Beginning by situating the roots of critical literacy within the landscape of literacy research, this course explores how critical literacy has been taken up by educators, in and out of formal school settings, both historically and in contemporary educational contexts, in North America as well as globally. Weekly readings and examples highlight how K-Adult teachers invite students, to paraphrase Paulo Freire, to critically read and rewrite their worlds, examine power relationships in society, understand the function of ideology in a wide range of texts, and situate their learning within broader political contexts.

This course is designed as a collaborative inquiry into the field of critical literacy and its relation to our own teaching and research. Each week, we will look at examples from practice and from research literature to explore how critical literacy has been taken up in school and community settings. Our engagement with scholars in the field will be done with an eye to how their work can inform our own research and teaching.