An Alternative: Critical Literacy
This unfair and dogmatic relationship with text is entirely antithetical to the reason the reading of literature is taught in school, and, even more broadly, is valuable as a human experience. The power of a text does not lie in one specific and concrete interpretation, but in the text's ability to act as a conduit to access and wrestle with abstract questions and a broad range of experiences--familiar or unfamiliar, real or imagined. The static, passive process of interpretation described above misses entirely the point of literacy. Literacy is not merely the ability to comprehend text, but rather the ability to actively make meaning of a text. In the words of Deborah Appleman, “when you give someone literacy, you give them power:” the power to independently engage with literary text in an authentic way puts the power of education (education as a process of exploration, meaning-making, and self-development) into the hands of the student (pg. 8, 2015).
The topic of critical literacy offers a rich source of pedagogical theory that wrestles with this problem of a lack of student agency, and a subsequent lack of relevance, in literature classrooms. Christine Pescatore defines critical literacy as follows:
The topic of critical literacy offers a rich source of pedagogical theory that wrestles with this problem of a lack of student agency, and a subsequent lack of relevance, in literature classrooms. Christine Pescatore defines critical literacy as follows:
[Critical literacy] means taking a critical stance toward ‘official knowledge’… It offers a way to speak out against injustice and unfairness… Critical literacy is an active engagement with the world as well as with text and requires the ability to think critically.’ (pg. 330, 2007)
The arc of this definition strikingly coincides with the problem experienced in my classroom: students understood literary interpretation not as independent meaning-making, but rather as “official knowledge,” bestowed on them from an authority figure (me). This led to a lack of academic and personal agency: the study of literature offered students no voice with which to “speak out.” And lastly, as a result of the previous two issues, the study of literature becomes a flattened and contrived act, demanding no real critical thinking of students and holding no bearing on the “real world” as students experience it.
The Question
How can we foster critical literacy (equitably building interpretive agency and relevant meaning-making skills) in a Secondary English classroom?