosophy - The study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality
and existence, especially when considered as an academic
discipline
Problem-posing - A method of teaching emphasising critical thinking to liberate
education
Synthesis - The combination of components or elements to form a
connected whole
Transformative - A practical and strategic process of creating change within
social action society; systems approach applied to broad-based social
change and social justice

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UNIT 1: UNDERSTANDING CRITICAL LITERACY

1. INTRODUCTION
In the ever-changing national and global environments, change for sustainable living
conditions can only occur through change. Change, however, in most cases/situations,
needs informed agents of change. These agents must be literate, especially critically
literate to ask pertinent questions and motivate change for the better. Imagine a world
where teachers and students could change how they shape the world and how they
are being shaped by the world into a more just and humane society. This is where
Critical Literacy fits into literacy as a part of education.

The notion of remake and change for the better is captured in the words of Ira Shor
(1999, p. 2):
“We are what we say and do. The way we speak and are spoken to help shape
us into the people we become. Through words and other actions, we build
ourselves in a world that is building us. That world addresses us to produce the
different identities we carry forward in life: men are addressed differently than
are women, people of colour differently than whites, elite students differently
than those from working families. Yet, though language is fateful in teaching us
what kind of people to become and what kind of society to make, discourse is
not destiny. We can redefine ourselves and remake society, if we choose,
through alternative rhetoric and dissident projects. This is where critical literacy
begins, for questioning power relations, discourses, and identities in a world not
yet finished, just, or humane.”

Unit 1 (consisting of three sections) aims to give you a basic foundational

understanding and knowledge of Critical Literacy. This will enable you to go on to the
next units of this module to build and expand your understanding of Critical Literacy.
You are on your way to becoming critically literate members of society and teaching
from a critically literate point of view.

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2. STRUCTURE AND LEARNING OUTCOMES OF UNIT 1

Unit 1 consists of four sections. This unit provides you with the opportunity to work
towards the following learning outcomes of the module:

UNIT 1
UNDERSTANDING CRITICAL LITERACY

SECTION 1 SECTION 2
What is Critical Literacy Situating Critical Literacy

Learning outcomes: After you have Learning outcomes: After you have
studied this section, you should: studied this section, you should:
• understand the concept of Critical • describe the theory underpinning
Literacy by explaining it. Critical Literacy and relay different
• be familiar with the terminology of viewpoints/perspectives to Critical
Critical Literacy to describe the Literacy.
meaning of each concept. • understand and explain how
• explain the relationship between Critical Literacy influences identity
Critical Literacy and Education. formation, social structures and
power and authority.

SECTION 3 SECTION 4
Critical Literacy and Critical Historical view of Critical Literacy
Thinking theory

Learning outcomes: After you have Learning outcomes: After you have
studied this section, you should: studied this section, you should:
• show an understanding of the • understand and describe the
concept of Critical Thinking by ideologies and theories shaping
explaining how it links to Critical Critical Literacy.
Literacy. • identify and describe the theorists
• explain how a Taxonomy and and their theory that have shaped
SOLO Taxonomy could be used Critical Literacy in the past and
as tools to develop Critical present day.
Thinking skills. • identify and discuss different
perspectives of Critical Literacy.

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SECTION 1: WHAT IS CRITICAL LITERACY

1. INTRODUCTION
The term Critical Literacy was first created and described by social critical theorists
that shared an activist agenda. These theorists looked at social injustice, inequality in
society and the influence of unjust power relationships in the world. There are several
perspectives on Critical Literacy, but they are all concerned with using different literacy
tools to understand and make sense of the world and then ultimately redesign a better
world.

2. UNPACKING CRITICAL LITERACY

2.1 Terminology related to Critical Literacy

To understand and explain the term Critical Literacy, we can briefly explore the
meaning of the words critical and literacy.

2.1.1 Critical

The term Critical Literacy includes two words: critical and literacy. In the theory of
Critical Literacy, the word critical is linked to viewing, understanding and reimagining
(taking action) from a social viewpoint.

Other views of the word critical include using the word to give urgency to a situation,
e.g. a critical medical condition is a serious, life-threatening condition. The word also
stirs a feeling of danger, being in an important situation requiring action to ensure a
certain outcome. Critical could also indicate that something was scrutinised, picked
apart or dissected to its core.

Regarding literacy or being literate, the word critical portrays that a certain literacy
skillset is of crucial, undeniable importance. It not only highlights the urgency of
acquiring this literacy skillset but also requires action from a social viewpoint towards
a required or envisioned outcome.

Vasquez (as cited by Oxford Research Encyclopedias: Education, 2017) wrote that
there seems to be confusion and dispute among Critical Literacy scholars whether the
word critical refers to critical thinking and reasoning as derived from the Enlightenment
period, or if it should be derived from the Marxist school of thought in which critical
relates to the analysis of power.

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For this module, regarding education, the term critical is linked to analysing, evaluating
and understanding the text from a social perspective and then redesigning this text to
play a role in changing the world with words. It, however, is not necessarily about taking
a negative stance. It involves analysing the influence of the voice of the majority and
how the message that is relayed could be changed to be more socially just and equal.

Gunther Kress (2000) argued that the notion of critique itself is a “response to particular
circumstances in a particular period and thus, is a historical phenomenon” (2000, p.
160).

He elaborated:

“In periods of relative social stability critique has the function of introducing a
dynamic into the system. In a situation of intense social change, the rules of
constitution both of texts and of social arrangements are in crisis: they’re not
settled, but in process of change” (2000, p. 160).

Kress argued that the focus during such times of intense social change should shift
from critique to that of design. This is the aim of being Critically Literate; to not only
analyse the meaning and the intention of text but to also design and redesign text for
a more socially just and equal society. Literacy, as the other word in the term Critical
Literacy, is dealt with in section 2.1.2.

2.1.2 Literacy

To understand the concept of literacy, it is important to also define language, and

explore how the two concepts are related. The two concepts are often used
interchangeably, even though they mean different things. Here follows a brief
explanation of each of the concepts:

The modules, Introduction to the Language and Literacy Landscape in the Foundation
Phase (F-LLL 110) and in the Intermediate Phase (I-LLL 110), that is part of the SANTS
BEd (Foundation Phase Teaching) and BEd (Intermediate Phase Teaching), provide
a detailed description of the concept of language and its components. In summary, the
concept of language is defined as “any system of symbols that is used to transmit
meaning” (Fromkin, Rodman & Hyams, 2007, p. 3). The basic structural aspects of the
concept of language are listed in modules F-LLL 110 and I-LLL 110 as linguistic
features (pragmatics, semantics, syntax and phonology), level structures (physical
surface level and meaningful deep level structures) and the process of acquisition
(receptive language and productive language).

Acquiring literacy skills is more than only a cognitive process of reading and writing, it
requires taking action. By actively engaging in learning a language, you are becoming
literate and developing literacy skills.
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According to Weideman (2003), based on the research of Naiman et al. (1978) who
interviewed adults that learned additional languages, the definition of a good language
learner includes the following:

• Good language learners find a style of learning that suits them and are actively
involved in the language learning process.
• Good language learners know that language is used to communicate, and they
practice their skills in several ways. They are like detectives when trying to get
clues on how the language works and keeping track of what they have learned
about the language.
• Good language learners learn to think in the language. They realise that
language learning is difficult and address their feelings of frustration.

The traditional definition of literacy in industrialised and technologically advanced

communities is to read and write at least one language that you can speak. These
communities view literacy as a basic requirement for acquiring knowledge, power and
economic prosperity. It is unthinkable for children in these communities not to be taught
to read and write (Evans, 2019).

Illiterate persons are marginalised from these communities and labelled as

unemployable, unlucky and unsuccessful. This opinion does not factor in many
communities around the world where other literacy skills are required to navigate and
cope in a specific environment. Using only listening and speaking skills without
acquiring traditional literacy skills, people in communities such as the Inuit and the San
in the Kalahari interact socially using intricate systems of oral communication. As
Evans (2019) explains, traditional literacy skills are an uncommon requirement for
acquiring knowledge in these communities, and academic qualifications are not as
highly regarded as in industrialised communities.

Literacy, as an action, is a social practice that is defined by cultures, context, task and
history (Freebody & Luke, 1990). These contexts influence the meaning that you bring
to the process of becoming literate. Literacy is defined as the “ability and willingness
to use reading and writing to construct meaning from printed text, in ways which meet
the requirements of a particular social context” (Au, 2004, p. 7 cited in Freebody &
Luke, 1990).

In modules F-LLL 110 and I-LLL 110, the idea that literacy is a social practice is
described in that literacy:

• As both the ability and willingness to use reading and writing.

• Involves reading and writing processes.
• Is constructive and involves meaning making.
• Is a practice that occurs in social and cultural contexts.
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To function at an appropriate and expected level in your community today, you need
more literacy skills than just only the cognitive ability to read and write. Evans (2019)
lists the following four key concepts related to the new literacy skills required by the
21st- century learner:

• Change: Political change, technological advancement, globalisation, and inter-

continental migration called for new literacies to be mastered to negotiate the
rapidly changing world in which we live. Cultural Literacy, Information Literacy,
Media Literacy, Technological Literacy and Critical Literacy are a few of the
most common types of literacy required today.

• Context: The level of reading and writing to which children are exposed in their
communities determines the context of these literacy skills. For example, in rural
areas, there could be a stronger oral tradition and children would be exposed to
more storytelling than written text. Their experience with written text might not
be in the same language that they speak.

• Continuum: It is possible to have different skills levels or abilities across several

types of literacies. A child could be technologically advanced and do internet
searches on a computer, but cannot read a simple class reader.

• Combination: The several types of new literacies must be used in combination

to achieve the desired outcome. If you can read a financial brochure and have
Financial Literacy, you should be able to decide if the investment is worthwhile.
You might use your Technological Literacy to consult a financial advisor via
Skype, and then transfer the funds online.

Literacy skillsets can develop and change in response to social and cultural changes
and according to the interests of the ruling party who control dominant institutions in a
political or social context (Kellner & Share, 2005, p. 369). One type of literacy that you
have already been introduced to in the first semester of this BEd programme is
Academic Literacy (B-ALI 110). Academic literacy could be defined as the activities of
accessing, processing and producing information (Weideman, 2003, p. xi). The module
described the concept of academic literacy, outlined the difference between personal
and academic literacies and detailed the elements of academic writing. Please ensure
that you are comfortable with all these concepts, as this module on Critical Literacy will
require you to build on the knowledge you have gained from the module on Academic
Literacy.

The subject of this module, Critical Literacy, is another type of literacy required by the
21st-century learner and teacher. Critical Literacy in the context of literacy is described
by Anderson and Irvine (1982) as: “…literacy is understood as social action through
language use that develops us as agents inside a larger culture”. This means that the

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language we use enables us to take action and be agents of change in our society.
This statement highlights the activist agenda of Critical Literacy.

We will explore this and other concepts related to Critical Literacy in the next section.

2.2 Concepts related to Critical Literacy

By analysing and understanding the following concepts relating to Critical Literacy, you
should start developing a firm grasp of what Critical Literacy is and how you could
achieve being Critically Literate. The concepts we will look at include language, text,
power relations, the concept of reading the word and the world, reconstructing and
redesigning texts, text design and production and the activist agenda of Critical
Literacy.

2.2.1 Language

Language as a part of literacy could include reading and writing, interpreting,

understanding and using words. Regarding Critical Literacy, you must develop an
understanding that words can inform you, but words can also manipulate you into
believing what the writer wants you to believe. The writer could also use words to give
a hidden message that can influence you in some way or use a message to create
social inequalities and injustices. Language is a powerful tool, and Critical Literacy
enables you to ensure that this tool is used towards a better and more socially just
world.

2.2.2 Text

Texts could include anything that can transmit a meaning, be it printed text (books,
magazines, comic books), visuals (pictures) or digital and multimodal formats
(websites, advertising, street signs, maps, music and social media). Critical literacy
teaches that texts are partial, texts are never neutral, choices are made by text
producers and that texts have multiple modes for making meaning (Janks, 2014, p. 2).

2.2.3 Power relations

Power relations in language are not obvious. Critical Literacy creates awareness of
how language could be used to maintain and challenge existing forms of power (Janks,
2014). Critical Literacy explores the dominant forces in society that govern the
message given in texts. It is the voice of the oppressors, the ruling party or the
government that dictates our social practices and our place in society.

2.2.4 Diversity

Diversity is a key concept of Critical Literacy. The different societies and communities
in which we grow up shape our identity and create a specific version of the world for
us.

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“Differences often create hierarchies in society, for example, hierarchies of

language (you have more power if you can speak the dominant language of a
country) and the ranking of professions (professional work give you more power
and authority than manual labour)” (Janks, 2014, p. 6).

2.2.5 Reading the word and the world

Reading the word and the world is a concept often quoted in Critical Literacy studies
from the work of Paulo Freire, one of the first Critical Literacy theorists, and we will
take a closer look at his work later in the module. It requires you to understand the
message of texts regarding where the writer fits into (and wants you to fit in) society. It
is about understanding the bias that the writer brings to the text and to acknowledge
your bias as the reader. In other words, not only taking the message of the text on face
value but also delving deeper into the world of the writer. You also must identify and
understand how your world and reality shape your reaction to the message and how
the message could be used to manipulate you as the reader.

2.2.6 Reconstructing and redesigning texts

Reconstructing and redesigning texts is a practice of Critical Literacy that calls for
changing existing text to convey different and more socially just and equitable
messages. Reconstruction means taking apart the aspects of the text and changing
how these aspects relate to one another. An example of reconstructing text is to
recreate the sequence, relationships or themes of text to be more socially just and
equitable. Redesigning text is an act of transformation and means to change the text
into something new that replaces a biased and socially unjust text.

An example of redesigning text is cigarette advertisements that have changed over the
years to include warnings to educate the public on the harmful effects and health risks
associated with the smoking of cigarettes. These messages must speak to our real-life
situations and promote equality and social justice in society. The figure below
represents the redesign cycle, as described by Janks (2010).

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Figure 1: The redesign cycle

(Janks, 2010)
2.2.7 Text design and production
Text design and production as a practice of Critical Literacy requires the development
of new text with real-life intent to deal with genuine issues. An example of this would
be to design a creative writing exercise around a real-life petition that affects the
learners’ lives and the communities in which they live. The petitions could then be
mailed to the relevant institution to make a positive change in society.

2.2.8 The activist agenda of Critical Literacy

The activist agenda of Critical Literacy relates to the social and political change that is
envisioned and embodied through the process of becoming Critically Literate. It is not
only about understanding and analysing text but also about taking action towards
social and political change. Examples of social activists that are perceived to have
(had) highly developed Critically Literacy skills include, but are not limited to, Mahatma
Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and Malala Yousafzai.

The following quotes depict some of the aspects of Critical Literacy and how they fit
together:

“Critical literacy is a socio-cultural orientation to literacy that is concerned not just

with the meaning of texts and practices, but with their social and material effects”
(Janks, 1997, p. 1).

and

“The project remains understanding the relationship between texts, meaning-

making and power to undertake transformative social action that contributes to the
achievement of a more equitable social order” (Janks & Vasquez, 2011, p. 1).
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180 minutes
1
1. Contest the traditional definition of literacy and argue why it must be elaborated
on for the 21st-century learner.
2. Read the article on “Awesome school kids launched a petition to ban plastic
straws in the UK!” Then answer the questions that follow.
https://www.onegreenplanet.org/news/school-kids-petition-ban-plastic-straws-
uk/

Summary of the article:

Awesome School Kids Launched a Petition to

Ban Plastic Straws in the UK!
By Alexandra Padja

A group of school children in England recently decided to take serious action

for the well-being of our planet in light of the plastic pollution crisis. A class of
nine- to ten-year-olds launched a campaign to get plastic straws banned in
the UK. The group of little activists created a petition that now needs 10 000
signatures for the issue in question to be debated in Parliament.

By acting against the careless overuse of plastic, the kids are taking the
future into their hands. “The most shocking thing about plastic pollution is that
it is a problem, created by adults, that will affect our children so much more
than it affects us,” the school said in a statement.

As part of their anti-plastic efforts, the group also produced a short film that
won an award at the primary school film festival, LitFilmFest, last year. These
action-oriented kids have already convinced local pubs to drop plastic straws
– pretty impressive!

Straws are a big part of the total plastic waste that accumulates in landfills
and ends up dumped into the oceans every year. Once in the water system,
plastic threatens marine life by polluting the environment and directly causing
deaths via entanglement and ingestion. In America alone, around 500 million
plastic straws are used every single day! We could all stand to take action
like these kids and help fight plastic pollution where we live.

The petition prepared by the class has already been signed by over 6 000
people at the time that the article was written in 2017.

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Questions:
1. Can you identify some of the concepts related to Critical Literacy, as listed in
section 2.2 above and in the article provided in this activity 1? List the concepts
and give an example from the article.
2. What literacy skills can you identify in the actions and feedback of the children
and teachers, as described in the article?

3. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CRITICAL LITERACY

AND HIGHER EDUCATION
Critical Literacy fits into literacy as an aspect of education at every level of learning and
every interaction with texts. From a young child to an elderly person, every interaction
with texts is an opportunity to practice and develop your Critical Literacy skills and
orientations in your quest to becoming Critically Literate teachers and members of
society.

As Alan Luke described in the interview regarding Critical Literacy (refer to the list of
recommended reading for the YouTube link), Critical Literacy should not be a module
to complete with a start and finish date. It is a lifelong ongoing process and never
complete; a lens through which you should read the word and the world. It does not
necessarily have to involve a negative or pessimistic view of texts, and it should not
make you question the validity of every single text. Critical Literacy should instead
always entail a level of curiosity that urges you to uncover the true meaning of texts
and to find ways to redesign text for a better society.

Watch the following short clip of Allan Luke explaining what Critical Literacy is:
https://YouTube/UnWdARykdcw.

Developing a Critical Pedagogy approach to teaching, with practical examples for the
Foundation Phase and the Intermediate Phase, will be described in detail in Unit 3 of
this module.

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SECTION 2: SITUATING CRITICAL LITERACY

1. INTRODUCTION
As detailed in Section 1 above, Critical Literacy should become an intrinsic part of who
you are. It should be a frame for reading the “word and the world” (Freire, 1970) and
participating in the world inside and outside of school.

As Alan Luke (2000) described the embodiment of Critical Literacy, it should be “… an

attitude and a disposition of critical and constructive scepticism towards text”. This
attitude towards texts does not necessarily have to be negative. In viewing texts in
several ways, you can understand the message of texts and find ways of redesigning
it to improve societal prejudices.

Critical Literacy skills are developed and exercised in every interaction with the text
that you have. It is an ongoing, lifelong project that develops and changes over time in
tune with real-life events and issues. It calls you to challenge your identity, social
structures and power and authorities in the world by redesigning the text for a more
just society.

Critical Literacy should be “a catalyst to developing a curious mind that wants to

investigate, understand, solve problems, understand ideologies, understand text and
understand the world”, according to Allan Luke (2000). He continued that you cannot
only blindly believe everything you read; you must have a critically sceptical mind.
“Critical literacy shifts your focus away from the ‘self’ in critical reading to the
interpretation of texts in different environmental and cultural contexts” (Luke, 2000).

Hilary Janks highlighted some of the areas where Critical Literacy could be situated in
the following quote: “Essentially, critical literacy is about enabling young people to read
both the word and the world in relation to power, identity, difference and access to
knowledge, skills, tools and resources” (Janks, 2013). We will look at each of these
areas in this section.

Firstly, let us take a step back and look at some of the influential scholars of the last
century who helped to develop Critical Literacy as we understand it today. Here follows
a review of the contribution of some of the prominent figures in the field. Then, we will
look at different viewpoints or perspectives on Critical Literacy.

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2. THEORIES UNDERPINNING CRITICAL LITERACY

In this section, we will explore some of the prominent theorists that were instrumental
in developing the field of Critical Literacy.

2.1 John Dewey

Photo 1: John Dewey

Source: https://www.biography.com/scholar/john-dewey

John Dewey (October 20, 1859 – June 1, 1952) was an American philosopher best
known for his publications about the progressive reform of education and liberalism.
He was known for his advocacy of democracy and his belief that education and civil
society should be reconstructed to encourage intelligence that could serve the greater
good.

He believed that education should be a place where people learn how to live, not only
a place for gaining content knowledge. This highlights a recurring theme throughout
his writings on education, that education and learning are a social and interactive
process that must be reformed. He advocated that learners should have the
opportunity to take part in their learning process and should be allowed to interact with
the curriculum. This type of education would release the full potential of learners and
enable them to use the skills acquired to create a better society. He noted that “… to
prepare him for the future life means to give him command of himself; it means so to
train him that he will have the full and ready use of all his capacities” (Dewey, 1897).

Dewey encouraged an educational structure that balances between delivering

knowledge while also considering the interests and experiences of the learner. It is
through this reasoning that Dewey became one of the most famous proponents of
hands-on learning (experiential education). He argued that “… if knowledge comes
from the impressions made upon us by natural objects, it is impossible to procure
knowledge without the use of objects which impress the mind” (Dewey, 1916). Dewey's
ideas went on to influence many other influential experiential models and advocates.

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According to Dewey, the work of the classroom teacher is to produce the intelligence,
skill, and character within each learner so that they can think and act intelligently and
morally as part of a democratic community. He described education as a tool for driving
social change.

John Dewey insisted that schools and society must be based on cooperation,
democratic relations, and equal distribution of resources and authority with an ethical
emphasis. This work formed the basis of Critical Literacy as it is recognised today. Ira
Shor (1999, p. 13) argued that Critical Literacy belongs to Deweyan constructivist
education, which has also been associated with activity theory.

Next, we will look at the life and work of Paulo Freire who was a scholar of John
Dewey’s theories and principles.

2.2 Paolo Freire

Photo 2: Paulo Freire

Source: https://edu.glogster.com/glog/paulo-freire/1grjv6wa23t

The roots of Critical Literacy can be traced to Paolo Freire (September 29, 1921 – May
2, 1997), who gave literacy a socio-political dimension. He was a Brazilian philosopher
and educator best known for his theories of education and his advocacy of critical
pedagogy.

Growing up in poverty, he attributed the fact that he fell four grades behind to his social
condition, being unable to learn while being hungry. His family’s misfortunes later
turned around and he could continue his education. His exposure to poverty, however,
shaped his lifelong dedication to helping the poor to improve their lives.

Freire is best known for his criticism of what he called the “banking” concept of
education in which students are viewed as empty accounts to be filled by teachers. He
noted that “… it transforms students into receiving objects [and] attempts to control
thinking and action, lead(ing) men and women to adjust to the world, inhibit(ing) their
creative power” (Freire, 1970, p. 77).
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As mentioned, Freire gave literacy a socio-political dimension. He believed that

education could not be divorced from politics and that the act of teaching and learning
are considered connected political acts in and of themselves. Through a problem-
posing pedagogy, Freire taught Brazilian and Chilean peasants how to read by
introducing them to vocabularies that were meaningful to their daily experiences.
Freire’s highly acclaimed book, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, was written in 1970 and
translated into English. The book had a worldwide effect on education and pedagogy.

Here follows a loose transcript of Paulo Freire’s last public interview, given to
Literacy.org in 1996. It is available on YouTube at the following link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFWjnkFypFA

Freire talks about having a critical understanding of education, and literacy as a

fundamental, integral part (chapter) of education. He had strong experiences in the
chapter of adult literacy in Brazil that led him to understand himself as a thinker and a
type of epistemologist proposing a critical way of thinking and knowing, of teaching and
working differently with students.

He continues to say that there is a dominant way of thinking, speaking, accent that is
cultivated and there is a way of thinking, speaking, accent that is not. Teachers must
teach the cultivated pattern, and students have the right to learn cultivated patterns. It
is necessary to make it clear to students that their way of speaking is as beautiful as
our way of speaking and that they have the right to speak their way. But they must
learn the dominant syntax for several reasons. The more the oppressed and poor
people grasp the dominant syntax, the more they can articulate their voices and speech
in the struggle against injustice.

Next, we will look at the work of Henry Giroux, a Freire scholar that builds on the work
of John Dewey and Paulo Freire.

2.3 Henry Giroux

Photo 3: Henry Giroux

Source: https://www.henryagiroux.com/about
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Internationally renowned writer and cultural critic, Henry Giroux was born on
September 18, 1943. He is considered one of the founding theorists of critical
pedagogy in the United States of America. He has been theorising pedagogy for the
last three decades as a political, moral and cultural practice, drawing upon critical
discourses that extend from John Dewey to Paulo Freire.

In 2002, Giroux was named by Routledge, a British multi-national publisher, as one of

the top-fifty educational thinkers of the modern period. He has written more than 65
books, published more than 400 papers, and published hundreds of chapters in others’
books, articles in magazines, etc.

Throughout his work, Giroux speaks of democratic engagement in public life and
critiques oppressive institutions and policies. His belief that educators must advance
human empowerment and participative democracy, no matter what the subject is,
underpins his work.

Giroux argued that Critical Literacy offers “the opportunity for students to interrogate
how knowledge is constituted as both a historical and social construction” and should
provide them with the “knowledge and skills necessary for them to understand and
analyse their own historically constructed voices and experiences as part of a project
of self and social empowerment” (Giroux & McLaren, 1989, pp. 33-34).

He critiqued printed media, including advertisements, and Hollywood films, including

Disney films, pointing out the cultural, racial and social prejudices depicted.
Galczynski, Rafael and Balinsky (2013, p. 450) wrote the following on Giroux:

“Like Freire, Giroux offers a socio-cultural criticism that engages readers and
illuminates many of the hidden agendas of government education policies,
particularly by demonstrating the effects of undermining public schools. Giroux’s
contribution to the field of education is essential as a clarification for the
sometimes-dubious decisions that governments make in regards to private and
public educational institutions. Giroux’s commentary on the educational system
is highly valuable”.

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2.4 The South African contribution: Hilary Janks

Photo 4: Hilary Janks

Source: https://globalconversationsinliteracy.wordpress.com/past-
webinars/upcoming-speakers-2013-2014/hilary-janks/

Hilary Janks is an emerita Professor of Education at the University of the

Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa.

She has been committed to improving the quality of language and literacy education
in South Africa and other contexts throughout her career. She introduced the field of
Critical Language Awareness to English education in South Africa and developed the
Critical Language Awareness series of workbooks that are referenced in this module
and listed as recommended reading material.

Her research investigated the interdependency of four axes of Critical Literacy to

promote transformation. The four axes are the relationship between language/literacy
and power, diversity, access and design and redesign. According to her CV, her other
research interests include academic literacy, postgraduate pedagogies, language
policy, reconciliation pedagogies, critical multi-literacies, and language literacy and
identity with a focus on habitus. Her international experience includes visiting, lecturing
and presenting training courses at universities in Britain, the USA, Sweden, Brazil,
Australia and Canada.

Her CV lists her numerous publications in listed journals and other peer-reviewed
journals, books and chapters in books, published conference proceedings, technical
and research reports, newspaper articles and other academic works. For a full list,
please visit her website at the following address:
https://hilaryjanks.files.wordpress.com/2019/03/abbreviated-cv-january-2019.pdf

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She received numerous academic distinctions, fellowships and awards throughout her
career, including being the first recipient of the award for “Significant Contribution to
Literacy” by the Literacy Association of South Africa in 2018.

In a discussion of her work, Hilary Janks explains:

“I cut my critical literacy teeth in the struggle against apartheid. I saw my own
work as both a moral and a political project which valued education as an
important factor in achieving a just society. In the days of apartheid it was easy
to understand power as a negative force which constructed and maintained
relations of domination by protecting the interests of the small white minority …
my work set out to deconstruct the language of the oppressor, and to search
for an emancipatory discourse” (Janks, 2000, p. 175).

Janks argued that after two democratic elections, the Critical Literacy project in South
Africa is now necessarily different and requires a re-imagining of how Critical Literacy
could contribute to reconstruction and development and “to our reinventing our nation
and ourselves” (Janks, 2000, p. 175).

Her contribution to Critical Literacy during apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa
has been invaluable. Next, we will look at different viewpoints or perspectives to Critical
Literacy.

120 minutes
2
1. From what you have learned about how the theory of Critical Literacy has evolved
from the time of Paolo Freire to Hilary Janks, would you say that it is still relevant
in South Africa today?
2. Can you think of any other leaders in the world, South Africa or your community
that has contributed to Critical Literacy now that you are aware of the concept?
3. Are there any leaders, public figures or organisations in the world, South Africa
or your community that you can identify who want to suppress Critical Literacy?

3. DIFFERENT VIEWPOINTS OR PERSPECTIVES TO

CRITICAL LITERACY
As described in the previous sections of this module, Critical Literacy is not a unit to
be studied but should be viewed as a lens through which to study all texts. Depending
on the context, interests, and societal and political influences of writers, there are
several viewpoints or perspectives of Critical Literacy in literature from around the
world.

According to Ira Shor (1999), Critical Literacy theorists do not regard reading and
writing as autonomous, technical, neutral and universal skills (Searle, 1993), but as
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“the process of becoming conscious of one’s experience as historically constructed

within specific power relations” (Anderson & Irvine, 1993, p. 82).

A list of the various theoretical models and perspectives to Critical Literacy on which
definitions and practices of Critical Literacy are based include the following (Vasquez
in Oxford Research Encyclopedias: Education, 2017):

3.1 Feminist poststructuralist theories

These theories explore relationships between language, sociology, subjectivity and

power-relations as they affect gender, specifically (Wikipedia – Post-structuralism).

3.2 Post-colonial theories

Post-colonial theories examine the culture of former colonies of European empires and
often address the problems and consequences of the decolonisation of a country. It
raises issues such as racism and exploitation (Hart & Goldie, 1993, p. 155).

3.3 Critical race theory

It is a theory that race is a socially constructed concept created by white people to

maintain the interests of the white population. It was inspired by the American civil
rights movement (Encyclopaedia Britannica – Critical Race Theory).

3.4 Critical linguistics and critical discourse analysis (CDA)

The study of how using language contributes to the domination and unequal power
relations between people through the connection between language and society. CDA
views language as a form of social practice. We will examine CDA in more detail as a
tool for developing Critical Literacy skills and practices later in this module.

3.5 Cultural, critical media literacy

Critical media literacy involves developing skills to analyse messages and codes in
media, to recognise and criticise stereotypes, dominant values and ideologies and to
read multiple and hidden messages in media texts. Media literacy teaches the analysis,
evaluation, deconstruction and reconstruction of media forms (Kellner & Share, 2005).

3.6 Queer theory

Queer theory is the study of how individuals that do not fall within the standard social
practices of society regarding sexual orientation and identification are marginalised. It
is a lens through which to examine these social ideals and norms, how these norms
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came into being and why. “Queer theory holds that individual sexuality is a fluid,
fragmented, and dynamic collectivity of possible sexualities and it may vary at different
points during one’s life” (Tyson, 2006).

3.7 Place-conscious pedagogy

Place-based education has an ecological emphasis that calls for localised social
action. “A critical pedagogy of place ultimately encourages teachers and students to
re-inhabit their places, that is, to pursue the kind of social action that improves the
social and ecological life of places, near and far, now and in the future” (Gruenewald,
2003, p. 7). Place-conscious pedagogy calls on teachers to expand school experience
to foster “connection, exploration, and action” in socio-ecological places outside of the
classroom (Gruenenwald, 2003, p. 9).

3.8 Critical sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology

According to the Society for Linguistic Anthropology, linguistic anthropology is the

interdisciplinary study of how language influences social life. It explores how language
shapes communication, forms social identity and group membership, organises large-
scale cultural beliefs and ideologies, and develops a common cultural representation
of natural and social worlds (Wikipedia – Linguistic Anthropology).

In summary, Vasquez (as cited by Oxford Research Encyclopedias: Education, 2017)

writes: “Theoretical tool kits, or combinations of such theories have resulted in different
orientations to critical literacy. As such it is viewed as a concept, a framework, or
perspective for teaching and learning, a way of being in the classroom, and a stance
or attitude toward literacy work in schools.”

Let us explore some places or situations where Critical Literacy could be positioned
inside and outside of school.

120 minutes
3
1. Identify which of the viewpoints or perspective to Critical Literacy, as listed above,
is of interest to you regarding your culture, societal values or family life.
2. Examine how this viewpoint manifests in your culture, community or family
structure.
3. Discuss whether this specific viewpoint or perspective could enable you to
practice and develop your Critical Literacy skillset regarding what you have
learned thus far in this module.
4. Which of the viewpoints or perspectives are regarded as taboo in your society?
Can you identify reasons why? Are these reasons still valid and appropriate in
society today? Why do you say so?
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4. DIFFERENT SITES OR PLACES TO POSITION

CRITICAL LITERACY
4.1 Identity

We all make sense of the world and take part in the world from our subjective viewpoint,
according to Ira Shor (1990). Critical Literacy enables us to see what our subjective
viewpoint is and how we came to have this specific viewpoint (our bias). Shor (1990,
p. 3) writes the following on identity:
“Essentially, then, critical literacy is language use that questions the social
construction of the self. When we are critically literate, we examine our ongoing
development, to reveal the subjective positions from which we make sense of
the world and act in it.”

Hilary Janks (2018) wrote that your identity will determine how you react to texts. She
further stated that the communities in which we live and the discourses we use shape
our identity. Janks (2018, p. 97) describes discourse as: “… an abstract concept that
allows us to see patterns in texts. These patterns help us to recognize texts as
particular ways of speaking and writing within different discourse communities. Identity
becomes the basis for how people respond to texts.”

This quote points out the influence that our social structures, our communities and the
stories we grow with have in shaping our identity and determine how we react to texts.
Critical Literacy could help us to identify these influences and understand how they
affect our identities.

To illustrate this point, if I tell you that I was born to a Zimbabwean mother and an
English father but raised by my mother and South African step-father in Zimbabwe and
South Africa, that I also spent time in Zambia while growing up, that I was influenced
by Zulu migrant workers as an adolescent, that my musical influences were that of
township bands, and that I have been nominated for a Grammy Award for Best World
Music Album, what mental picture do you have of my identity? Does your mental
picture look like this?

Photo 5: Johnny Clegg

Source: http://www.johnnyclegg.com/biog.html
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The identity described above is that of Johnny Clegg, celebrated South African singer,
songwriter, anthropologist and musical activist. His hits songs Impi, Great Heart, The
Crossing, Scatterlings of Africa and many others have become national anthems. The
social structures in which he grew up and the exposure he received from his musician
mother and journalist stepfather exposed him to a broader cultural perspective than
what was available to his peers at the time.

Sadly, Johnny Clegg passed away on July 16, 2019, at age 66 from pancreatic cancer.
He leaves behind a legacy of racial integration and equality.

According to Anna Da Fina (2013) in her research on identity studies, several types of
identities include the following:

1. Individual identity (Mpho Matodzi – personal and social distinctive identity):

1.1 Personal identity (unique moral and physical attributes); and
1.2 Social identity (belongs to a race, gender, political group).
2. Collective identities (Africans, Muslims – group structure).
3. Situational identities (roles in specific contexts – parent/child, student/teacher, or
doctor/patient).

Critical Literacy must be “a catalyst to developing a curious mind that wants to

investigate, understand, solve problems, understand ideologies, understand text and
understand the world” (Luke, 2000, p. 449). He continues that “critical literacy shifts
your focus away from the ‘self’ in critical reading to the interpretation of texts in different
environmental and cultural contexts” (Luke, 2000, p. 451). This situates Critical
Literacy in the formation of your identity.

120 minutes
4
Study the following example that can be found in the recommended reading:

“Doing Critical Literacy: Text and activities for teachers and students” by Janks et al.
(2014) and complete the diagram on your identity positions. Then answer the
questions below.

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Sometimes
Thembi finds
that her
identities clash.
For example,
from her school
and in her
student
organisation she
learns about
equal rights for
women.

At home, she is
expected to
behave like a
traditional Zulu
daughter and
help her mother
serve the men.

Source: Doing Critical Literacy: Text and activities for students and teachers (2014)

Questions:
1. Can you give examples of conflicting demands made by your different social
positions?
2. Can you give examples from other people you know?
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3. In which of your identities do you feel powerful? Why?

4. In which do you feel powerless? Why?

Commentary:
You could also find examples based on characters from literature.

4.2 Text

As detailed in Section 1 of this unit, text in literacy studies was defined as any message
that can be read. This includes printed books, magazines and comic books, video,
websites, advertising, street signs, maps, music, social media messages including
WhatsApp and SMS.

According to Allan Luke, Critical Literacy examines the relationship between

representation, text, writing, discourse, image and experience of the world in which we
live. It is about making sense of the text to find your way to what is really going on in
the world. When you read text, you are reading different versions of the world. Critical
Literacy enables us to recognise the dangers of the “domination of disinformation”
(Luke, 2000). Critical literacy is thus about learning how to talk and debate around text.

According to Vasquez (2017), there is no such thing as a specific Critical Literacy text.
Rather, there are texts through which critical literacies could be developed and
practised. As previously explained, reading the word and the world entails that the
world can be read, from a Critical Literacy perspective, as text. Any material that is of
interest in the lives of learners could be used to develop a Critical Literacy perspective.
Using real-life events and socio-political agendas such as race, gender, social class
and power relations all hold the opportunity to develop a Critical Literacy perspective.

As an example of using a real-life event for developing a Critical Literacy perspective,

Hilary Janks (2014) studied a radio advertisement requesting the listeners to save
water due to the water shortage in South Africa at the time. She examined how bottled
water could be read as text from a Critically Literate perspective regarding this issue.

180 minutes
5
Read the 7-page article by Hilary Janks that appeared in the Journal of Adolescent
& Adult Literacy 57(5), February 2014. She used a case study on bottled water to
illustrate what Critical Literacy looks like in the classroom.

Critical Literacy’s Ongoing Importance for Education by Hilary Janks.

http://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10539/18124/JANKS%2C%20H.%
20%282014%29.%20Critical%20literacy%27s%20ongoing%20....pdf?sequence=
1&isAllowed=y

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Summary of the article:

Teachers must develop “the dispositions, discursive resources and the
repertoires of practice to do critical literacy work in classrooms”
(Comber, 2006, p. 51). They, therefore, must be able to do the following
five steps. These five moves will be illustrated with an example that
focuses on an issue raised by a radio advertisement currently airing in
South Africa, in cursive. The advertisement urges listeners to conserve
water.

1. Make connections between something that is going on in the

world and their students’ lives, where the world can be as small
as the classroom or as large as the international stage. It is
disturbing because it reminds those of us who take water for
granted of the many people who do not have access to piped
water. Water conservation connects with work in the natural and
human sciences, social studies, and the subject that in South
Africa is called life orientation. The hook that I would use to
engage students with these issues would be a different kind of
water elitism: the marketing and consumption of bottled water.

2. Consider what students should know and where they could find
the information. Information on water as a scarce resource, as
well as ideas for how to conserve it, is readily available on the
Internet. Much of the scientific information is written in accessible
language and is easy to read.

3. Explore how the problem is instantiated in texts and practices by

a careful examination of design choices and peoples’ behaviour.
The labels on bottled water lend themselves to critique and
redesign. Students should look at how the verbal and visual
designs position the texts differently and how they work to
position consumers.

4. Examine who benefits and who is disadvantaged by imagining

the social effects of what is going on and of its representation/s.
By now, the students have enough information to consider the
impact that drinking bottled water has on the environment. They
could consider the question of who really needs bottled water but
lacks access to it.

5. Imagine possibilities for making a positive difference. This step is

a really important part of critical literacy. It takes us beyond
deconstructing or problematising the world by inviting students to

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intervene in ways that make a positive difference. Education has

a responsibility to develop students’ sense of agency.

This commentary was designed to explore an approach to literacy education that

is willing to examine relations of power, specifically how they determine who gets
access to valued resources and who is denied access. One way of understanding
power is to read texts critically to see how they were constructed, whose interests
are served, and how they work to produce our identities.

After reading this case study, write down how your views on bottled water regarding
the water crises in South Africa have changed. Make sure that you address the
following questions in your answer:

• Is water a valuable commodity in South Africa? Why?

• Do all South Africans have equal access to water?
• Who or what determines how this resource is distributed and how does this
relate to and influence your understanding of power?
• Has this case study changed the way you view bottled water? In what way?
• The redesign process is an important part of Critical Literacy. Was the
redesign of the labels for bottled water in this case study effective to
communicate awareness on the topic? Can you think of other possible
redesign options to convey a message on bottled water in order to make a
positive difference in your society?

Test yourself by looing at a current advertisement in the newspaper, in a magazine,

an advertisement on radio or on TV. Complete the following five steps based on
this advertisement:

1. Make connections between yourself and something that is going on in the

world.
2. Consider what you should know and where you could find the information.
3. Explore how the problem is instantiated in texts and practices by a careful
examination of design choices and peoples’ behaviour.
4. Examine who benefits and who is disadvantaged by imagining the social
effects of what is going on and of its representation/s.
5. Imagine possibilities for making a positive difference.

You can use these five steps to test how your Critical Literacy skills are developing
at any point during this module. If you are unsure about any of the steps, revisit the
case study by Hilary Janks.

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4.3 Social structures

Social critical theorists first used the term Critical Literacy to understand and identify
social injustice and social inequalities and to determine the impact of unequal power
relationships in societies.

In several parts of the world, Critical Literacy work focussed on various aspects of
social injustice and inequality. Critical Literacy could highlight an unjust government
and social inequalities, as was the case with Paulo Freire’s work in Brazil that we will
look at later in Unit 1. The focus of Critical Literacy could also shift in a social structure
from one issue to another, as can be seen in the work of Hilary Janks in pre- and post-
apartheid South Africa.

Janks (2000) argued that after two democratic elections, the critical literacy project in
South Africa is now necessarily different and requires a re-imagining of how Critical
Literacy could contribute to reconstruction and development. According to Janks
(2000, p. 175), the Critical Literacy project during apartheid South Africa was mostly
oppositional against the government. In the current South African context, issues of
inequality and injustice are not only anti-government but also include social inequalities
such as racism, sexism, and health policies such as HIV/AIDS.

Another dimension of social structures where a Critically Literacy perspective could be

positioned is in the so-called hidden curriculum. As described by Sibanda (2018), this
is unintended messages sent by text or teachers that could carry harmful connotations
and views about other social groups, cultures, gender roles and social status. Sibanda
wrote that it is often the dominant culture that dictates what is valued. “Society in
general … affect the way children are socialised into a particular way of thinking about,
and behaving towards, themselves and others” (Sibanda, 2018, p. 200).

4.3.1 Stereotyping

As part of the hidden messages, we are exposed to numerous stereotypes. Two

prevailing and prominent stereotypes in society today are that of race and gender.

Sibanda wrote that stereotypes are so normalised that we hardly recognise them for
what they are. Stereotypes are constructed by the dominant social group to exert
power and control over other groups in society. Stereotypes establish a “hierarchy of
power in society” (Sibanda, 2018, p. 204). Stereotypes are passed down from one
generation to the next and establish a sense of place and position for a group. Some
examples of common stereotypes are that blondes are dumb, Jews are sly and selfish,
Nigerians are drug lords, and men are obsessed with beer and cars.

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In South Africa, we have common racial stereotypes that reflect unequal power
relations. Sibanda (2018, p. 205) listed the following:

• The maid stereotype (all black women are maids and that is all that they can
do).
• The heathen stereotype (indigenous beliefs and practices are portrayed as
primitive, superstitious and dangerous).
• The dependent black stereotype (black adults are depicted as being dependent
on white adults).
• The happy native (black people depicted as happy and dignified while living in
poverty).

Here is an example of a satirical cartoon called Madam & Eve, featuring the stingy
Madam Gwen and her savvy but underpaid domestic worker, Eve. The cartoon is a
weekly feature in the Mail and Guardian newspaper. It depicts the maid stereotype with
the maid as a poor black lady in an overall and apron with minimal jewellery, and the
madam as a rich middle-aged white lady with lots of jewellery and styled hair. The
cartoon strip depicted below gives social commentary on the E-Toll issue on South
African roads.

Figure 2: Madam & Eve cartoon

Source: http://personal.ee.surrey.ac.uk/cgi-bin/L.Wood/madam-and-eve-
comic.cgi?shown=5&comic=5583

Common gender stereotypes that focus on gender roles in society include male gender
roles depicting men as strong, dominant in society and intelligent. Male stereotypes
were constructed, according to Sibanda (2018, p. 210), to “explain and justify their
dominance”. Stereotypes of female gender roles reflect the submissive position of
females, and thus, justify why they are dominated by males. They are depicted as
weak, in need of saving and protecting.

Critical Literacy practices help us to identify the hidden curriculum in text, including
stereotyping, and to change the message to be more socially inclusive.

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120 minutes
6
Look at the following screen grab from the website of Italian fashion house Gucci,
advertising new leather sneakers (tekkies) on www.gucci.com.

The sneakers have a vintage or distressed look and cost $870. That is R13 050
per pair at an exchange rate of R15 per $1.

Read the following article on a new fashion trend where Italian fashion houses are
selling dirty-looking shoes, labelling it vintage or distressed. Then study the posts
made on Twitter and answer the questions that follow.

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/gucci-dirty-trainers-screener-
sneakers-mud-twitter-reaction-a8777686.html

Summary of article:
GUCCI SELLING PAIR OF ‘DIRTY’ TRAINERS FOR £615 AND THE
INTERNET IS CONFUSED

The Italian fashion house describes the off-white men’s leather trainers
as vintage, distressed and that the style references old school shapes
on its website.

The Screener trainers, as they are called, come in a range of colours, all
of which feature the same scruffy aesthetic. But the shoes have sparked
a furore on Twitter, with critics accusing Gucci of “commercialising
poverty” and describing the trainers as an example of “peak capitalism”.
The luxury fashion label also sells a pair of tennis shoes, dubbed the
Rhyton, with a similar “distressed” off-white appearance. Both shoes form
part of a rising trend for dirty-looking shoes.

In September last year, Italian shoe brand Golden Goose came under fire
for a pair of its trainers that looked as if they were taped-up with duct tape.
The shoes cost $530 (£400) and were accused of “glorifying poverty”.
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Source: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/gucci-dirty-trainers-
screener-sneakers-mud-twitter-reaction-a8777686.html

Questions:
1. What social inequality is highlighted in this article and the Twitter comments?
2. In your opinion, do these distressed shoes glorify poverty? Why do you say so?
3. Do you find it disrespectful against the poor? Explain your answer.
4. Are dirty shoes a stereotypical symbol of poverty? Explain your answer.
5. Who is excluded or marginalised by these vintage shoes?
6. How would you redesign the dirty shoes campaign to be more inclusive of all
groups in society?

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4.4 Power and authority

Fajardo (2016) wrote that a key feature of Critical Literacy is the examination of the
politics behind the creation of texts. This could be examined by considering what the
writer’s purpose might be, the assumptions and factors shaping an author’s viewpoints
and the possible economic, political and social interests that a writer upholds (Shor,
1999).

In Section 2.3 on social structures above, we briefly looked at how the dominant culture
or group in society exerts its power by determining what is of value and what is
desirable. In society, the ruling party or organisation or a powerful group often oppress
other groups and deny them the chance to develop and take their place in society. We
also looked at stereotyping as a way of exerting power over others that are not from
the same social group, race or gender.

In text, by using specific language, the writer includes or excludes certain groups in
society to create a sense of group identity. This group identity could be reinforced with
group slogans, symbols or salutes. This could all create a sense of community and
could call to action this community towards a communal goal.

Using direct or indirect language in text could also determine the levels of power and
authority between the reader and the writer. According to Janks (1993), in English, we
tend to speak to a person with more authority with less direct speech. You would use
more questioning phrases and be more hesitant, less sure. Here are some examples
of ways in which text could create levels of power and authority by using a command,
a request, a suggestion or a hint:

1. You must assist me now!

2. Will you please assist me?
3. It would be wonderful if you could assist me.
4. I am in need of assistance.

Language could also be used to include members of a community in a group to which

they do not wish to belong (Janks, 1993). Using words such as our, we and us in-text
could include a reader in the writer’s opinion, viewpoint or societal group without the
reader being uncomfortable with the inclusion. According to Janks (1993), it is
important to question the right of the writer to speak on behalf of anyone else, be it a
group or another individual. The reader could either choose to leave the social group
to which they belong, or they could choose to stay in the group but to change the image
of the group and their social identity within the group.

The Black Consciousness movement of the 70s apartheid South Africa is a good
example of a social group changing their social identity and how felt about their group.

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Here follows an excerpt of Steve Biko talking to the judge at the SASO/BPC trial in
1976 (Janks, 1993, p. 10):

Biko: I think that the slogan ‘black is beautiful’ is serving a very important aspect
of our attempt to get at our humanity. You are challenging the very root of the
black man's belief about himself. When you say ‘black is beautiful’ what in fact
you are saying to him is: man, you are okay as you are, begin to look upon
yourself as a human being. In a sense the term ‘black is beautiful’ challenges
exactly that belief which makes someone negate himself…

Judge: Now, why do you refer to your people as ‘black’?

Biko: Historically, we have been defined as black people, and when we reject
the term non-white and we take upon ourselves the right to call ourselves what
we think we are, we choose this one precisely because we feel it is most
accommodating.
Steve Biko. SASO/BPC Trial, May 1976.

The Black Consciousness movement helped people to recognise and accept their skin
colour as something valuable and a heritage of which to be proud.

4.4.1 Censorship

Censorship is how the governing party could exert its authority in society. When we
hear the word censorship, we think of books being banned as a way of silencing an
oppositional voice. The apartheid government silenced the voice of the anti-apartheid
writers to hide the truth about apartheid from the general population and to try to isolate
its people to prevent uprisings.

Books with a taboo subject matter and unsuitable language are deemed defamatory
or go against a ruling party’s ideas are still being silenced today. Be it through public
book burnings, protests or lawsuits against authors, censorship is still alive.

A recent example in South Africa was the multiple lawsuits filed against investigative
journalist Jacques Pauw for his book The President’s Keepers in which he names
various prominent South African figures as agents of corruption in the Zuma regime.
Another book, Gangster State by Pieter-Louis Myburgh was received with public
protests at its launch in Johannesburg in April 2019. The book makes allegations of
corruption against the ruling party, the ANC’s Secretary-General, Ace Magashule.
According to news reports, protesters drowned out the discussion with singing and
shouting and they ripped copies of the book before security arrived on the scene.

Critical Literacy education allows us to question what we accept as normal in our

society and look for ways to make our society more equitable-and-just by using
language and texts. Critical literacy is about “tuning up your understanding of how
language works, and how it can try to position and manipulate you” (Luke 2000, p.
452).
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120 minutes
7
Study the following photograph of President Nelson Mandela. He was often
photographed with this hand gesture of a raised fist.

Source: Getty Images

Questions:
1. What does this hand gesture mean to you?
2. How does this hand gesture symbolise power and authority?
3. Who is it intended for? The opposition or his own social group?
4. What hand gestures are used in your culture or community?
5. What power and authority do these hand gestures symbolise in your culture or
community?
6. How can these hand gestures be changed to be more socially inclusive?

Please complete the reflection activity below to ensure that you fully understand this
section.

90 minutes
8
Reflect on the several places/situations where Critical Literacy comes into play, as
listed in the section above.

Think of your life regarding the places listed, and how Critical Literacy could be
situated in your life.

1. How could being Critically Literate in a post-apartheid South Africa work for you?
2. Now think of your family, friends, colleagues and students. Can you identify
places in their lives where Critical Literacy could be situated? How could being
Critically Literate in a post-apartheid South Africa be of value to them?

Commentary:
This exercise should help you to identify and personalise the concept of Critical
Literacy in your life and the lives of your neighbours.

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SECTION 3: THE LINK BETWEEN CRITICAL LITERACY

AND CRITICAL THINKING

1. INTRODUCTION
The roots of critical thinking can be traced back 2 500 years ago to the studies and
teachings of Socrates. He established the importance of probing questions to examine
thinking before ideas could be accepted as truth worthy of belief.

Socrates’ probing questions are known today as Socratic questioning and are the
best-known critical thinking teaching strategy. This method includes seeking evidence,
closely examining reasoning and assumptions, analysing basic concepts, and tracing
implications of what is said and done (The Foundation for Critical Thinking).

Plato and the ancient Greek sceptics followed the teachings of Socrates, agreeing that
things are not always what they seem to be on the surface. They emphasised that it
takes a trained mind to see past the appearance of things to the deeper underlying
meaning. The ancient Greek tradition brought forth a need to understand underlying
realities beyond only what is apparent on the surface to be able to think systematically,
comprehensively, broadly and deeply (The Foundation for Critical Thinking).

A brief history of critical thinking is available on the website of The Foundation for
Critical Thinking.

2. DEFINING CRITICAL THINKING

The definition of critical thinking according to the Oxford University Dictionary is “the
objective analysis and evaluation of an issue in order to form a judgement”.

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This bronze sculpture called “The Thinker” was

created in 1902 by Auguste Rodin. It depicts a
man sitting on a stone with his chin resting on his
hand. He has a pensive, earnest expression and
his eyes stare ahead as if deep in thought. It is
often used as a symbol or image for critical
thinking.

Source: Getty Images

There are numerous academic, business, social and entrepreneurial books available
on critical thinking. It is widely accepted as an educational goal and is included in
guidelines for curriculum and assessment development around the world.

As published in the Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, the roots of critical thinking

can be traced back to the work of John Dewey (1910). Dewey referred to a scientific
way of thinking as “reflective thinking” that he defined as “active, persistent and careful
consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds
that support it and the further conclusions to which it tends” (Dewey 1910, p. 6; 1933,
p. 9). We will examine Dewey’s teachings later in this module.

Hitchcock (2018) sums up critical thinking as “careful goal-directed thinking” to make

up your mind about something accurately and sufficiently in line with certain standards.

In contrast to critical thinking, when you accept an idea immediately as a solution to a

problem, Dewey calls the thinking process “uncritical thinking” (Dewey, 1910, p. 13).
Hitchcock (2018) lists the following examples of “uncritical thinking”:

• Jumping immediately to conclusions;

• Suspending judgement, no matter how strong the evidence;
• Reasoning from an unquestioned ideological or religious perspective; and
• Routinely using an algorithm to answer a question.

It is important to understand that concepts of critical thinking do not necessarily include

moral integrity. Dewey described critical thinking as an intellectual goal, not a moral
goal. The concept of critical thinking is separate from moral goals such as social
cooperation, dignity and empathy. Critical thinking as an intellectual goal should go
hand-in-hand with moral goals to create a safe and equal society.

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3. HOW DOES CRITICAL THINKING FIT INTO CRITICAL

LITERACY
Critical thinking as described in Section 2 above is a skill that could be developed. It
forms a crucial part of a learner’s Critical Literacy toolkit or set of skills because it
provides the basis for understanding the writer’s intentions and the validity of
arguments in the text.

According to Fajardo (2016), Critical Literacy goes beyond critical thinking because it
requires the reader to examine the ideological representations in texts. Fajardo listed
the following questions that help the reader to examine the writer’s ideologies, based
on work by Critical Literacy scholars (Cervetti, Pardales, & Damico, 2001):

• Whose representations and ideologies are dominant in each time and culture?
• How are dominant assumptions perpetuated?
• Who benefits and who is marginalised in the perpetuation of these
assumptions?
• How can inequitable representations be reconstructed?

Critical thinking is a building block of Critical Literacy. Without critical thinking, you
cannot develop your Critical Literacy skillset. One of the tools available to develop
higher-order thinking, which is a requirement for critical thinking and Critical Literacy,
is the Taxonomy of Bloom.

The next section describes Bloom’s Taxonomy.

4. HIGHER ORDER THINKING: BLOOM’S TAXONOMY

To decide what level of thinking is required to complete a task, Benjamin Bloom, an
American educational psychologist, developed a way to categorise several levels of
critical reasoning skills. His categorisation includes six levels, each one requiring a
higher level of thought. As your critical thinking skills develop, you should ideally move
up in the taxonomy as your knowledge progresses. In Bloom’s opinion, teachers should
aim to develop thinking minds, not parrots that can merely memorise and repeat what
they were taught. Bloom’s Taxonomy consists of six levels of thinking, namely
knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation.

After 60 years of using Bloom’s taxonomy, some educators began to question if the
taxonomy was still valid in a world where a lot of development has taken place on
human thinking and learning. One of those educators was Lorin Anderson, a former
student of Benjamin Bloom. Anderson and Krathwohl (2001) revised Bloom’s original
taxonomy by proposing a new, updated taxonomy that would better suit the needs of
educators and students of the 21st Century. Anderson modified the original terminology
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by changing Bloom’s categories from nouns to verbs, because she viewed thinking as
an active process. Anderson renamed the knowledge category into remember because
knowledge is a result or a product of thinking, not a type of thinking on its own.
Comprehension and synthesis was changed into understanding and create
respectively, in order to better reflect the nature of the thinking in each category. The
order of synthesis and evaluate was also changes and create was placed at the top of
the triangle as the highest order of thinking.

Thus, Anderson and Krathwohl’s (2001) revised Bloom’s taxonomy, as depicted in the
figure below, became: Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyse, Evaluate and Create.

Figure 3: The Revised Bloom's Taxonomy by Anderson and Krathwohl (2001)

Source: https://thesecondprinciple.com/essential-teaching-skills/blooms-taxonomy-
revised/

The revised levels of Bloom’s taxonomy by Anderson and Krathwohl (2011) are
addressed in various other modules in the SANTS curriculum, and you may encounter
it again during the course of your studies. Mostly, where referring to Bloom’s taxonomy
the Anderson model is used. In order to avoid confusion, we will also use the revised
terms.

Bloom’s Taxonomy forms a building block of Critical Literacy in a way that develops
critical thinking and reasoning skills. These skills are a prerequisite to becoming
Critically Literate. Without critical thinking, Critical Literacy cannot be developed and
achieved.

Here follows a brief description of each level of the revised Bloom’s Taxonomy by
Anderson and Krathwohl (2011), and how it relates to Critical Literacy:

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4.1 Remember

This level of comprehension evaluates the basic understanding of the concepts and
facts of the text. You are asking knowledge questions when you use words such as
who, what, where, when, tell, show, and list.

4.2 Understand

The comprehension level of Bloom's Taxonomy requires going past recalling basic
facts and requires an understanding of the information. This level was renamed
“understanding” in a later adaptation of the taxonomy. At this level, an interpretation of
the facts is required.

Comprehension questions are recognised by keywords such as compare, contrast,

demonstrate, interpret, explain, extend, illustrate, and outline.

4.3 Apply

At this level, you could be asked to solve a problem or create a solution with the
information gained in the text. Application questions are questions requiring using the
knowledge that was attained. Keywords for application questions to apply are: build,
choose, develop, interview, make use of, experiment with, solve, and use.

4.4 Analyze

This level of understanding requires an examination and investigation of a problem

based on the information and experience gained from the previous levels of Bloom’s
Taxonomy. You are required to go beyond the knowledge and application of the text.
Keywords of analysis questions are: analyse, categorise, classify, compare, contrast,
discover, dissect, divide, examine, inspect, simplify, survey, test for, distinguish,
distinction, theme, relationships, function, motive, inference, conclusion, or take part
in.

4.5 Evaluate

Evaluation calls for the assessment of information and concluding based on the facts
presented. Evaluation questions include words such as conclude, criticise, decide,
defend, determine, dispute, evaluate, judge, justify, measure, compare, mark, rate,
recommend, rule on, select, agree, appraise, prioritise, opinion, interpret, support
importance, criteria, prove, disprove, assess, influence, perceive, and value.

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4.6 Create

At this level in Bloom’s Taxonomy, new theories or predictions could be made using
given facts. Later adaptations of the taxonomy have renamed this level as “connect”.
Knowledge from different subjects could be combined to come to a conclusion.
Synthesis questions can be recognised by the following keywords: build, choose,
combine, compile, compose, construct, create, design, develop, estimate, formulate,
imagine, invent, make up, originate, plan, predict, propose, solve, solution, suppose,
discuss, modify, change, original, improve, adapt, minimise, maximise, theorise,
elaborate, test, happen, delete words like select, judge, debate or recommend.

The University of Northampton in the UK developed the following model based on the
original levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy for its students to track their development of
critical thinking. It depicts the six stages of thinking, as described by Bloom, with
modern renaming, as well as a summary of each stage. By having this model at hand
while studying text, you can pinpoint at what level your thinking is regarding a certain
subject or task, and track the development and growth of your critical thinking abilities.
This is a step towards becoming Critically Literate.

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Figure 4: Critical Thinking: Bloom’s Taxonomy

Source: https://skillshub.northampton.ac.uk/critical-thinking/

120 minutes
9
Read the following text, and then reflect on the questions that follow below.

NOV 19, 2018

Meet J. Allen Hynek, the Astronomer Who First Classified UFO 'Close
Encounters'

When the U.S. government tapped the academic to help investigate UFOs, he was
initially a skeptic. But not for long.

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By GREG DAUGHERTY

It’s September 1947, and the U.S. Air Force has a problem. A rash of reports
about mysterious objects in the skies has the public on edge and the military
baffled. The Air Force needs to figure out what’s going on—and fast. It
launches an investigation it calls Project Sign. By early 1948 the team realizes
it needs some outside expertise to sift through the reports it’s receiving—
specifically an astronomer who can determine which cases are easily
explained by astronomical phenomena, such as planets, stars or meteors.

For J. Allen Hynek, then the 37-year-old director at Ohio State University’s
McMillin Observatory, it would be a classic case of being in the right place at
the right time—or, as he may have occasionally lamented, the wrong place at
the wrong one.

The adventure begins

Hynek had worked for the government during the war, developing new
defense technologies like the first radio-controlled fuse, so he already had a
high security clearance and was a natural go-to. “One day I had a visit from
several men from the technical center at Wright-Patterson Air Force base,
which was only 60 miles away in Dayton,” Hynek later wrote. “With some
obvious embarrassment, the men eventually brought up the subject of ‘flying
saucers’ and asked me if I would care to serve as consultant to the Air Force
on the matter… The job didn't seem as though it would take too much time, so
I agreed.” Little did Hynek realize that he was about to begin a lifelong odyssey
that would make him one of the most famous and, at times, controversial
scientists of the 20 century. Nor could he have guessed how much his own
thinking about UFOs would change over that period as he persisted in bringing
rigorous scientific inquiry to the subject.

“I had scarcely heard of UFOs in 1948 and, like every other scientist I knew,
assumed that they were nonsense,” he recalled. Project Sign ran for a year,
during which the team reviewed 237 cases. In Hynek’s final report, he noted
that about 32 percent of incidents could be attributed to astronomical
phenomena, while another 35 percent had other explanations, such as
balloons, rockets, flares or birds. Of the remaining 33 percent, 13 percent
didn’t offer enough evidence to yield an explanation. That left 20 percent that
provided investigators with some evidence but still couldn’t be explained. The
Air Force was loath to use the term “unidentified flying object,” so the
mysterious 20 percent were simply classified as “unidentified.”

In February 1949, Project Sign was succeeded by Project Grudge. While Sign
offered at least a pretence of scientific objectivity, Grudge seems to have been

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dismissive from the start, just as its angry-sounding name suggests. Hynek,
who played no role in Project Grudge, said it “took as its premise that UFOs
simply could not be.” Perhaps not surprisingly, its report, issued at the end of
1949, concluded that the phenomena posed no danger to the United States,
having resulted from mass hysteria, deliberate hoaxes, mental illness or
conventional objects that the witnesses had misinterpreted as otherworldly. It
also suggested the subject wasn’t worth further study.

Project Blue Book is born

That might’ve been the end of it. But UFO incidents continued, including some
puzzling reports from the Air Force’s own radar operators. The national media
began treating the phenomenon more seriously; LIFE magazine did a 1952
cover story, and even the widely respected TV journalist Edward R.
Murrow devoted a program to the topic, including an interview with Kenneth
Arnold, a pilot whose 1947 sighting of mysterious objects over Mount Rainier
in Washington state popularized the term “flying saucer.” The Air Force had
little choice but to revive Project Grudge, which soon morphed into the more
benignly named Project Blue Book.

Hynek joined Project Blue Book in 1952 and would remain with it until its
demise in 1969. For him, it was a side gig as he continued to teach and to
pursue other, non-UFO research, at Ohio State. In 1960 he moved to
Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, to chair its astronomy
department. As before, Hynek’s role was to review the reports of UFO
sightings and determine whether there was a logical astronomical explanation.
Typically that involved a lot of unglamorous paperwork; but now and then, for
an especially puzzling case, he had a chance to get out into the field.

There he discovered something he might never have learned from simply

reading the files: how normal the people who reported seeing UFOs tended to
be. “The witnesses I interviewed could have been lying, could have been
insane or could have been hallucinating collectively—but I do not think so,” he
recalled in his 1977 book, The Hynek UFO Report. “Their standing in the
community, their lack of motive for perpetration of a hoax, their own
puzzlement at the turn of events they believe they witnessed, and often their
great reluctance to speak of the experience — all lend a subjective reality to
their UFO experience.”

For the rest of his life Hynek would deplore the ridicule that people who
reported a UFO sighting often had to endure — which, in turn, caused untold
numbers of others to never come forward. It wasn’t just unfair to the individuals
involved, but meant a loss of data that might be useful to researchers. “Given
the controversial nature of the subject, it’s understandable that both scientists
and witnesses are reluctant to come forward,” says Jacques Vallee, co-author
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with Dr. Hynek of The Edge of Reality: A Progress Report on Unidentified

Flying Objects. “Because their life is going to change. There are cases where
their house is broken into. People throw stones at their kids. There are family
crises — divorce and so on … You become the person who has seen
something that other people have not seen. And there is a lot of suspicion
attached to that.”

In the late 1950s, the Air Force faced a more urgent problem than hypothetical
UFOs. On October 4, 1957, the U.S.S.R. surprised the world by
launching Sputnik, the first artificial space satellite — and a serious blow to
Americans’ sense of technological superiority. At that point, Hynek had taken
leave from Ohio State to work on a satellite-tracking system at Harvard, notes
Mark O’Connell in his 2017 biography, The Close Encounters Man. Suddenly
Hynek was on TV and holding frequent press conferences to assure
Americans that their scientists were closely monitoring the situation.

On October 21, 1957, he appeared on the cover of LIFE with his boss, the
Harvard astronomer Fred Whipple, and their colleague Don Lautman. It was
his first taste of the national celebrity, but wouldn’t be the last. With Sputnik
circling the earth every 98 minutes, often visible to the naked eye, many
Americans began looking skyward, and UFO sightings continued unabated.

Source: https://www.history.com/news/j-allen-hynek-ufos-project-blue-book

Questions:
1. Based on the model depicted in Figure 4: Critical Thinking: Bloom’s Taxonomy,
pinpoint your level of thinking in terms of the text. Motivate your answer.
2. Do you think the levels of thinking of this model (Figure 4) are relevant today,
although it is based on the original Bloom’s taxonomy?
3. In your opinion, should evaluate (original Bloom’s Taxonomy) or create
(Anderson model) be the highest level of thinking? Is it applicable to this text?
4. Expand on your answer in question 3.

Another tool that could be used to develop critical thinking skills is SOLO taxonomy.

5. SOLO TAXONOMY
The abbreviation SOLO in SOLO taxonomy stands for Structure of Observed Learning
Outcomes, and taxonomy is again a classification or arrangement. SOLO Taxonomy
was developed in 1982 by Biggs and Collis as an alternative to Bloom’s Taxonomy.

It is a model of observed learning outcomes that describes five hierarchical levels of

complexity in students’ understanding of subjects. It is a way of describing how levels
of understanding develop from simple to complex understanding of subjects and tasks.
In the classroom, the learner’s response will indicate if they can create new and
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different ideas and if they can conceptualise beyond the scope of what has been
taught.

SOLO taxonomy differs from Bloom’s taxonomy in that SOLO Taxonomy is based on
the learners’ understanding when asked certain questions, while Bloom separates
knowledge from the processes or abilities that operate within this knowledge.

The following figure depicts the hierarchical structure of SOLO Taxonomy.

Figure 5: Solo Taxonomy

Source: http://thepeakperformancecenter.com/educational-
learning/thinking/blooms-taxonomy/solo-taxonomy/

SOLO Taxonomy consists of five levels of understanding, namely:

1. Pre-structural: Nothing is known about the task.

2. Unistructural: One relevant aspect is known.
3. Multi-structural: Several relevant independent aspects are known.
4. Relational: Aspects of knowledge are integrated into a structure.
5. Extended abstract: Knowledge is generalised into a new domain.

The next figure depicts SOLO Taxonomy with questioning keywords at each level of
understanding of the subject or task.

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Figure 6: The Five Levels of Solo Taxonomy

Source: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Subgroups-of-the-SOLO-
taxonomy_fig1_267744756

Here follows an explanation of each of the five levels of SOLO Taxonomy:

5.1 Pre-structural level

At this level, the subject matter or text is not understood. Only bits of unrelated
information are understood.

In the classroom, the learner’s response will show no understanding and will miss the
point of the subject or task.

5.2 Unistructural level

Basic understanding of the subject or task is displayed. Obvious connections are made
regarding the subject matter or task but broader implications are missed.

In the classroom, the learner’s response will show a concrete understanding of the
subject or task but only regarding one aspect.

5.3 Multi-structural level

This level sees learners understanding various aspects of the subject matter or task.
The relationship between some aspects might be understood but the significance of
the whole is missed.
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In the classroom, the response of the learner will treat the aspects that they understand
as separate from each other.

5.4 Relational level

The learner can understand the relation of all the various parts to the whole of the
subject or task. All the ideas and concepts are linked and understood regarding the
whole of the subject or task.

In the classroom, the learner can connect all the aspects of the subject or task and the
whole concept.

5.5 Extended abstract level

This level enables the learner to understand connections in the given subject or task,
also to make connections beyond it. They should be able to use what they have learned
in one subject and apply it to other and new subjects that they encounter.

Regarding Critical Literacy, the extended abstract level is required in Critical Literacy
to analyse and understand a subject, task or text and to redesign or reconstruct this
subject, task or text to be more socially just and inclusive.

6. CONCLUSION
In conclusion, this unit described how critical thinking is a building block of Critical
Literacy. By using different taxonomies, including Bloom’s Taxonomy and SOLO
Taxonomy, to develop cognitive skills and levels of understanding, you can track and
develop your higher-order thinking skills. In doing so, you are developing your Critical
Literacy skillset.

Complete the following activity, based on what you have learned about Bloom’s
Taxonomy and SOLO Taxonomy.

120 minutes
10
Read the following article on Climate Change. Then answer the questions below.
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/what-is-climate-change-definition-causes-effects

Summary of the article:

What is climate change? The definition, causes and effects
Climate change is the catch-all term for the shift in worldwide weather
phenomena associated with an increase in global average temperatures.
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It is real and temperatures have been rising around the world for many
decades.

While this temperature increase is more specifically referred to as global

warming, climate change is the term currently favoured by science
communicators, as it explicitly includes not only Earth’s increasing global
average temperature but also the climate effects caused by this increase.

What are the effects of climate change?

The effects of anthropogenic – human-caused – climate change range
from more frequent and severe droughts to snowstorms and extreme
winter weather in temperate regions because of warming Arctic weather
fronts.
Not only humans are affected. Climate change also has economic and
socio-political effects. We are already seeing the first climate refugees as
people are displaced by rising sea levels, melting Arctic permafrost and
other extreme weather.

What are the causes of climate change?

We are. While a wide range of natural phenomena could radically affect
the climate, publishing climate scientists overwhelmingly agree that
global warming and resultant climate effects that we are witnessing are
because of human activity.
Life on Earth is dependent on an atmospheric “greenhouse” – a layer of
gasses, primarily water vapour, in the lower atmosphere that trap heat
from the sun as it is reflected from the Earth, radiating it back and keeping
our planet at a temperature capable of supporting life.

Human activity is currently generating an excess of long-lived

greenhouse gasses that – unlike water vapour – do not dissipate in
response to temperature increases, resulting in a continuing build-up of
heat.

Why is climate denial a thing?

For many years, oil companies were heavily invested in pushing the
narrative that fossil fuels did not influence climate change. To this end,
they bought advertising and funded organisations to cast doubt on
climate change, even while their research conclusively showed that fossil
fuels are a major contributing cause of climate change.

This is still playing out in ongoing lawsuits against oil companies, but even
giants such as Chevron now publicly acknowledge the influence of fossil
fuel use in changing our climate. Now, their key defence is that it is the

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fault of fossil fuel consumers for using it rather than of the companies that
extracted, marketed and profited from oil.

Definition of Climate Change

Nasa defines climate change as “a broad range of global phenomena
created by burning fossil fuels, which add heat-trapping gases to Earth’s
atmosphere. These phenomena include the increased temperature
trends described by global warming, but also encompass changes such
as sea level rise; ice mass loss in Greenland, Antarctica, the Arctic and
mountain glaciers worldwide; shifts in flower/plant blooming; and extreme
weather events”.

Questions:
1. Based on the article that you have just read, write down a list of questions that
could be asked to plot the five levels of understanding as described by SOLO
Taxonomy. Formulate at least two questions per level.

2. Now, track the development of your thinking skills on the topic of climate change
and global warming by using the various levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy. Reflect
on each level and critically analyse your level of comprehension on the topic of
the article.

Before you go on, reflect on what you have learnt so far and complete the self-
assessment activity. If your answer is UNSURE or NO on any of the criteria, go back
to the relevant section to study it again.

90 minutes
11
Self-assessment activity: Unit 1
If your answer is UNSURE or NO on any of the criteria, go back to the relevant
section to study it again.

Now that I have worked through this unit, I YES UNSURE NO

can:
Understand the concept of Critical Literacy by
explaining it.
Be familiar with the terminology of Critical
Literacy to describe the meaning of each
concept.
Explain the relationship between Critical Literacy
and Education.

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Describe the theory underpinning Critical

Literacy and relay different viewpoints/
perspectives to Critical Literacy.
Understand and explain how Critical Literacy
influences identity formation, social structures
and power and authority.
Show an understanding of the concept of critical
thinking by explaining how it links to Critical
Literacy.
Explain how a Taxonomy and SOLO Taxonomy
could be used as tools to develop critical
thinking skills.
Understand and describe the ideologies and
theories shaping Critical Literacy.
Identify and describe the theorists and their
theory that have shaped Critical Literacy in the
past and present day.
Identify and discuss different perspectives of
Critical Literacy.

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UNIT 2: ANALYTICAL TOOLS FOR DEVELOPING

AN ORIENTATION TOWARDS CRITICAL
LITERACY

1. INTRODUCTION
In this unit, several tools will be described that could assist in developing a Critical
Literacy orientation. Firstly, you must be able to critically analyse text. Then you can
continue to use different instructional models for developing Critical Literacy skills.

2. STRUCTURE AND LEARNING OUTCOMES OF UNIT 2

Unit 2 consists of two sections. This unit provides you with the opportunity to work
towards the following learning outcomes:

UNIT 2
ANALYTICAL TOOLS FOR DEVELOPING
CRITICAL LITERACY

SECTION 1
SECTION 2
Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA)
Models for developing Critical
Literacy
Learning outcomes: After you have
studied this section, you should:
Learning outcomes: After you
• demonstrate an understanding of have studied this section, you
the process of critical discourse
should:
analysis as a tool for Critical
Thinking. • demonstrate an understanding
of how the different models for
• use Fairclough’s model for CDA
Critical Literacy work.
in practice.
• interpret text using each of the
Critical Literacy models.

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SECTION 1: CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

1. INTRODUCTION
The word discourse comes from the Latin word dicursus meaning running to and from
(Collins English Dictionary). According to the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary,
discourse means communication in speech or writing, or a speech or piece of writing
about a specific, usually serious subject. Synonyms for discourse include discussion,
interaction, dialogue, debate, and text.

Norman Fairclough, an emeritus Professor of Linguistics at Lancaster University and

one of the founders of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), described the term as
“working towards the development of an analytical framework for studying connections
between language, power and ideology” (Fairclough 1992). In short, this means that
CDA is concerned with how power is exercised through language. It examines the link
between knowledge and power.

CDA is political in its objectives. Discourse is “a mode of action, one form in which
people may act upon the world and especially upon each other, as well as a mode of
representation” (Fairclough, 1992, p. 63). And the word critical, “implies showing
connections and causes which are hidden; it also implies intervention, for example
providing resources for those who may be disadvantaged through change” (Fairclough,
1992, p. 9). According to Janks (1997, p. 2), “where analysis seeks to understand how
discourse is implicated in relations of power, it is called critical discourse analysis”.

CDA is described by Fairclough (1995) as the studies that attend the relationship
between actions and practices. In the next section, we take a closer look at CDA as an
analytical tool for developing critical thinking skills that could form part of the Critical
Literacy skillset.

2. CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS AS AN

ANALYTICAL TOOL
Norman Fairclough (1989) described the term Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) as an
analytical framework. It can be allied to any text. It, therefore, could form part of your
Critical Literacy skillset, which could be used as a lens with every interaction with text.

If every interaction with text could be used as an opportunity for CDA, how do we
determine when research and analysis qualify as CDA? According to Fairclough
(1995), research and analysis count as CDA if it has all the following characteristics:

1. It is not only an analysis of discourse (text) but is part of some form of systematic
transdisciplinary analysis of the relations between discourse and other elements
of the social process.
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2. It includes some form of systematic analysis of text, not only general

commentary on discourse.
3. It is not only descriptive but also normative in addressing social wrongs and
ways of righting or mitigating them.

These three criteria for research and analysis to qualify as CDA links with the
description and concepts of Critical Literacy as described in Unit 1 of this module. It
involves the systematic transdisciplinary analysis of text and the context of the text to
recognise the powers at play and to ultimately change or rewrite the text to contribute
to a more socially just and equal society.

Janks (1997) wrote that Fairclough’s approach to CDA is useful because it gives you
the option to begin with the analysis from various points of entry. The following
questions could help students critically analyse texts that others or they originally
designed for a possible redesign (Janks, 2010; Janks et al., 2014):

• How would the text be different if it were told in another time, place or culture,
or with a different viewpoint?
• Does the text empower or disempower others?
• How else could the text have been designed to promote equity?

Using these three questions in any interaction with text will assist you to view the text
through a Critical Literacy lens and will assist you to develop your Critical Literacy
skillset.

In the next section, we will take a closer look at Norman Fairclough’s model for CDA.

3. FAIRCLOUGH’S MODEL FOR CDA DESCRIBED

Based on his linguistic studies, Fairclough developed a model for CDA using three
dimensions to depict how language could be used as a power-tool to create change
and change behaviour. The model consists of three interrelated processes of analysis
tied to three interrelated dimensions of discourse. In the first publication of his book
Language and Power (Fairclough, 1989), he viewed CDA as an integration of the
following three interrelated processes:

• Analysis of text;
• Analysis of the processes of text production, consumption and distribution; and
• A sociocultural analysis of the discursive event (be it an interview, a scientific
paper, or a conversation) as a whole.

These three interrelated processes are tied to three interrelated dimensions of

discourse namely:

1. Description of the object of analysis (speech, writing, images or a combination

determines an attitude and links a community at text level).
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2. Interpretation of the interaction process and the discursive practice (through the
production of text, language could be a bearer of change. Text is subject to
interpretation and rarely neutral).
3. Explanation of how the interaction relates to social practice (standards of
society, language creates social relationships). Language is a power-tool to
create change and change behaviour.

The following figure depicts Fairclough’s model for CDA.

Figure 7: Fairclough’s Model for CDA

Adapted from Janks (1997, p. 27)

4. USING FAIRCLOUGH’S MODEL FOR CDA IN

PRACTICE
“The new information order is messing with governments’ and corporations’
long-standing relations of control and domination” (Luke, 2011).

This quote by Allan Luke highlights the fact that in today’s digital age with new and
various media, images and texts, Critical Literacy is about learning how these new
modes of communication work and how they are used to assert power. We must adapt
and develop a new way of talking and debating around text.

This is also true regarding using CDA in the classroom. Here follow two examples of
CDA in the digital age.

4.1 Fake News - Twitter

An example of critical discourse in the digital age is the discourse relating to the
press/media’s right to the access and freedom of speech. The usage of the term fake
news (#fakenews) on Twitter and other social media platforms is a threat to freedom
of press and freedom of speech.

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Hilary Janks (2018, p. 98) wrote the following example of CDA and technologies in an
article called “Texts, identities and ethics: Critical literacy in a post-truth world”:

Fake news
For Foucault (1970), discourses are ‘regimes of truth’ and texts are instantiations
of discourse/s. Discourse is an abstract concept that allows us to see patterns in
texts. These patterns help us to recognise texts as particular ways of speaking and
writing within different discourse communities. Since Trump first used the term
fake news as a way of asserting that the media cannot be trusted, its use has
increased 365% according to the Collins Dictionary, which named it their 2017
word of the year (The Independent, 2017). Collins defines fake news as ‘false,
often sensational, information disseminated under the guise of news reporting’.
What Collins fails to recognize is that ‘fake news’ is used differently by different
discourse communities.

Politifact, a non-partisan political fact-checking organization, claims that:

“when Politifact checks fake news, we are calling out fabricated content that
intentionally masquerades as news coverage of actual events. When
President Donald Trump talks about fake news, he means something else
entirely. Instead of fabricated content, Trump uses the term to describe news
coverage that is unsympathetic to his administration and his performance,
even when the news reports are accurate” (Politifact, 2017 as quoted in Janks,
2018, p. 98).

Collins Dictionary gives only the media definition, not the meaning of this term as
an accusation that the news is fake.

Here follows an example of an actual tweet by President Donald Trump on his Twitter
account @realDonaldTrump:

Figure 8: Twitter post by Donal Trump @ realDonaldTrump

Source:
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/994179864436596736?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5
Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E994179864436596736&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2Fpoli
cy-and-politics%2F2018%2F5%2F9%2F17335306%2Ftrump-tweet-twitter-latest-fake-news-credentials

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By using Fairclough’s model for CDA, based on the example of Hilary Janks as
described above, the Tweet by Donald Trump could be analysed as follows:

Table 1: Analysis of a tweet by Donal Trump using Hilary Jank’s example of

CDA
Inter-related Description of the fake Inter-related Description of the
processes of news tweet dimensions of discourse: Fake news
CDA discourse
Analysis of text American President Donald Description of the When President Donald
Trump uses the term fake object of analysis Trump slams negative
news on his Twitter feed to news reports on his Twitter
dismiss negative media feed as being false and
coverage on him and his calls it fake news, he
political campaign as being portrays an attitude of
untrue. He describes the authority and superiority
media as being corrupt and and links his followers to
threatens to take away the this attitude at text level. He
media’s credentials to creates a divide by exerting
punish their perceived his power as the ruling
transgressions. party and manipulates the
press with a bullying tactic
of threatening the media’s
freedom of access and
speech.
Analysis of The tweet is posted on his Interpretation of the The fake news label is not
processes of text personal Twitter account interaction process a neutral statement based
production, @realDonaldTrump where and the discursive on facts, but the opinion of
consumption and he has 63 million followers practice the user, in this case,
distribution from around the globe. The President Donald Trump.
tweet generates 110 000 By typing the Twitter feed
likes and 77 400 comments labelling the media
from his Twitter followers. coverage as fake news, he
The tweet is discussed in is creating an altered reality
newspaper articles and for his followers from his
mentioned on the BBC position of power and
News channel that has an changing the how they view
international audience. the information and the
rights that should be given
to the media. The
discourse of media
freedom and freedom of
speech is relevant here.
Sociocultural The news information that Explanation of how Donald Trump is exerting
analysis of the he dismisses as fake news the interaction his power and influence as
discursive event is not necessarily untrue or relates to social president of the US to
fabricated, it is just practice discredit information that is
personally inconvenient and not aligned with his political
not supportive of his cause agenda. He threatens the
and his political agenda. By media’s freedom of speech
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Inter-related Description of the fake Inter-related Description of the

processes of news tweet dimensions of discourse: Fake news
CDA discourse
threatening to punish the by bullying them to not
media by taking away their report on negative
access to the White House, information against him or
he is threatening freedom of his political campaign. He
press and free speech. The uses social media to test
media retaliated and when the idea of striking back at
some media outlets were the media. For Trump’s
restricted from a press discourse community, the
briefing, other outlets term fake news refers to
boycotted the press briefing negative comments about
in solidarity. President Donald Trump. To other
Donald Trump did not act discourse communities, the
on any of the threats to the term fake news describes
media to date. fabricated or untrue
information.

4.2 #MeToo

Another example of critical discourse in the digital age is the discourse relating to
sexual harassment and sexual assault, specifically in the workplace. The MeToo
movement (#MeToo) began to spread on social media in the US in 2017 to
demonstrate the widespread prevalence of sexual assault and harassment. MeToo
has encouraged discussion about sexual harassment in the US media and fashion
industries, in churches, in educational institutions, in the finance sector, in politics and
government, in sports, medicine and music sectors, and in the US military.

Please read the following BBC news article: Statue of WW2 kiss vandalised after US
sailor’s death. 19 February 2019. The text is then analysed using Fairclough’s model
for CDA. Available as Addendum A to this module.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-
47287048?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.com/news/topics/cql0269k80xt/metoo-
campaign&link_location=live-reporting-story

Table 2: Analysis of an article using Hilary Jank’s example of CDA

Inter-related Description of the Inter-related Description of the

processes of #MeToo image dimensions of discourse: Sexual
CDA discourse harassment and sexual
assault
Analysis of text The text is a photograph of Description of the The statue was created
the “Unconditional object of analysis based on a photograph to
Surrender” statue in portray the joy and
Sarasota, Florida US, of an exuberance at the end of
American sailor kissing a World War Two. The graffiti

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Inter-related Description of the Inter-related Description of the

processes of #MeToo image dimensions of discourse: Sexual
CDA discourse harassment and sexual
assault
stranger at the end of that was used to vandalise
World War Two. The statue the statue of the sailor
was vandalised with graffiti kissing a stranger changes
reading “#MeToo” on the the relationship between
woman’s leg in red spray the sailor and the woman.
paint. The graffiti changes the
attitude of the viewer by
portraying the woman as a
victim of sexual
harassment.
Analysis of The image of the sailor Interpretation of the The graffiti “#MeToo” on
processes of text (George Mendosa) kissing interaction process the girl’s leg changes the
production, a stranger (Greta Zimmer and the discursive message of the text (the
consumption and Friedman) at the end of practice statue) from positive to
distribution World War Two, was widely negative. The original
published at the time. A message of the text was
statue was created based designed to be one of joy
on the photograph. and exultation, but the
According to Greta Zimmer graffiti opens a debate
Friedman, she did not about consent, assault and
consent to the kiss but did gender inequality that a
not view the kiss man cannot grab a woman
negatively. She was quoted and kiss her without her
as saying that the kiss was consent.
“a jubilant act” and “an
event of ‘thank God the war
is over’”.
Sociocultural To some discourse Explanation of how The standard of society at
analysis of the communities, the statue the interaction the time that the
discursive event represents the joy and relates to social photograph was taken was
jubilation at the end of a practice different from what it is
war. To other discourse today regarding what
communities, the statue qualified as sexual
represents an act of sexual harassment and assault.
assault, given the fact that Woman’s roles and status
George Mendoza did not in society have changed
have Greta Zimmer from being perceived as
Friedman’s consent to kiss the “weaker sex” to more
her. At the time that the equal standing in society.
photograph was taken, the What could have been
discourse around sexual viewed as an innocent act
assault was different than it of jubilation (grabbing the
is today. The #MeToo first woman you come
movement highlighted across and kissing her) is
sexual harassment in the no longer viewed as
workplace, including the innocent but as an act of
US navy. What might have sexual assault. The rules of
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Inter-related Description of the Inter-related Description of the

processes of #MeToo image dimensions of discourse: Sexual
CDA discourse harassment and sexual
assault
been acceptable then, is no society have changed and
longer acceptable today. are ever evolving. The re-
design of the statue,
through the graffiti #MeToo
on the woman’s leg, has
given the statue a new
meaning and has
completely changed the
message of the text from
what the original message
was. The re-design
highlights a discourse of
gender inequality of our
current times.

You will now be required to analyse text using the CDA framework, as discussed in the
section above.

180 minutes
12
Read the following article that appeared on the News24 – Parent24 online
platform on 2 August 2019.

Black single fathers: A forgotten, but ever-present phenomenon by Lesego

Linda Plank and Portia Tsotetsi
https://www.parent24.com/Family/Parenting/black-single-fathers-a-forgotten-
but-ever-present-phenomenon-20190802-2

Summary of the article:

Black single fathers: A forgotten, but ever-present phenomenon
By Lesego Linda Plank and Portia Tsotetsi

It is easy for us to label South Africa’s fathers as “deadbeat dads”

because the statistics reveal that more than 60% of homes are
fatherless. We aim to draw attention to where single fathers have
difficulty accessing critical state resources such as social grants
because South Africa’s social services are designed to serve a very
narrow definition of what “caretaking” means.

One of our research projects focuses on African families from Soweto

but delves into the individual experiences of being raised by a single
father.
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“My father has always been my hero; his presence in my life was what I
needed. Having to always share that I was raised by my biological father
and my paternal grandmother and that my biological mother was absent,
is always received as an abnormal experience. However, I did not see
anything wrong with how I was raised, because my father, grandmother
and my extended family (paternal and maternal side) and
“abomakhelwane” (neighbours) played a significant role in my
upbringing.

I do not think my father should be applauded for raising me as a single

father because he was supposed to raise me, as I am his daughter.
However, what I have always yearned for since I was young is for such
experiences to be documented and acknowledged, so that men like my
father serve as role models to absent fathers.” (Taken from Plank's
reflections in her PhD.)

In South Africa, the typical family is not the “nuclear family” (comprised
of two adults and their children). We, therefore, must normalise the idea
of men as primary caregivers. Even though primary, the caregiving role
is still highly gendered with women being responsible for it. But men are
often excluded from social support, making caretaking difficult. What we
found was the high number of fathers not accessing the social grant.
There are few awareness campaigns to point to the contrary. Their
voices are often marginalised.

The other research study focuses on the lived experiences of single

black fathers from Orange Farm, south of Johannesburg.

Fathers were hungry for these kinds of conversations, as their voices

are often marginalised and not taken seriously. One of the participants
in the research shared the following:

“I wish more work could be done on fathers like myself, in how we exist
as single present fathers. It is always about the absent dad or single
mothers.

I do not even feel comfortable sharing my experiences with other men

because the role I play in my children's lives is still seen as the role a
woman should play, because of how parenthood has been portrayed in
movies, newspaper, and TV shows like Papgeld.”

Even though most of the participants mentioned that there are

challenges they face as single fathers, they also acknowledged the joys
of fatherhood. Some stated that it is a privilege for them to be primarily
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present in their children’s lives, as it has made them better men and
fathers. We believe our research is significant in informing family policy
in South Africa. Furthermore, we want to move beyond the damaging
narrative that fathers in South Africa are useless and absent.
Importantly, we hope that the stories of single fathers will indeed
encourage absent fathers to play a close role in their children’s lives.

Questions:
1. Analyse the text by using the three dimensions of Fairclough’s model for CDA
under the following headings:
1.1 Description and interpretation of the text.
1.2 Interpretation and explanation of the discourse practice.
1.3 Explanation of the sociocultural practice.

2. Use the following three questions by Janks (1997) to critically analyse the
discourse:
• How would the text be different if it were told in another time, place or
culture, or with a different viewpoint?
• Does the text empower or disempower others?
• How else could the text have been designed to promote equity?

SECTION 2: LITERACY MODELS FOR

DEVELOPING CRITICAL LITERACY

1. INTRODUCTION
In Unit 1 of this module, Critical Literacy is described as a lens through which all
interaction with text should be viewed. It is also described as a certain skillset. In the
previous section, we studied Fairclough’s model of Critical Discourse Analysis as an
analytical framework to study the connections between language, power and ideology
and develop skills to critically analyse text. In this section, we will look at other models
designed to assist in developing a Critical Literacy skillset by making Critical Literacy
part of your everyday teaching and interpreting of text. These models could be applied
to any text and used as a guide for planning and interpreting text to develop our levels
of Critical Literacy.

2. INSTRUCTIONAL MODELS FOR CRITICAL LITERACY

The following instructional models for Critical Literacy could be used as tools for
preparing lessons that could be used for teaching and developing Critical Literacy skills
for yourself and the learners in the classroom.

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The models were designed to take Critical Literacy from the theoretical to the practical
dimension. By studying and teaching these models, you will develop your Critical
Literacy skillset and the skillset of the learners.

First, we will look at Lewison et al.’s model of Critical Literacy. This model analyses the
critical social practices in which that we engage, how taking a critical stance is at the
core of Critical Literacy practices, and how the social and cultural practices that we are
part of influence our literacy. Second, we will analyse Green’s model, which places the
Four Resources model of Luke and Freebody into three dimensions of literacy. Last,
we will look at Janks’ interdependency model.

2.1 Lewison et al.’s model of Critical Literacy

In their book called Creating Critical Classrooms, K-8 Reading and Writing with an
Edge, Mitzi Lewison, Christine Leland and Jerome C. Harste (2008) provided a model
for teaching Critical Literacy, as well as many examples of Critical Literacy practices
that could be used in the classroom. Their model is based on their definition of Critical
Literacy, which is as follows:

“Critical Literacy practices encourage students to use language to question the

everyday world, to interrogate the relationship between language and power, to
analyse popular culture and media, to understand how power relationships are
socially constructed, and to consider actions that can be taken to promote social
justice” (Lewison et al., 2008, p. 3).

One way to develop a Critical Literacy skillset is by making Critical Literacy part of your
everyday teaching and interpreting of text. Lewison et al. view Critical Literacy
instruction as:

“a transaction among the personal and cultural resources we use, the critical
social practices we enact, and the critical stance that we and our students take
on in classrooms and in the world ... we can use it as a planning tool and also as
a lens from which to examine our teaching” (2008, p. 5).

At the centre of all instructional models of Critical Literacy is taking a critical inquiry
stance (Lewison et al., 2008). This is the first circle at the core of the model of Critical
Literacy. As cited in Sherff (2012, p. 13), they identified taking a critical stance in four
cyclical dimensions. These dimensions lead to renaming and retheorising, which
reinitiates the critical stance cycle. The critical stance “consists of the attitudes and
dispositions we take on that enable us to become critically literate beings”.

The second circle of the model depicts four resources or skills that you need regarding
the critical social practices you endorse and take part in. The four resources are:

1. Disrupting the commonplace;

2. Interrogating multiple viewpoints;

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3. Focusing on socio-political issues; and

4. Taking action and promoting social justice.

The third and biggest circle of the model includes the personal and cultural resources
that we use in our daily lives. The inclusion of both personal and cultural resources
highlights that learners are contributors to the educational process. Their experiences
outside of school are as important to their education as what happens in the classroom.
This links up with the Critical Literacy concept of student-teacher and teacher-student
(Freire, 1996).

The double arrow connector indicates the movement and interaction between critical
stance, critical social practices and personal and cultural resources.

The following figure depicts the elements of the model of Critical Literacy by Lewison
et al. in relation to each other.

Figure 9: Instructional model of Critical Literacy that represents the

transaction among personal and cultural resources, critical social practices,
and the critical stance
Adapted from Lewison et al. (2008) as cited in Scherff (2012)

If we look at Critical Stance in the figure above, the dimensions listed are described by
Lewison et al. (2008) as follows:

• Consciously engaging: going beyond simply responding to events in our lives,

but “thoughtfully” deciding how to respond; we can either rename or reframe.

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• Entertaining alternate ways of being: “involves creating and trying on new

discourses” (Lewison et al., 2008, p. 16).
• Taking responsibility to inquire: focussing on inquiry, interrogation and
investigation.
• Being reflective: “means being aware of our complicity in maintaining the
status quo or systems of injustice” (p. 18).

In the next table, the four aspects of critical inquiry stance are described in more detail.

Table 3: The four dimensions of taking a critical stance, the beliefs and stances
we adopt that allow us to be critically literate

Source: Lewison et al. (2008)

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180 minutes
13
The following advertisement was posted on Facebook in 2017 by Dove. Read the
description of the advert, and then answer the questions that follow.

Source: The Guardian newspaper, 8 Oct 2017

The advertisement: Dove is a popular skincare brand that targets numerous

countries around the world with their moisturisers, deodorants and hair care
products. In 2017, Dove released a social media ad on their Facebook page that
showed a black woman turning into a white woman, who then turns into a Middle
Eastern woman. The advert showed a black woman removing her top to reveal a
white woman underneath after using Dove’s body lotion. The white woman then
removes her top and turns into a Middle Eastern woman, again after using Dove’s
body lotion.

The problem: Media users on Facebook, Twitter and other social media
platforms immediately reacted negatively to the advertisement. They described
the advert as racist, offensive and insulting to the viewer.

The result: The campaign was instantly removed from Facebook while the
owners of the brand, Unilever, released a statement apologising for the advert.
At the time, Dove said in a statement: “All three women are intended to
demonstrate the ‘after’ product benefit. We do not condone any activity or imagery
that intentionally insults any audience.” Following the removal of the advert, Dove
tweeted: “An image we recently posted on Facebook missed the mark in
representing women of colour thoughtfully. We deeply regret the offence it
caused.”

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Here follows an example of negative feedback that the ad received on Twitter:

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/08/dove-apologises-for-
ad-showing-black-woman-turning-into-white-one

Questions:
1. Practise your Critical Literacy skills by describing how you would take a
critical inquiry stance with this advertisement. Use the following words in your
description:
Consciously engaging, entertaining alternative ways of being, enquire and
reflection.
2. Based on the instructional model of Critical Literacy developed by Lewison
et al., complete the following table regarding the advertisement and your
critical stance that you have just described above.

Critical Literacy resources or Your old reaction to the ad Your reaction to the ad by
skills you need taking a critical inquiry stance
Disrupting the commonplace
Interrogating multiple
viewpoints
Focusing on socio-political
issues
Taking action and promoting
social justice

2.2 The four resources model and Green’s 3D model of literacy

Next, we will examine the four resources model and Green’s 3D model of literacy as
instructional models of Critical Literacy.

We will look at the two models together since Green’s model builds on the four
resources model as developed by Freebody and Luke in 1990. Here follows a brief

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description of the four resources model by Freebody and Luke before we examine the
3D model more closely.

In Australia, Freebody and Luke (1999) developed the four resources model to identify
the literacy practices that individuals require. The model suggests four roles for the
reader in a postmodern, text-based culture. As described by Fajardo (2016, p. 14), the
four resources model list the following functions that learners must perform for effective
literacy to take place:

1. Break the code of texts – examine and use the elements that make up words,
paragraphs, and genres of written texts.
2. Participate in the meanings of texts – comprehend and compose texts that
align with the literacy conventions of relevant affiliations, communities and
cultures.
3. Use texts functionally – use written or spoken texts appropriately, considering
their social and cultural functions.
4. Critically analyse and transform texts – recognise that texts are not neutral and
that authors attempt to influence readers to adopt a specific perspective and
silence alternative viewpoints, and that text could be redesigned to portray
representations of many realities.

An adaptation of the four resources model is described in Section 1 of the book listed
as recommended reading for this module: Doing Critical Literacy: Text and Activities
for Students and Teachers by Hilary Janks (2014, pp. 26-27).

Bill Green describes the model as “a holistic, integrated view of literacy comprising
three interlocking dimensions or aspects” (Green, 2002, p. 27). The 3D model of
literacy places the four resources, as described by Freebody and Luke (1990) in the
four resources model, into three different dimensions. Becoming Critically Literate
requires the reader to assume different roles in each of the three dimensions, namely:

1. Operational dimension – how is the text made? What is the significance of the
sequence of events? How has the mood, setting and characters been created?
2. Cultural dimension – What is familiar about the text? What connects with your
experience, your community, your social structure? What do you bring to the
text?
3. Critical dimension – What view and experience are communicated? What
beliefs about social justice and equity are related? How can an alternative view
be developed?

The figure below depicts Green’s model and where the four resources of the learners
fit into each dimension. The code breaker role falls within the operational dimension.
The text participant and text user falls within the cultural dimension, and the text analyst
falls with the critical dimension.
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Figure 10: Green’s 3D model of Critical Literacy

Source: Durrant and Green (2000)

180 minutes
14
1. Regarding this module on Critical Literacy, which of the resources or roles, as
described by Freebody and Luke (1999), did you assume as the reader of this
text?
2. Reflect on Green’s 3 D model of literacy. Place the roles, which you assumed as
the reader of this text, in the three dimensions (operational, cultural, and critical).
3. How will this knowledge assist you in your quest to becoming a Critically Literate
person?

As the last example of an instructional model for Critical Literacy, we will examine
Jank’s interdependency model and look at an example from the suggested reading list.

2.3 Janks’ interdependency model for Critical Literacy

In Literacy and Power, Hilary Janks (2010) argued that Critical Literacy must focus on
questions of power, diversity, access and both design and redesign. Janks’ model is
more than only a textual critique (Fajardo, 2016, p. 229). The model provides an

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evaluation of the text and literary and cultural practices. Fajardo continued that the
model “gives significance to cultural identity and meaning-making that highlights the
socio-cultural and ideological nature of literacy”.

Janks’ model (2010) describes the following four different orientations to literacy
education:

1. Power: power is described as identifying how learners are enabled to reach

their potential or oppressed by the ruling group or individuals.
2. Access: the opportunities provided to learners to meet their literacy needs are
described as access.
3. Diversity: diversity in the model recognises that literacy practices are
inextricably connected to one’s history, culture and personal values.
4. Design / re-design: the various meaning-making modes available to achieve the
aim of Critical Literacy are acknowledged in re-design, which is to ensure a
personal or social change.

Janks argued that the four orientations to literacy education are equally important and
not separate initiatives. Anyone of the orientations without the other creates “a
problematic imbalance” (Janks, 2010, p. 5).

A full description of the model is presented in the next table.

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Table 4: Interdependent Critical Literacy Synthesis Model

(Janks, 2010, pp. 170, 178)

Fajardo (2016) writes that Janks’ (2010) synthesis of Critical Literacy as

interdependent of power, access, diversity and design is a useful model for analysing
the complexity of literacy practices. The model applies to the critique of texts, including
reading and designing of texts, and literary, institutional and cultural practices. This is
in contrast with the other Critical Literacy models (Freebody & Luke, 1999; Lewison et
al., 2002) as described in this unit, which tends to emphasise textual critique only.

Hilary Janks (2010) gave a striking example of the interdependency and integration of
the different literacy perspectives in the following text, taken from her article
“Domination, access, diversity and design: A synthesis for Critical Literacy education”:

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The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), established by an act of

parliament, began work in December 1995. For a period of two and a half years,
the Commission heard testimony from countless South Africans, from all sides in
the struggle. The final TRC report, which was presented to President Nelson
Mandela on 29 October 1998, threads its way through multiple perspectives in
which truth is elusive, reconciliation is a hope and history is being written by the
oral testimony of ordinary people.

I have chosen to use the TRC report because of what it has to say about language
and power, language and access, diversity and re-design. Most of the testimony
relates to gross violations of human rights and makes explicit the extensive use of
brute power of all kinds. In the chapter, which tries to make sense of the causes,
motives and perspectives, the Report offers a sophisticated analysis of the role
played by language.

“It is commonplace to treat language as mere words, not deeds, therefore

language is taken to play a minimal role in understanding violence. The
Commission wishes to take a different view here. Language, discourse and
rhetoric do things: it constructs social categories, it gives orders, it persuades
us, it justifies, explains, gives reasons, excuses. It constructs reality. It moves
people against other people”. (TRC, 1998, p. 294).

“Language in its many and varied forms is the central element in ideology as
power. ... In the South African context, it is important to understand how
multiple discourses combined, intersected and intertwined to create climates
of violence. In this respect the ideologies of racism, patriarchy, religions,
capitalism, apartheid and militarism all intertwined to “manufacture” people
capable of violence”. (TRC, 1998, p. 296).

In examining the language of the State, the security apparatus and the liberation
movement the commissioners conclude that ‘a spiral of discourses increasingly
dehumanised the “other”, creating the conditions for violence’ (TRC, 1998, p. 295).
What this suggests is that one needs to look at how competing discourses affect
and infect one another. It is not enough to look at the language of the oppressor in
isolation. Both sides in the struggle used language to support their positions. The
Commission has a view of power remarkably like that of Foucault who sees power
as relational (1978, p. 95). For Foucault:

“Discourse can be an instrument and an effect of power, but also a hindrance,

a stumbling block, a point of resistance and a starting point for an opposing
strategy. Discourse transmits and produces power it also undermines and
exposes it, renders it fragile and makes it possible to thwart it” (1978, p. 101).
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Not only did the Commission work with a sophisticated theory of the relationship
between discourse, dominance and power as a basis for their analysis of the
testimony they heard, but its practices and processes showed a full grasp of the
language-related questions of access and diversity. The hearings demanded
neither dominant literacy - neither written testimony nor established genres - nor
the use of a dominant language. For the first time, South Africans from all sides
could tell their stories in their tongues with Commissioners appointed to listen and
to record. The proceedings were open to the public and were widely reported on
radio and television. This was a fundamentally dialogic process in which the
listener was crucial; the hearing as important as the telling.

The last part of the report deals with recommendations and reconciliation. For
many, including me, reconciliation is a hard solution to accept. The Report,
however, asks us to think of it as the foundation on which we can build our future.

“Reconciliation does not wipe away the memories of the past. Indeed, it is
motivated by a form of memory that stresses the need to remember without
debilitating pain, bitterness, revenge fear or guilt. It understands the vital
importance of learning from and redressing past violations for the sake of our
shared present and our children’s future” (TRC, 1998, p. 434).

It is possible to think of the TRC’s work as a deconstruction of the past without

which reconstruction is impossible. We need to learn from the past to design a
different future.

Source: Janks, H. (2000) Domination, access, diversity and design: A synthesis

model for critical literacy education. Educational Review, 52(2), June 2000, pp.
175-186.

A detailed description of the different orientations to literacy that form the basis of the
model is given in the introduction of the book listed as recommended reading for this
module: Doing critical literacy: Text and activities for students and teachers by Hilary
Janks (2014, p. 5). The book is centred on these four orientations to literacy.

240 minutes
15
Based on the interdependency model designed by Hilary Janks (2010), identify and
describe the different orientations to literacy, namely power, access, diversity and
design on a dominant discourse in your society.

Commentary:
Examples of dominant discourses are mother tongue education, xenophobia,
HIV/AIDS, gender roles, etc.
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3. CONCLUSION
In this section, we looked at different instructional models for Critical Literacy and
unpacked how each of these models works. These models were designed to develop
your awareness as part of your Critical Literacy skillset, as well as your ability to teach
from a Critically Literate perspective. You were required to interpret text using each of
the Critical Literacy models. You should now feel confident to apply the models to other
texts and discourses from your life in and outside of school.

In the next unit of this module on Critical Literacy, Unit 3, we will focus specifically on
developing a critical pedagogy orientation in the classroom. We will also consider
students’ resistance to Critical Literacy.

Before you go on, reflect on what you have learnt so far and complete the self-
assessment activity. If your answer is UNSURE or NO on any of the criteria, go back
to the relevant section to study it again.

90 minutes
16
Self-assessment activity: Unit 2
If your answer is UNSURE or NO on any of the criteria, go back to the relevant
section to study it again.

Now that I have worked through this unit, I YES UNSURE NO

can:
Demonstrate an understanding of the process of
critical discourse analysis as a tool for critical
thinking.

Use Fairclough’s model for CDA in practice.

Demonstrate an understanding of how the

different models for Critical Literacy work.
Interpret text using each of the Critical Literacy
models.

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UNIT 3: DEVELOPING A CRITICAL PEDAGOGY

ORIENTATION IN THE CLASSROOM

1. INTRODUCTION
This unit is the final unit of the module and will provide insight on how to embrace
Critical Literacy in your teaching methods. By teaching with a Critical Pedagogy
orientation, you will develop the Critical Literacy of your learners. This will ensure a
generation of humans that can read the word and the world and positively contribute
to the world in and outside of school.

2. STRUCTURE AND LEARNING OUTCOMES OF UNIT 3

Unit 3 consists of two sections. This unit provides you with the opportunity to work
towards the following learning outcomes:

UNIT 3
DEVELOPING A CRITICAL PEDAGOGY
ORIENTATION IN THE CLASSROOM

SECTION 1 SECTION 2
Critical Pedagogy Students’ and teachers’
resistance to Critical Pedagogy
Learning outcomes: After you
have studied this section, you Learning outcomes: After you
should: have studied this section, you
• demonstrate an understanding should:
of how critical pedagogy differs • demonstrate an understanding
from other teaching and learning of students’ resistance to critical
pedagogies. pedagogy.
• develop a critical pedagogy • demonstrate an understanding
approach to teaching. of teachers’ resistance to critical
pedagogy.

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SECTION 1: CRITICAL PEDAGOGY

1. INTRODUCTION
Hilary Janks (2012, 2013, 2014) argued for the importance of Critical Literacy in
education to help learners to challenge everyday experiences of inequities, question
powerful discourses implied in the media, redesign texts, or take action after examining
community issues that matter to them.

In this section, we will examine what the term Critical Pedagogy entails, and what is
meant to adopt a Critical Pedagogy approach to teaching. We will look at factors
contributing to teachers’ and students’ resistance to Critical Pedagogy and explore
ways to overcome these conflicts.

2. CONTRASTING CRITICAL PEDAGOGY AND OTHER

LEARNING AND TEACHING PEDAGOGIES
To determine how Critical Pedagogy differs from other teaching pedagogies, it is
necessary to first examine what exactly Critical Pedagogy entails.

2.1 What is pedagogy

According to the Oxford Dictionary, pedagogy (noun) is the method and practice of
teaching, especially as an academic subject or theoretical concept. It is understood as
the approach to teaching but, in broader terms, describes the theory and practice of
learning and the interactions that take place during learning.

Pedagogy is a term used loosely in educational discourse. Simon (1987) wrote that
“talk about pedagogy is simultaneously talk about the details of what students and
others might do together and the cultural politics such practices support. In this
perspective, we cannot talk about teaching practices without talking about politics”
(cited in McLaren, 2003, p. 187).

The pedagogy that teachers adopt will determine their teaching strategies, their actions
and judgements.

2.2 What is Critical Pedagogy

Critical Pedagogy is a philosophy of education and social movement based on the

applied concepts of critical theory regarding education or teaching. The concept of
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Critical Pedagogy can be traced back to the teachings of Paulo Freire, as described in
Section 2 of Unit 1 of this module. Although he seldom used the term Critical
Pedagogy, his work made him a celebrated critical educator. Ira Shor, who was
mentored by Freire and who collaborated closely with him from 1980 until Freire's
death in 1997, defined Critical Pedagogy as:

“Habits of thought, reading, writing, and speaking which go beneath surface

meaning, first impressions, dominant myths, official pronouncements, traditional
clichés, received wisdom, and mere opinions, to understand the deep meaning,
root causes, social context, ideology, and personal consequences of any action,
event, object, process, organization, experience, text, subject matter, policy,
mass media, or discourse” (Shor, 1999, p. 23).

The purpose of Critical Pedagogy is to engage learners in the act of developing a

critical consciousness based on what Freire calls in Portuguese conscientizacao,
which was defined as “learning to perceive social, political, and economic
contradictions and to take action against the oppressive elements of reality” (Freire,
1970/1995, p. 17). Examples of pedagogical concepts that could be practised as part
of Critical Literacy include critical language awareness, critical reading, and critical
writing. These concepts are associated with the ideological models of literacy of which
Critical Literacy forms part. According to Freire, “reading the world always precedes
reading the word, and reading the word implies continually reading the world” (Freire
& Macedo, 1987, p. 35).

2.3 How does Critical Pedagogy differs from other learning and
teaching pedagogies

Critical Pedagogy is a learner-centred educational system that should incorporate

social critique alongside learning. It is an educational system that calls on teachers to
become learners alongside the learners in their classroom for them to understand the
lived realities of the learners. Learners must, in turn, assume the challenge to become
teachers to identify, challenge, design and redesign text for a more socially just and
equitable society. This principle of shared authority in the classroom supports giving
students the freedom of choice in selecting texts and examining issues relevant to their
lives (Kesler, 2011).

Reflecting on personal experience enables learners to develop their empowerment. By

valuing students’ choices and voices, they get the opportunity to explore their identities,
challenge dominant discourses, and understand the complexities of institutional issues
(Robinson, 2011). Fajardo (2016) wrote that Critical Pedagogy requires teachers to
become experts beyond the normal scope of required knowledge to engage with
learners on such a level to understand their cultures and the socio-political environment
in which they live.

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In contrast, the traditional class structure is anchored in the belief that teachers hold
full authority to select course materials, accept and dismiss interpretations, and
transmit their fully formed knowledge to students who act as passive recipients of
information (Aukerman, 2012). As mentioned before, this is what Freire labelled the
banking model of education where learners are viewed as empty bank accounts for
teachers to fill with information from their point of view and based on their position of
power.

Historically, oral presentation was the primary educational technique of traditional

education with a strong reliance on memorisation with no effort of understanding the
meaning. Traditional education systems typically involved using corporal punishment,
using the dominant language and religion, separating students according to gender,
race, social class, and using enforced uniforms and military-style discipline codes. In
contrast to traditional education systems, alternative education systems and
pedagogical approaches could include different structures such as open classroom,
differing curricula and teaching methods, for example, in the Waldorf and Montessori
schools and the Reggio Emilia approach as developed in Italy.

Outcome-based education is a modern educational theory that centres each part of an

educational system on certain goals (outcomes). This type of educational system has
no set or prescribed style of teaching and assessment. Any type of training, instruction,
facilitation and mentoring is acceptable to help students to achieve the specified
outcomes. South Africa adopted outcomes-based methods in the early 1990s but it
has since been phased out. In the standards-based education reform movement that
started in the US in the 1980s, students are measured against a predetermined set of
standards. The curriculum, assessments, and professional development are all aligned
to these standards. This educational system allows for only one correct way of teaching
since all learners in the classroom are considered the same, regardless of race, class
or gender.

Critical Pedagogy should aim to get students to view certain aspects of their societies,
lifestyles, cultures and nations critically. Critical Pedagogy can form part of any
traditional or alternative education system. It is up to teachers to awaken and develop
their Critical Literacy mindset to be able to assist and guide learners to critically view
their lives in and outside of school.

This module has described various tools that could be used to develop Critical Literacy
skills, including CDA, Critical Literacy models, and all the examples given of analysing
text. Let us now sum up how a Critical Pedagogy approach to teaching could be
developed.

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60 minutes
17
Reflect on Section 2.3 above on how Critical Pedagogy differs from other learning
and teaching pedagogies.

Make a list of all the educational pedagogies listed in section 2.3 above, with a brief
description of each one. Now reflect on the questions below.

1. Can you identify what the dominant learning and teaching pedagogy was at the
school where you were a pupil?

2. How did this educational pedagogy influence your learning?

4. Was there a specific teacher that enforced a different teaching style than the
norm? What aspects of their teaching stood out for you?

5. Looking back at your younger self, what form of educational pedagogy would have
been most conducive to your personal learning style? Explain why?

6. If you have contact with a parent, elder, teacher or friend that knew you while you
were at school, ask them if they recall any challenges or frustrations that you
shared with them regarding your school’s teaching methods.

3. DEVELOPING A CRITICAL PEDAGOGY APPROACH

TO TEACHING
Lewison et al. (2008, pp. 20-21) wrote that Critical Literacy instruction (Critical
Pedagogy) “does not take place in a vacuum ... the context in which we work can
support or hinder critical teaching”. Just as teachers draw from their personal, cultural
and educational backgrounds, so do students pull from their experiences and beliefs.
These external and internal factors guide how teachers plan, teach and evaluate in
class.

Barbara Comber (1994, p. 7) listed the following three key principals or educational
approaches to Critical Literacy:

• Repositioning students as researchers of language;

• Respecting student resistance and exploring minority culture constructions of
literacy; and
• Problematising classroom and public texts.

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In the classroom, critical pedagogy is manifested concretely in three ways, according

to Fajardo (1996), namely discussing controversial issues, critiquing institutional
policies and practices, and taking social action.

Fajardo (2016) went on to describe Critical Literacy as a problem-posing (Freire, 1970)

process that should be “planned and intentional, yet responsive and spontaneous”.
Teachers should spend time and effort to plan a Critical Literacy discussion with
carefully considered questions and prompts that examine the implications of texts and
practices in society. Learners should be allowed to explore their beliefs and ideas and
should be guided to challenge inequalities in their societies. Learners should be
allowed to take the lead in critically analysing authors’ beliefs but also be guided to
consider their personal and cultural contexts when making meaning beyond what the
authors might have intended. By using purposeful dialogue about issues that are part
of the everyday lives of learners, the learners will be intrigued to take part in analysing
and redesigning text to bring about change and equality in their societies.

According to Ira Shor (1999, p. 10) in teaching Critical Literacy, teachers must be
mindful of how they could use their authority and expertise to encourage rather than
silence students’ voices because “saying too much or too little, too soon or too late,
can damage the group process”. Teachers must develop “the dispositions, discursive
resources and the repertoires of practice to do Critical Literacy work in classrooms”
(Comber, 2006, p. 51 as cited in Janks 2014).

Teachers that want to develop Critical Literacy skills in the classroom must be able to
do the following, according to Janks (2014):

• Make connections between something that is going on in the world and their
students’ lives, where the world could be as small as the classroom or as large
as the international stage.
• Consider what students should know and where they can find the information.
• Explore how the problem is instantiated in texts and practices by a careful
examination of design choices and people’s behaviour.
• Examine who benefits and who is disadvantaged by imagining the social
effects of what is going on and of its representation/s.
• Imagine possibilities for making a positive difference.

Fajardo (2016) suggested that novice Critical Literacy teachers must adapt Critical
Literacy principals to suit their purposes and class context. A common thread that
should be present in any Critical Literacy lesson, however, should be “a consistent
focus on the analysis of power relations present in texts and pedagogical practices”
(2016, p. 222). She continued by reminding teachers that based on the writings of
Janks et al. (2014), Critical Literacy is not an inherent quality and it requires specific
and “explicit instruction and scaffolding in the deconstruction and reconstruction of
texts” (2016, p. 222).
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Here follows a brief description of introducing Critical Literacy as part of education in

the foundation phase and the intermediate phase of the curriculum.

3.1 Critical Pedagogy in the Foundation Phase

Critical Literacy, with its focus on language, power and identity, is often seen as more
appropriate for older or more advanced learners. In today’s world, many young
children, however, have experienced the effects of war, terrorism, migration and
poverty. Many live in fractured, fragmented and changing families. The impact of digital
technologies on literacy studies is changing the educational landscape.

According to Vasquez (as cited by Oxford Research Encyclopedias: Education, 2017),

learners that are engaged in Critical Literacy from a young age “...are likely going to
be better able to contribute to a more equitably and socially just world by being better
able to make informed decisions regarding such issues as power and control … and
develop an ability to think and act ethically”.

The earlier children are introduced to the concept of Critical Literacy and taught that
the world could be read as socially constructed text, the sooner they learn that text is
never neutral. Children should learn to explore and question the perspective of the
writer and the aim that the message wants to convey. Teachers must develop their
Critical Literacy skills to understand their bias and perspective to teaching. By using
real-life examples in teaching, the learners should understand and associate with the
training materials. Because Critical Literacy is based in a socio-political context, social
issues that are relevant and important to learners should be used to build Critical
Literacy skills and perspectives. Learners learn best if they can relate to the content of
what they are learning. Their everyday lives and experiences should be drawn upon to
teach Critical Literacy skills and create a Critical Literacy orientation towards text.

Purposefully setting reading, writing and talking (conversational) tasks could develop
Critical Literacy in young children by helping them to question versions of reality in their
everyday lives (Vasquez, 2017). Children’s literature, newspaper, magazine and radio
advertisements, food packaging and social media campaigns could all be used to
illustrate to young children that text is not neutral.

In a chapter of the Handbook of Research in Early Childhood Literacy (Hall, Larson &
Marsch, 2011) called “Critical Literacy in the early years: Emergence and sustenance
in an age of accountability”, Barbara Comber described two examples of early
childhood teacher-researchers that have done ground-breaking work in establishing a
Critical Pedagogy approach to teaching. They are Jennifer O’Brien in South Australia
and Vivian Vasquez in Canada.

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Comber (2011) wrote that in a series of studies, O’Brien developed a pedagogy of

Critical Literacy that made sense to and engaged young children. O’Brien believed that
children learning to decode text could assume analytical stances regarding the texts.
O’Brien's main goal was that children question the social worlds constructed in texts.
This meant that children understand that texts are constructed by authors and
illustrators who make specific decisions about the text. For example, referring to
contrasting versions of the Hansel and Gretel story, she asked the children to consider
both stepmother and the father:

- Draw the woman as you think Anthony Browne will draw her. Show her face and
her clothes. Use a speech bubble to show what she says.
- Draw the man as you think Anthony Browne will draw him. Show his face and his
clothes. Use a speech bubble to show what he says. (O’Brien & Comber, 2000,
p. 159)

These types of questions showed learners’ existing cultural knowledge about

representations of women and men in texts. The object of the study was then the
commonalities and differences between the learners’ predictions and interpretations of
the text. She took a similar approach with picture books, school reading series (both
fact and fiction) and everyday texts (O’Brien, 2001a & 2001b) and she invited children
to consider how texts position their readers. O’Brien positioned children as readers
who could and should question the texts that were produced for them.

O’Brien, as described by Comber (2011), frequently focused on the representation of

the family or family members in children’s literature, school readers and everyday texts.
She is best known for working with young children to deconstruct everyday texts using
questions such as (O’Brien & Comber, 2000, p. 164):

• Who are the important people (powerful, good) in the family created in this text?
• How do they behave?
• What kinds of words does the writer/illustrator think you should know about
family members?
• Who are the unimportant people in this family?
• How can you tell they are less/more important for the writer/illustrator?
• How does this compare with your experience?

Barbara Comber (2011) wrote that Vivian Vasquez encountered the work of O’Brian
as a kindergarten teacher working in a highly multi-cultural Catholic school in Toronto.
She adopted a political approach to language pedagogy by taking up children’s
questions about justice in representational and schooling practices (Vasquez, 2003,
2001a). Vasquez designed her Critical Literacy curriculum around children’s issues,
interests, questions and observations (Vasquez, 2001a). Often, these focused around
school and family life. Vasquez’s approach was to work with the everyday issues that
are often put to one side in classrooms or seen as disruptive. She used goal-directed

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and situation-specific literacy practices to make a difference in the lives of her young
learners through talking and writing (Comber, 2011).

According to Comber (2011), Vasquez emphasised writing, conversation and action

within the classroom and school community “grounding the curriculum in the lives of
students” (Vasquez, 2001a, p. 211), whereas O’Brien tended to focus on questions of
representation in texts. The similarities between the work of O’Brien and Vasquez are
that they both based their critical pedagogy approach on everyday texts and everyday
life. Both examined school practices and texts. Both were committed to a political
standpoint of social justice. Both invited young children to become co-researchers and
explore the secrets of institutional life and what is taken for granted in texts (Comber,
2011).

Case study: Critical Literacy in the Foundation Phase

Hilary Janks gives the following example of teaching Critical Literacy practises in
the classroom in the book listed as recommended reading, Doing critical literacy:
Text and activities for students and teachers (2014). She uses the example of
using maps as text to stimulate critical thinking and to create awareness regarding
the version of the reality of the text.

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Figure: Maps are texts

Source:
http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/ebookviewer/ebook/bmxlYmtfXzYxMTY4OV9fQU41
?sid=7a433e4c-368a-4486-944f-4b420deb010f@sdc-v-
sessmgr03&vid=2&format=EB&rid=2

120 minutes
18
Study the drawing by a 5.5 year old child below (Grade R), and view this drawing as
text representing a South African family. Labelling of each figure was done by the
teacher. Then answer the questions that follow below. In order to deconstruct the
picture based on the work of Jennifer O’Brien (O’Brien & Comber, 2000, p. 164).

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Grandma
Grandpa Mom

Dad

Me

Brother

Grandpa Brother

1. Based on the information in Section 3.1 above, do you agree that young children
should be taught that text is never neutral? Explain your answer.
2. Should everyday experiences be drawn upon to teach Critical Literacy to young
children? Why?
3. Looking at the picture above, what do you think is the perspective of the illustrator
(being a 5.5 year old Grade R learner) and what message does he/she wants to
convey?
3. What bias and / or perspective could the teacher possible have enforced during
this exercise?
4. What other possible versions of a South African family exist?

In order to deconstruct the picture, answer the following questions, based on the
work of Jennifer O’Brien that focused on questions of representation in texts (O’Brien
& Comber, 2000, p. 164).

• Who are the important people (powerful, good) in the family created in this
text?
• How do they behave?
• Who are the unimportant people in this family?
• How can you tell they are less/more important for the illustrator?
• How does this compare with your experience?

Choose another text or picture from a story book or magazine and repeat this
exercise until you are comfortable to guide your class through the same exercise.

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Commentary:
When deconstructing any artwork, always consider interviewing (or reading
interviews on) the artist/illustrator, even if it is a foundation phase learner, in order to
understand the expression by the artist / illustrator through his/her artwork. During
an interview making verbatim notes will offer the interpreter with more insight.

3.2 Critical Pedagogy in the Intermediate Phase

Critical Literacy could be used as a socio-political tool to address more advanced

issues in the Intermediate Phase, including inequalities in the everyday lives of
learners. For example, in South Africa, anti-apartheid activist Hilary Janks used Critical
Literacy “to increase students’ awareness of the way language was used to oppress
the black majority, to win elections, to deny education, to construct others, to position
readers, to hide the truth, and to legitimate oppression” (2010, p. 12). The Critical
Language Awareness (CLA) materials that she produced are now out of print but still
available in Wits University’s online repository. It is also listed as additional reading for
this module.

Hilary Jank’s work is mostly based on learners in the Intermediate Phase and older
learners. We have looked at several examples of how Critical Literacy could be made
part of the everyday lives of older learners in and outside of school.

In the classroom, Critical Pedagogy is manifested concretely in three ways, according

to Fajardo (2016), namely discussing controversial issues, critiquing institutional
policies and practices, and taking social action.

Case study: Critical Literacy in the Intermediate Phase

The following excerpt on page 118 of the core reading book by Janks et al. (2013)
could be used as a reading exercise (literacy practice). The same excerpt could then
be used to develop Critical Literacy skills by asking the questions as stated below
and creating an activity based on the information that the learners have read and
discussed.

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Source:
http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/ebookviewer/ebook/bmxlYmtfXzYxMTY4OV9fQ
U41?sid=7a433e4c-368a-4486-944f-4b420deb010f@sdc-v-
sessmgr03&vid=2&format=EB&rid=2

It is clear from the examples, as mentioned above, that teachers could develop a
critical approach to teaching in any subject, at any age and as part of any level of
learning in the curricula. Critical Literacy remains a lens through which the world could

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be understood and taught. From asking critical questions about nursery rhymes to
toddlers to questioning generally-accepted discourses in society, there are always
opportunities to awaken learners’ interest and awareness to create a more just and
equitable society for all.

120 minutes
19
The following text is an example of an Intermediate Phase exercise created to depict
the relationship between naming and power in order to develop Critical Literacy skills
in learners.

Reflect on the text from Hilary Jank’s Critical Language Awareness Series:
Language, Identity and Power, where she investigates the link between naming /
renaming and identity and power.

Source: http://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10539/18110/Critical%20
Language%20-%20Language-Identity-Power.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

The text was written in 1993. Which naming sets are still applicable in terms of
naming and power relations in today’s society?

Can you add any new / modern word to the word sets?

Which words in these sets creates a more equitable society today? Why?

If Critical Literacy and Critical Pedagogy have such a noble aim as described above,
why is it that teachers and students experience resistance to these educational
methods? In the next section, we will unpack these reservations and opposition and
look at ways to overcome these conflicts.
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SECTION 2: RESISTANCE TO CRITICAL

PEDAGOGY

1. INTRODUCTION
Hilary Janks (1995) wrote that the extent to which students participate in or resist
Critical Literacy is bound with their identities. Teachers should be aware of how
students are positioned by the text or how they identify through the text. Students’
identities should be considered and taken seriously to ensure their investment in
Critical Literacy.

Several factors could contribute to resistance to Critical Pedagogy. These factors differ
from one individual to the next and could vary from one society to the next. Here are
some factors as described in scholarly texts.

2. FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO RESISTANCE TO

CRITICAL LITERACY
2.1 Students’ resistance to Critical Literacy

In his studies, Ibrahim (2016) lists the following factors that contributed to the students’
resistance to Critical Literacy:

• Students’ lack of deeper understandings and critical explorations of the

sociocultural issues in the texts (Park, 2011; Zyngier & Fialho, 2010).
• A tendency for learners to accept authors’ opinions and representations without
question (Kaura & Sidhub, 2013).
• Although the students could identify the features of a particular genre, they were
unable to critically interrogate the author’s purpose in designing the text (Black,
2010) or the features of discourses that maintain inequality (Weninger & Kan,
2013).
• Students have ambivalent attitudes toward Critical Literacy. Despite reporting
that the Critical Literacy approach helped them develop critical thinking,
students still regarded reading as a means of information gathering and
entertainment and not of social critique (Huang, 2011).

Hilary Janks (2002) related an example where students participated in deconstructing

print advertisements, critically analysing sexist representations of women. While the
(female) students could produce critical deconstructions of the texts, it did not prevent
them from desiring to be like the female models represented as sexual objects in the
advertisements. Janks thus argued, “[w]here identification [with the text] promises the
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fulfilment of desire, reason cannot compete” (2002, p. 10). Janks positions Critical
Literacy as an “essentially... rationalist activity” and challenges educators working
within this frame to explore the territory “beyond reason” (2002, p. 22).

2.2 Teachers’ resistance to Critical Literacy

Teachers can also experience resistance to Critical Literacy pedagogy. As cited by

Fajardo (2016), according to Lindsey, Robins and Terrel (2003, p. 219), teachers
“resist change because they feel threatened. They fear that they may lose something
that they value. The new idea or process does not fit within the boundaries of their
current paradigms”.

Fajardo (2016) described inhibitors of Critical Literacy that teachers experience as

regulating students’ responses, guiding students’ interpretations, favouring
conventional literacy practices, and making assumptions about the applicability of
Critical Literacy.

Lee (2011) listed four myths about Critical Literacy that could contribute to teachers’
resistance to Critical Literacy pedagogy, namely that Critical Literacy is critical thinking,
that Critical Literacy is only meant for high-ability students, that Critical Literacy is an
instructional strategy, and that Critical Literacy is only about reading and writing.

The third myth that Critical Literacy is an instructional strategy, is in contrast with the
section in this unit detailing the four instructional models for Critical Literacy. What Lee
(2011) described is that Critical Literacy should not merely be limited to an activity or
a specific lesson in class. It should be used with every interaction with text as a tool to
empower students and teachers to be agents of change in pursuit of a more socially
just and equal society for all.

3. CONCLUSION
Freire (1984) said it well that Critical Literacy without action is simply verbalism.
Similarly, no matter how long and how well it has been researched, Critical Literacy
without taking root in our classrooms is still only a theory (Lee, 2011).

As described in this module, although there are several viewpoints to Critical Literacy
all share the belief that Critical Literacy is a “social and political practice rather than a
set of neutral, psychological skills” (Siegel & Fernandez, 2000, p. 18). There is no
correct or universal model of Critical Literacy. Instead “how educators deploy the tools,
attitudes, and philosophies is utterly contingent … upon students’ and teachers’
everyday relations of power, their lived problems and struggles” (Luke, 2012, pp. 5)
and the ways in which teachers are able to navigate the (P) politics of the places and
spaces in which their work unfolds. Janks insists that critical literacy is essential to the
ongoing project of education across the curriculum (Janks, 2014).

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Students of critical literacy are generally encouraged to take a critical attitude toward
texts, asking what view of the world the texts advance and whether these views should
be accepted. In doing so, learners begin to reflect critically on the nature of literacy
and literacies as social practices (Cervetti et al., 2001).

Once students recognize that texts are representations of reality and that these
representations are social constructions, they have a greater opportunity to take a
more powerful position with respect to these texts -- to reject them or reconstruct them
in ways that are more consistent with their own experiences in the world (Cervetti et
al., 2001).

The importance of Critical literacy in the classroom is highlighted by Hilary Janks

(2014) when she notes that Critical Literacy is one way to engage learners in powerful
and pleasurable literacies that could contribute to creating a more critically informed
and just world.
We hope that you enjoyed this module and gained new insights into this aspect of
literacy: Critical Literacy. May your Critical Literacy journey lead you to ever greater
knowledge, exciting literacy challenges and new dimensions of understanding text.

600 minutes
20
The notional time allocated to this module makes allowance for you to study the core
reading, available on EBSCOhost. This is a wonderful book, written in a South African
context, with lots of practical examples. To access the core reading text, use the
library tab on MySANTS and click on the EBSCOhost link.

Janks, H., Dixon, K., Ferreira, A., Granville, S. & Newfield, D. (2014). Doing
critical literacy: Texts and activities for teachers and students. New York, NY:
Routledge.

Source:
http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/ebookviewer/ebook/bmxlYmtfXzYxMTY4O
V9fQU41?sid=7a433e4c-368a-4486-944f-4b420deb010f@sdc-v-
sessmgr03&vid=2&format=EB&rid=2

If you have not read the book yet, take the time to read it now and make sure that
you understand the concepts relating to Critical Literacy. The ability to apply your
knowledge on the subject in the classroom, and to use your Critical Literacy skill set
in any subject matter will elevate your learning and teaching above that of others. It
will enable you to help develop future leaders who will redesign a more equitable
society for future generations to come.

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Before you go on, reflect on what you have learnt so far and complete the self-
assessment activity. If your answer is UNSURE or NO on any of the criteria, go back
to the relevant section to study it again.

90 minutes
21
Self-assessment activity: Unit 3
If your answer is UNSURE or NO on any of the criteria, go back to the relevant
section to study it again.

Now that I have worked through this unit, I YES UNSURE NO

can:
Demonstrate an understanding of how critical
pedagogy differs from other teaching and
learning pedagogies.
Develop a critical pedagogy approach to
teaching.
Demonstrate an understanding of students’
resistance to critical pedagogy.
Demonstrate an understanding of teachers’
resistance to critical pedagogy.

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ADDENDUM A: STATUE OF WW2 KISS VANDALISED AFTER US

SAILOR'S DEATH

19 February 2019

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-
47287048?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.com/news/topics/cql0269k80xt/metoo-
campaign&link_location=live-reporting-story

 George Mendonsa, US WW2 'kissing sailor', dies aged 95

 What has #MeToo actually changed?

The day after the death of the US sailor famously photographed kissing a
stranger at the end of World War Two, a statue depicting the moment has been
vandalised with graffiti reading "#MeToo".

Red spray paint was used to vandalise the "Unconditional Surrender" statue in
Sarasota, Florida, on Monday, according to local police.

Police estimate the cost of the damage to be $1,000 (£765) "due to the large area that
the graffiti covers".

For many the image of George Mendonsa kissing Greta Zimmer Friedman represents
the joy felt across the US on the day Japan surrendered, ending World War Two.
However, in more recent years some have suggested the photo depicts an act of
sexual assault, given the fact Mr Mendonsa did not have Ms Friedman's consent to
kiss her.

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The MeToo movement has shone a light on historic claims of sexual assault, and
opened up a debate about consent and assault.

In a 2005 interview for the Veteran's History Project, Greta Zimmer Friedman said it
wasn't her choice to be kissed and that Mr Mendonsa "grabbed" her.
However, she made it clear the kiss was a "jubilant act" and "it was just an event of
'thank god the war is over.'"

After Ms Zimmer's death in 2016, her son told the New York Times his mother did not
view the kiss negatively.

Sarasota Police Department shared the images of the defaced statue on social media,
leading many to express their annoyance at the graffiti and the insinuation that the kiss
was sexual assault.

"This statue represents a period in time that many today cannot relate to," one person
wrote on Facebook. "The whole country was celebrating the end of a war - the whole
country was together in that celebration."

Another commented: "Sexual assault is terrible but this was certainly not that situation.
I can assure you this poor man who just died this week was not thinking of sexually
assaulting a woman when he found out World War Two was over!"

Others suggested that the vandalism was disrespectful, given Mr Mendonsa's recent
death.

"[It is] sad this happened, especially since this guy just died the other day at 95 years
old."

However, others suggested the graffiti was justified.

One Facebook user urged the city to "take the statue down".
"It may be called 'Unconditional Surrender,' but the circumstance was 'Involuntary
Surrender.' She didn't know that guy, he just grabbed her and kissed her," the
commenter continued.

"[I'm] not saying this woman feels like a victim, but technically it was an unwanted,
unsolicited sexual act. Plain and simple," another person wrote.
"The MeToo movement is also meant to educate and understand that women cannot
continue to be seen as sex objects that men can just take when they want!"

The City of Sarasota confirmed the graffiti was removed on Tuesday morning.

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ADDENDUM B: ONE GREEN PLANET

BY ALEKSANDRE PAJDA
https://www.onegreenplanet.org/news/school-kids-petition-ban-plastic-straws-uk/

The other articles / texts that are reference for activities must be added as annexures.
I am struggling to print or copy from online magazines. Technical team to assist please.

A group of school children in England recently decided to take serious action for
the well-being of our planet in the light of the plastic pollution crisis. A class of nine to
10-year-olds from Oxley Park Academy in Milton Keynes launched a campaign to get
plastic straws banned in the UK. A tax on single-use plastics is in the works in the UK,
but these kids want to make certain that action is taken – and soon!

The group of little activists created a petition that now needs 10,000 signatures in
order for the issue in question to be debated in Parliament, Metro reports. Once all the
signatures are collected, the year five class will present their petition to Michael Gove,
Secretary of State for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs.

By acting against the careless overuse of plastic, the kids are taking the future into
their own hands. “The most shocking thing about plastic pollution is that it is a problem,
created by adults, that will affect our children so much more than it affects us,” the
school said in a statement.

As part of their anti-plastic efforts, the group also produced a short film that won an
award at the primary school film festival LitFilmFest last year. These action-oriented
kids have already convinced local pubs to drop plastic straws – pretty impressive!

“Oxley Park Academy want to ban straws because they are atrocious for our
environment,” the group writes. Straws are a big part of the total plastic waste that
accumulates in landfills and ends up dumped into the oceans every year. Once in the
water system, plastic threatens marine life by polluting the environment and directly
causing deaths via entanglement and ingestion. In America alone, around 500
million plastic straws are used every single day! It is now estimated that there will be
more plastic than fish in the planet’s oceans by 2050! We could all stand to take action
like these kids and help fight plastic pollution where we live.

The petition prepared by the class has already been signed by over 6,000
people. Click here to add your signature!

To find out how you can help the planet by reducing the plastic in your life, check
out One Green Planet’s #CrushPlastic campaign!

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ADDENDUM C: CRITICAL LITERACY’S ONGOING IMPORTANCE FOR

EDUCATION

Janks, H. (2014). Critical literacy's ongoing importance for education. Journal of

Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 57(5), pp. 349-356. doi: 10.1002/jaal.260

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