Critical literacy, according to Paulo Fiere, getting students to activate their critical consciousness. (1970) In the context of the English Literature classroom, this involves helping students to go beyond the literal meaning of the text and getting them to discover the ideologies embedded within. In other words, students are no longer passive subjects of the things they read, but rather, they play an active role in discovering how has the text can shape readers and the world they live in. According to Fiere, this should not stop at a 'discovery stage,' he advocates that students eventually take up a more activist position to transform the world they live in. In the context of the Lower Secondary Singapore Literature Classroom, I argue that teachers can leverage on the richness of fiction and help students discover how it actually reveals the reality of the world they live in - involving students to adopt a more activist approach to learning would position English Literature as a transformative subject that goes beyond the boundaries of fiction into the world of reality.
The problem is, many teachers often assume that critical literacy is a higher level ability that is difficult to attain- one which would perhaps, be more appropriate for the more matured Upper Secondary level students. As a result, lower secondary students are often confined to the exploration of texts at a textual level. The irony is that, students taking English Literature at the upper secondary level would have to focus on the high stakes N and O level examinations and "teachers are expected to manage their limited curriculum time carefully, lest they risk compromising their student's performances in these high stakes examinations." (Liew, 2013, p184) This leaves little room for the exploration of critical thinking at the upper secondary level. Therefore, it is only logical for teachers to explore on how critical thinking can be cultivated at a lower secondary level. The notion of critical literacy being difficult to cultivate can be debunked if teachers explore how lessons can be appropriated for lower secondary students.
Firstly, I believe that dialogue would be a good starting point to foster critical inquiry. The problem is, teachers are often reluctant to engage in dialogue due to a plethora of classroom management issues that my occur - this ranges from the possibility of insensitive comments, reluctance to talk or even superficial conversations. Engaging in dialogue to foster critical inquiry might pose even more problems because sensitive issues might be raised and teachers are often compelled to avoid such situations due to the necessity to be politically correct.
Adler and Rougle suggest a range of techniques that can help foster a healthy, dialogic classroom. Firstly, they suggest that the physical layout of the classroom should be structured in a way that facilitates discussion - even though this might be seen as a superficial suggestion, I believe that this is sorely lacking in the Singapore classroom. During my teaching practice, I observed that the seating plan for most classrooms are structured in a traditional manner - students are often seated in rows, sometimes in pairs, sometimes, individually. The problem with this is that those at the back seemed to be trapped within an invisible embryo, away from class discussions. Hence, Adler and Rougle's suggested seating plans would be useful because everyone would be 'in the front,' doing so would send a strong signal to students that 'no one hides at the back.' I would also suggest that all students be equipped with a mini-white board alongside a seminar style seating arrangement - not all students are confident in articulating their viewpoints and some find it useful utilizing the mini white board as a tool to communicate with the rest of the class.
Finally, Adler and Rougle suggest that students post inquiry questions as a platform for further dialogue (2005). I take particular interest in this because in order to foster critical literacy, students should first learn how to question the text they are reading in their search for deeper meanings. Hence, the challenge will be for teachers to train students on how to formulate questions that foster deeper inquiry rather than superficial, comprehension style ones. Teachers should ponder upon questions such as:
This, I believe would be the major challenge for teachers because more often than not, the Singapore education system places too much emphasis on delivering the right answers rather than coming up with good questions. Teachers are too pre-occupied with coming up with ideas on crafting up a good answer - with the mastering of the PEEL framework being the holy grail to success. Little has been done to investigate how can questioning foster critical thinking. Perhaps, teachers can expose students to a variety of questions and scaffold the questions based on the Bloom's taxonomy model.
In conclusion, I argue that it is possible to start cultivating critical literacy for students at lower secondary level and a good starting point would be to create a classroom environment that fosters democratic dialogue. It is only then that the classroom can be a safe haven for students to "be honest and critical in expressing their opinions" (Lieu, 2013, p180) under the facilitation of a teacher. Teachers can only foster critical literacy if student's ability to question is assessed.
Firstly, I believe that dialogue would be a good starting point to foster critical inquiry. The problem is, teachers are often reluctant to engage in dialogue due to a plethora of classroom management issues that my occur - this ranges from the possibility of insensitive comments, reluctance to talk or even superficial conversations. Engaging in dialogue to foster critical inquiry might pose even more problems because sensitive issues might be raised and teachers are often compelled to avoid such situations due to the necessity to be politically correct.
Adler and Rougle suggest a range of techniques that can help foster a healthy, dialogic classroom. Firstly, they suggest that the physical layout of the classroom should be structured in a way that facilitates discussion - even though this might be seen as a superficial suggestion, I believe that this is sorely lacking in the Singapore classroom. During my teaching practice, I observed that the seating plan for most classrooms are structured in a traditional manner - students are often seated in rows, sometimes in pairs, sometimes, individually. The problem with this is that those at the back seemed to be trapped within an invisible embryo, away from class discussions. Hence, Adler and Rougle's suggested seating plans would be useful because everyone would be 'in the front,' doing so would send a strong signal to students that 'no one hides at the back.' I would also suggest that all students be equipped with a mini-white board alongside a seminar style seating arrangement - not all students are confident in articulating their viewpoints and some find it useful utilizing the mini white board as a tool to communicate with the rest of the class.
Finally, Adler and Rougle suggest that students post inquiry questions as a platform for further dialogue (2005). I take particular interest in this because in order to foster critical literacy, students should first learn how to question the text they are reading in their search for deeper meanings. Hence, the challenge will be for teachers to train students on how to formulate questions that foster deeper inquiry rather than superficial, comprehension style ones. Teachers should ponder upon questions such as:
"How can we assess student's ability to question?"
"How can we train students to question the text on a critical level?"
In conclusion, I argue that it is possible to start cultivating critical literacy for students at lower secondary level and a good starting point would be to create a classroom environment that fosters democratic dialogue. It is only then that the classroom can be a safe haven for students to "be honest and critical in expressing their opinions" (Lieu, 2013, p180) under the facilitation of a teacher. Teachers can only foster critical literacy if student's ability to question is assessed.
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