Concerns about Crit Lit?

Thinking about what critical literacy means to people in different places and contexts... I was reading through some documents for a school improvement and teacher training program in Bosnia-Hercegovina. For a practicum, some students from my program will be travelling there, with faculty members to perform a formative evaluation. The focus of much of the teacher training was based on a program that attempts to develop critical thinking in students through reading and writing. The basis of the training program was developed by an organization in NY and is to be adapted by trainers and educators to suit the needs of the country.

This brings up a lot of questions. What would critical literacy entail in Bosnia-Hercegovina? What is the situation with children's literature there? I'm sure there is plenty of it, but what are the underlying messages, biases and perspectives? What other texts are children reading?
More importantly, what are the dangers in critical literacy? If we ask students to enquire, be critical, take action, is there a support network in place? Imagine for example, opening discussions about recent history texts in the context of post-conflict Bosnia-Hercegovina. Texts are most certain to be biased in someway, and will probably always seem so to at least one of the different ethnic/religious groups. This is a very heavy topic to address in a classroom(or anywhere), and could also create issues for the students with their families and communities outside the school. This is just one example if how critical literacy and discussion of sensitive topics could have unintended effects, and may not always present the opportunity for students to carry through with the valuable step of social action.

As critical literacy and critical thinking become integrated in school reform initiatives around the world, I think educators have to carefully consider the ethical considerations in different contexts. I'm not talking about students getting into trouble by oppressive regimes or anything like that. I'm talking about how their peers, families and local societal structures may react to new ideas and opinions generated by the students. For example, exploring literature and discussing gender inequalities in Georgia, a country where I taught, was very delicate. Girls could explore the societal enequalities and roles and how they felt about it, but outside that safe environment the roles were imposed on them without much personal say in the matter. I'm not saying educators should avoid difficult topics, not at all. However, educators need to at least consider what their students are up against outside the classroom. Now that I think about it, it would be interesting to consider any ethical concerns about implementing critical literacy curriculum in US schools. Are there concerns for students well-being when they participate in critical literacy and consequent social action? What happens when their families/communities aren't supportive? Perhaps it's not a major concern, but it's something to think about.

The Nitty Gritty

Now that I've read a good portion of Prof. Vasquez book, Negotiating Critical Literacies with Young Children I feel like I have a much better handle on how critical literacy unfolds in a practical setting. I'm really surprised at the topics she goes into with children ages 3-5. When reading the experiences of the children in her class, their dialogue, their control over the classroom agenda and their curiosity it makes me reflect on my own education, especially as a young child. It was certainly nothing like that. We were generally not asked to think about texts, or anything else for that matter, critically. I don't mean to be hard on my teachers, they did their best and many of them were caring and professional. However, in the long run, the message I recieved (loud and clear) was that it was the grades that mattered. I think this stamped out a lot of my natural curiosity about things. Everything that had to do with school was work, and everything else was what I really wanted to be doing, and I never mixed the two. I ended up doing well in school, but I've had a lot of difficulty choosing my path of study and concentrating on one discipline even as I reach the end of my masters degree. I think this has a lot to do with the how I was taught to learn, namely passively, and that the ultimate goal of learning is how you are evaluated by the teacher, mostly in a quantitative nature.

I like Vivian's example so much particularly because her students are learning to be independent inquirers and the skills they are learning, writing, math, etc are skills they need immediately to complete a project or activity that is important to them. They are learning to be critical, they are learning about certain topic areas, but most importantly they are learning how to learn, and how to find out about what they don't already know.

That's why I think it could be very valuable for students in the critical literacy classroom to explore the way the school works and how their success is evaluated. What do grades mean? (Whoa, whoa, whoa...I'm not saying we should do away with grades) Students should explore different notions of success in learning and should explore what "the school's" goals for them are. I think that examining my own learning and other people's expectations for me academically at a young age would have had an impact on my approach to learning even into adulthood.