Critical Thinking and Critical Literacy

In the early days of the Reading and Writing for Critical Thinking project (RWCT) in various countries around the world, confusion sometimes arose when English speakers used the word critical. In many other languages that word does not have the meanings of discerning, reflective, analytical, or focused as it can in English; were it not for the vigilance of our translators, many RWCT participants would have left the sessions wondering why we were so excited about attacking, undermining, or humiliating someone when we spoke of critical thinking. There is another movement in educational circles that also has the word critical in its title. Critical literacy is an increasingly influential movement whose practices will be welcomed by advocates of critical thinking. The origins and aims of the two movements are different, however, so an exercise in disambiguation may be in order.

I was a founder and co-director of the Reading and Writing for Critical Thinking Project and author of many of its materials. In this role I, along with many others, was responsible for interpreting concepts and practices of critical thinking to a large number of teachers - perhaps as many as 50,000 of them in 30 countries. I also served (along with Allan Luke, Jerry Harste, David Pearson, Pat Smith, Jeannie Steele, and others) on the Joint Task Force on Critical Literacy of the International Reading Association and the National Council of Teachers of English. Thus it has been my lot to ponder both critical thinking and critical literacy. I am enthusiastic about both movements.

Certainly the critical literacy movement contains many dimensions that critical thinking advocates can find useful, yet the critical thinking movement promotes many practices and principles that should be maintained, even as we entertain new practices. This article explores what critical literacy is and where it came from. Although its proponents don't want to see it too tightly defined, or see its approaches reduced to a methodology, this article also gives one example of how critical literacy can look in practice.

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