I took the above image in a slave dungeon off the coast of Ghana (Keta, Volta Region)
critical literacy;
the path to decolonizing education
Critical Literacy; The Path to Decolonizing Education
Giroux (1983) asks an essential question that leads my study: “how do we make education meaningful by making it critical, and how do we make it critical so as to make it emancipatory?” (3). Critical literacy is a loaded term that implies critical education, theory, and pedagogy. (Freire, 1998; Apple, 2001). In mentioning critical literacy, I consider the awareness that individuals have regarding what informs their respective perspectives. Critical literacy involves understanding one’s point of view and intentionally critiquing one’s assumptions and what one perceives to be common knowledge. This step is an essential part of historical thinking. Freire (1998) wrote “I am not impartial or objective; not a fixed observer of facts and happening to be an adherent of the traits that falsely claim impartiality or objectivity… whoever really observes, does so from a given point of view” (p. 22). This understanding of history and reality empowers us to appreciate multiple perspectives and therefore encourages us to understand different perspectives.
Eurocentric perspectives commonly frame society’s notions of common knowledge. There are many times when even among colleagues, I’m expected to know about European thinkers, but when I reference African philosophers or theorists, these sources are expected to be unknown. Literacy, to me, centers on reading between the lines, which involves recognizing how one frames knowledge or how knowledge has been framed. Many educators and theorists cite critical education as a necessity for the decolonizing process. (Ndimande, 2004). Decolonizing education involves recognizing that knowledge is a social construct and that we have been conditioned as Freire argues. In Educating the Right Way, Michael Apple challenges neoconservative notions of “real knowledge” that create a fear of the “Other”. The real knowledge or knowledge worth knowing that is prioritized in our schools is “often an ethnocentric, and even racialized, understanding of the world” (p. 52). Expanding our notions of knowledge can therefore liberate and uplift marginalized people and communities. I argue that critical literacy must also be used to challenge people of privilege and of the ‘dominant’ culture. We need to assert critical literacy in privileged spaces. It is an essential step for challenging injustice in society, developing empathy and proposing inclusive solutions.
For students whose identities have been marginalized, a culturally responsive pedagogy or culturally relevant curriculum is essential to their development. This critical education is essential for all. Delpit (1995) agrees, mentioning that, “while students need technical skills to open doors, they also need to be able to think critically and creatively in order to participate in meaningful and potentially liberating work inside those doors” (p. 19). She further states, “Let there be no doubt: a skilled minority person who is not also capable of critical analysis becomes the trainable, low-level functionary of the dominant society, simply the grease that keeps the institutions which orchestrate his or her oppression running smoothly” (p. 19). Critical literacy is liberating for students whose identities have been placed on the margins and can empower them to... In citing Neito (2002), Ndimande (2004) points out that curriculum often assimilates students to mainstream eurocentric culture. In referencing Ferdman, Ladson-Billings (1994) points out that “being literate has always referred to having mastery over process by means of which culturally significant information is coded” (p. 103). In understanding the code that suppresses narratives and perspectives, those who have been placed on the periphery can dismantle it. But they cannot do it alone.
It is equally important for privileged members of society to develop critical literacy so that as Ladson-Billings (2014) explains, they can “critique the very basis of their privilege and advantage” (p. 83). This is where the importance of critical literacy in elite spaces becomes apparent. An abundance of research (Apple, 1996; Bourdieu, 1985; Delpit, 1995; Nieto, 2002; Ngugi wa Thiong’o, 1986) has shown that dominant groups have power and privilege to determine the kind of knowledge taught in schools. This common knowledge reflects the dominant groups and places “the other” on the periphery. The ‘other’ is someone who identifies with an ethnic, class, gender, religious, sexual, racial group that does not belong to the dominant group in society. Placing knowledge of these groups on the periphery in the classroom ultimately translates into these identities being placed on the margins as well. In this sense, as Freire would argue, the classroom, and education as a whole, serves as a model for society.
By asserting critical literacy into the curriculum in these elite spaces, we can interrupt the normalization of eurocentric curriculum by raising awareness of students in dominant groups. These students may be uninformed or blind to their power and the experiences of those on the margins. As Peggy McIntosh implies, critical literacy can promote an active citizenry and create more inclusive and representative spaces for learning.
As an educator, I think the role of school is to encourage and facilitate critical consciousness. Critical thinking promotes citizenship and progresses society. We can teach our students to critically engage in a manner that promotes inclusion and social justice, freedom for all. Schools are where we condition constituents. If our curriculum and notions of knowledge prioritize white values, so will our society and policy. The educational system partially normalizes the dominant culture that enables the killing of black people. Critical education seeks the construction of reflective democratic citizens. As a teacher of history, I constantly ask myself how the material I explore with my students informs how we interpret and understand events today.
Shor (1999), also writes that critical literacy involves questioning knowledge that is received and challenging all forms of inequality. He argues that questioning and challenging develop an activist citizenry. In this sense, critical literacy in schools is a necessity for promoting democracy and social justice in society. Critical literacy, associated with experience and mutuality is about teachers and students developing their perspectives and constructing understandings together.
Ndimande (2004) attempts to “problematize the unrepresentative classroom curriculum that has led to the (re)colonization of the ‘Other’” (p. 198). The first step in problematizing and interrupting is recognizing that there are many legitimate experiences, narratives and perspectives. When the curriculum does not expose students to multiple perspectives, students cannot explore other realities and cannot develop a sense of empathy or even a metacognitive understanding of their role in the world. It is important for students from the “dominant” groups to have exposure to multiple narratives so that they are not oblivious to the injustices that prevail. An example, is celebrating Thanksgiving without learning about the atrocities Native Americans faced in this country and the legacy that still lingers in reservations today. Celebrating Christopher Columbus as a great explorer and not critiquing his racist and violent policy. Many of my students admitted that they had no idea that Columbus committed genocide. Recognizing that history honored the experiences of the two Mohawk students in my class who understood that their ancestors’ experiences were as valid as anyone else’s. Perspective taking enables the recognition of the relationship between language and power. Another example of how this appears in my class is questioning how many from the dominant group refer to Benjamin Franklin, Hamilton and many others as our “founding fathers”. My students and I discussed that the term “founding fathers” is not inclusive to people of color. These men did hold blacks in bondage as slaves. The term founding fathers implies that there are inheritors and people of color are perhaps, rather items to be inherited. It also removes women from the picture.
Like glass, the curriculum presented in schools should be a reflection of identities in society; and histories should share a range of narratives from across communities. Students have to be able to connect their experiences to what they are learning. Indeed, this is the first step to making education experiential as Dewey (1916) argued it should be. This means that students who do not identify with the dominant culture should still see a reflection of their identity in the classroom curriculum. Critical literacy empowers us to recognize that equating a eurocentric curriculum with the highest level courses emphasizes the cultural hegemony that plagues our schools. Schools and educators prioritize knowledge and thus, knowledge becomes political when it shapes our line of thinking and notions of humanity. As long as the curriculum/textbook developers, and teachers are not multiculturally competent and continue to pursue a eurocentric stance, eurocentric ideals will maintain their status as the knowledge worth knowing. Our formal education primes us to support institutional racism while validating mistreatment of those we consider to be the “minority”. Without critical literacy, education can contribute to metaphysical empires. The classroom and therefore society can be decolonized, and can become a place for cooperative relations.
References
Apple, M. W. (2001). Educating the “right” way. New York, NY: RoutledgeFalmer.
Ayers, W. (2001). To teach: The journey of a teacher. New York: Teachers College Press.
Delpit, Lisa. 1995. Other people’s children: Cultural conflict in the classroom. New York: The New York Press.
Dewey, John. 1900(1971). The school and society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
----. 1916. (1966). Democracy and education. New York: Free Press.
Freire, P. (1998). Pedagogy of freedom. Lanham, MD: Rowan & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Giroux, H. (1983). Theory and resistance in eduaction: A pedagogy for the opposition. South Hadley, MA: Bergin & Garvey Publishers Inc.
González, N., Moll, L.C., & Amanti, C. (Eds.). (2005). Funds of Knowledge: Theorizing practices in households and classrooms. Malwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Hamachek, D. (1999). Effective teachers: What they do, how they do it, and the importance of self-knowledge. In R. P. Lipka & T. M. Brinthaupt (Eds.), The role of self in teacher development (pp. 189–224). Albany: State University of New York Press.
Ladson-Billings, G. (1994). The dreamkeepers. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & sonds, Inc.
Kamenetz, Anya (January 20, 2016) To Be Young, ‘Gifted And Black, It Helps to Have a Black Teacher. NPR Ed. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2016/01/20/463190789/to-be-young-gifted-and-black-it-helps-to-have-a-black-teacher
Nakkula, M. J., & Toshalis, E. (2006). Understanding youth: Adolescent development for educators. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.
Nancy E. Perry, Julianne C. Turner, Debra K. Meyer. 18 May 2006, Classrooms as Contexts for Motivating Learning from: Handbook of Educational Psychology Routledge.
Accessed on: 22 Apr 2016
https://www.routledgehandbooks.com/doi/10.4324/9780203874790.ch15
Ndimande, B. S. (2004). Decolonizing research in cross-cultural contexts: Critical personal narratives (Mutua, K., & Swadener, B. B, Comp.). Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Rogers, R., & Wetzel, M. M. (2014). Designing critical literacy education through critical discourse analysis. New York, NY: Routledge Taylor & Francis.
Shor, I. (1999, Fall). What is critical literacy. Journal of Pedagogy, Pluralism and Practice, 1(4). Retrieved from http://www.lesley.edu/journal-pedagogy-pluralism-practice/ira-shor/critical-literacy/
Giroux (1983) asks an essential question that leads my study: “how do we make education meaningful by making it critical, and how do we make it critical so as to make it emancipatory?” (3). Critical literacy is a loaded term that implies critical education, theory, and pedagogy. (Freire, 1998; Apple, 2001). In mentioning critical literacy, I consider the awareness that individuals have regarding what informs their respective perspectives. Critical literacy involves understanding one’s point of view and intentionally critiquing one’s assumptions and what one perceives to be common knowledge. This step is an essential part of historical thinking. Freire (1998) wrote “I am not impartial or objective; not a fixed observer of facts and happening to be an adherent of the traits that falsely claim impartiality or objectivity… whoever really observes, does so from a given point of view” (p. 22). This understanding of history and reality empowers us to appreciate multiple perspectives and therefore encourages us to understand different perspectives.
Eurocentric perspectives commonly frame society’s notions of common knowledge. There are many times when even among colleagues, I’m expected to know about European thinkers, but when I reference African philosophers or theorists, these sources are expected to be unknown. Literacy, to me, centers on reading between the lines, which involves recognizing how one frames knowledge or how knowledge has been framed. Many educators and theorists cite critical education as a necessity for the decolonizing process. (Ndimande, 2004). Decolonizing education involves recognizing that knowledge is a social construct and that we have been conditioned as Freire argues. In Educating the Right Way, Michael Apple challenges neoconservative notions of “real knowledge” that create a fear of the “Other”. The real knowledge or knowledge worth knowing that is prioritized in our schools is “often an ethnocentric, and even racialized, understanding of the world” (p. 52). Expanding our notions of knowledge can therefore liberate and uplift marginalized people and communities. I argue that critical literacy must also be used to challenge people of privilege and of the ‘dominant’ culture. We need to assert critical literacy in privileged spaces. It is an essential step for challenging injustice in society, developing empathy and proposing inclusive solutions.
For students whose identities have been marginalized, a culturally responsive pedagogy or culturally relevant curriculum is essential to their development. This critical education is essential for all. Delpit (1995) agrees, mentioning that, “while students need technical skills to open doors, they also need to be able to think critically and creatively in order to participate in meaningful and potentially liberating work inside those doors” (p. 19). She further states, “Let there be no doubt: a skilled minority person who is not also capable of critical analysis becomes the trainable, low-level functionary of the dominant society, simply the grease that keeps the institutions which orchestrate his or her oppression running smoothly” (p. 19). Critical literacy is liberating for students whose identities have been placed on the margins and can empower them to... In citing Neito (2002), Ndimande (2004) points out that curriculum often assimilates students to mainstream eurocentric culture. In referencing Ferdman, Ladson-Billings (1994) points out that “being literate has always referred to having mastery over process by means of which culturally significant information is coded” (p. 103). In understanding the code that suppresses narratives and perspectives, those who have been placed on the periphery can dismantle it. But they cannot do it alone.
It is equally important for privileged members of society to develop critical literacy so that as Ladson-Billings (2014) explains, they can “critique the very basis of their privilege and advantage” (p. 83). This is where the importance of critical literacy in elite spaces becomes apparent. An abundance of research (Apple, 1996; Bourdieu, 1985; Delpit, 1995; Nieto, 2002; Ngugi wa Thiong’o, 1986) has shown that dominant groups have power and privilege to determine the kind of knowledge taught in schools. This common knowledge reflects the dominant groups and places “the other” on the periphery. The ‘other’ is someone who identifies with an ethnic, class, gender, religious, sexual, racial group that does not belong to the dominant group in society. Placing knowledge of these groups on the periphery in the classroom ultimately translates into these identities being placed on the margins as well. In this sense, as Freire would argue, the classroom, and education as a whole, serves as a model for society.
By asserting critical literacy into the curriculum in these elite spaces, we can interrupt the normalization of eurocentric curriculum by raising awareness of students in dominant groups. These students may be uninformed or blind to their power and the experiences of those on the margins. As Peggy McIntosh implies, critical literacy can promote an active citizenry and create more inclusive and representative spaces for learning.
As an educator, I think the role of school is to encourage and facilitate critical consciousness. Critical thinking promotes citizenship and progresses society. We can teach our students to critically engage in a manner that promotes inclusion and social justice, freedom for all. Schools are where we condition constituents. If our curriculum and notions of knowledge prioritize white values, so will our society and policy. The educational system partially normalizes the dominant culture that enables the killing of black people. Critical education seeks the construction of reflective democratic citizens. As a teacher of history, I constantly ask myself how the material I explore with my students informs how we interpret and understand events today.
Shor (1999), also writes that critical literacy involves questioning knowledge that is received and challenging all forms of inequality. He argues that questioning and challenging develop an activist citizenry. In this sense, critical literacy in schools is a necessity for promoting democracy and social justice in society. Critical literacy, associated with experience and mutuality is about teachers and students developing their perspectives and constructing understandings together.
Ndimande (2004) attempts to “problematize the unrepresentative classroom curriculum that has led to the (re)colonization of the ‘Other’” (p. 198). The first step in problematizing and interrupting is recognizing that there are many legitimate experiences, narratives and perspectives. When the curriculum does not expose students to multiple perspectives, students cannot explore other realities and cannot develop a sense of empathy or even a metacognitive understanding of their role in the world. It is important for students from the “dominant” groups to have exposure to multiple narratives so that they are not oblivious to the injustices that prevail. An example, is celebrating Thanksgiving without learning about the atrocities Native Americans faced in this country and the legacy that still lingers in reservations today. Celebrating Christopher Columbus as a great explorer and not critiquing his racist and violent policy. Many of my students admitted that they had no idea that Columbus committed genocide. Recognizing that history honored the experiences of the two Mohawk students in my class who understood that their ancestors’ experiences were as valid as anyone else’s. Perspective taking enables the recognition of the relationship between language and power. Another example of how this appears in my class is questioning how many from the dominant group refer to Benjamin Franklin, Hamilton and many others as our “founding fathers”. My students and I discussed that the term “founding fathers” is not inclusive to people of color. These men did hold blacks in bondage as slaves. The term founding fathers implies that there are inheritors and people of color are perhaps, rather items to be inherited. It also removes women from the picture.
Like glass, the curriculum presented in schools should be a reflection of identities in society; and histories should share a range of narratives from across communities. Students have to be able to connect their experiences to what they are learning. Indeed, this is the first step to making education experiential as Dewey (1916) argued it should be. This means that students who do not identify with the dominant culture should still see a reflection of their identity in the classroom curriculum. Critical literacy empowers us to recognize that equating a eurocentric curriculum with the highest level courses emphasizes the cultural hegemony that plagues our schools. Schools and educators prioritize knowledge and thus, knowledge becomes political when it shapes our line of thinking and notions of humanity. As long as the curriculum/textbook developers, and teachers are not multiculturally competent and continue to pursue a eurocentric stance, eurocentric ideals will maintain their status as the knowledge worth knowing. Our formal education primes us to support institutional racism while validating mistreatment of those we consider to be the “minority”. Without critical literacy, education can contribute to metaphysical empires. The classroom and therefore society can be decolonized, and can become a place for cooperative relations.
References
Apple, M. W. (2001). Educating the “right” way. New York, NY: RoutledgeFalmer.
Ayers, W. (2001). To teach: The journey of a teacher. New York: Teachers College Press.
Delpit, Lisa. 1995. Other people’s children: Cultural conflict in the classroom. New York: The New York Press.
Dewey, John. 1900(1971). The school and society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
----. 1916. (1966). Democracy and education. New York: Free Press.
Freire, P. (1998). Pedagogy of freedom. Lanham, MD: Rowan & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Giroux, H. (1983). Theory and resistance in eduaction: A pedagogy for the opposition. South Hadley, MA: Bergin & Garvey Publishers Inc.
González, N., Moll, L.C., & Amanti, C. (Eds.). (2005). Funds of Knowledge: Theorizing practices in households and classrooms. Malwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Hamachek, D. (1999). Effective teachers: What they do, how they do it, and the importance of self-knowledge. In R. P. Lipka & T. M. Brinthaupt (Eds.), The role of self in teacher development (pp. 189–224). Albany: State University of New York Press.
Ladson-Billings, G. (1994). The dreamkeepers. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & sonds, Inc.
Kamenetz, Anya (January 20, 2016) To Be Young, ‘Gifted And Black, It Helps to Have a Black Teacher. NPR Ed. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2016/01/20/463190789/to-be-young-gifted-and-black-it-helps-to-have-a-black-teacher
Nakkula, M. J., & Toshalis, E. (2006). Understanding youth: Adolescent development for educators. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.
Nancy E. Perry, Julianne C. Turner, Debra K. Meyer. 18 May 2006, Classrooms as Contexts for Motivating Learning from: Handbook of Educational Psychology Routledge.
Accessed on: 22 Apr 2016
https://www.routledgehandbooks.com/doi/10.4324/9780203874790.ch15
Ndimande, B. S. (2004). Decolonizing research in cross-cultural contexts: Critical personal narratives (Mutua, K., & Swadener, B. B, Comp.). Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Rogers, R., & Wetzel, M. M. (2014). Designing critical literacy education through critical discourse analysis. New York, NY: Routledge Taylor & Francis.
Shor, I. (1999, Fall). What is critical literacy. Journal of Pedagogy, Pluralism and Practice, 1(4). Retrieved from http://www.lesley.edu/journal-pedagogy-pluralism-practice/ira-shor/critical-literacy/