Critical Literacy

Context, Research, and Practice in the K-12 Classroom

'This is an excellent text. I particularly liked how the authors share examples of critical literacy throughout the book, especially with digital and multimedia texts. The concepts of deconstruction and reconstruction are especially good' -  Peter McDermott, The SAGE Colleges 

'I have no doubt that graduate students would find the text helpful as they build understanding and fluency in the enactment of critical literacy practices.  To date no text that I am aware of treats critical literacy in a way that encompasses elementary through high school practice.  The authors show an awareness of the kinds of questions neophytes will ask and concepts they struggle to make sense of in the context of their classroom and their community. In an era of federal literacy mandates and fast capitalism, this is a text that offers hope. Through realistic discussion of how text shapes us and is shaped by us, the book provides its readers concrete ways to engage in critical literacy practices with children from elementary through high school' - Cheryl A. Kreutter, St. John Fisher College 

Critical Literacy: Context, Research, and Practice explores the theorization and implementation of critical literacy practices. As a subset of literacy pedagogy, critical literacy is distinguished by its particular emphasis upon interacting critically with texts and situating texts within broader political, cultural, historical, and economic contexts. A key focus of this text is the praxis of critical literacy; that is, theory and practice informing each other.

Comprised of chapters that make use of clear explanations of the tenets of critical literacy, the context of literacy pedagogy in the United States, and classroom examples, this text focuses on what can be learned about the theory of critical literacy from implementation and what practice can learn from theory.