Return-Path: <nifl-aalpd@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id iA4EWEd03841; Thu, 4 Nov 2004 09:32:14 -0500 (EST) Date: Thu, 4 Nov 2004 09:32:14 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <07492B7B.04636F49.0A349A3F@aol.com> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-aalpd@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-aalpd@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-aalpd@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: AWilder106@aol.com To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-aalpd@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-AALPD:1704] Re: Critical Literacy vs Critical Thinking- a crucial distinction X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 X-Mailer: Atlas Mailer 2.0 Status: O Content-Length: 4090 Lines: 38 George, Thanks for the post. "Critical literacy" is fine with me as a term. I like the term literacy, it connects to the wider world and ties reading skills into 1) adult concerns 2) freedom. The term "critical pedagogy" I find heavy handed. I know it refers to a particular group of thinkers. I think their main point is that life, schooling and literacy acquisition in particular, is unfair and linked to the distribution of power. Point taken. Read the papers, it's there. Much elaboration not needed. I worked in an inner city school. I am not skipping over misery, I am trying to document it. I have spoken with Ira Schor (sp?), he was very helpful in telling me how he turned Freire's terms and concepts into teaching techniques at the college level. I didn't google Henry Giroux, I have a critique of his work edited by one person I know (and others). Henry Giroux talks about his schooling and his life and the scars he has and what happened to him growing up, quite openly. As I recall he left a tenured position at Penn last spring to move somewhere else--Canada? However, thanks for bringing up the literacy/pedagogy terms and how they might be related for Giroux, that's useful. About the only people I trust these days when they talk social action are people who live in voluntary poverty. Can't very well cite the Church after the last couple of years. And Thomas Jefferson siring slaves? Makes you wonder about the "pursuit of happiness," doesn't it? So how does backing social justice relate to wealth acquisition? Or a tenured position? Doesn't have to be a negative. Some rich people invest in...social justice. I like functional context literacy, it appeals to the adult in me. I am a born and bred New Englander and I like modest ways of talking about the world, that goes for vocabulary. We are generally leery of being smacked by fate, so "modest" is also defensive."Accommodaton" has a specialized academic meaning, started with Piaget. The term "hegemony" makes me want to bang my head against the wall; politically, "empire" does very well for me. Semantics, word meanings, are very important because certain words are associated with other words which form networks of concepts. I am not thrilled by "appropriation," either. I pointed out to one academic that it had a negative connotation, and he was surprised, he had moved so far beyond ordinary speech. When my neighbor takes one of my plants by digging it up and putting it in her garden, I have a very clear idea of appropriation. Yes, I know there are other meanings but I think they have gotten a bit rarified. I think it is a good idea to speak and write so others can understand, easily. By gum, adult literacy! I like the term "literacy" because it also snuck in as part of federal legislation, useful to have that word in there. Have you noticed how it has spread? Used to be reading, now literacy. I prefer to use "reading" for areas like phonemic awareness. Are big words useful? Sometimes only a big word will do. "Autarky" for example is the large word for which "Iron Curtain" is an example. It is a word suggesting a defense against empire, cutting oneself off from a colonizing state. "Reading the word in order to read the world" has unfortunately become glib. "Unfortunately" because I think it is a useful way of thinking. "Glib" means that it is a phrase used as an insiders term related to Freire, a kind of code tag line. I am not a philosopher or a theorist, I have the soul of a school teacher, and my interest is in the classroom. If by a wider understanding of "critical literacy" I can begin to understand how more effective work can be done with adult students, that's fine with me. This and other list servs are intensely useful because I can hear real people speaking about what they really do, their frustrations, their questions. Have you noticed there is not a list serv on reading? Unless I missed something. So reading comments get tucked into discussions on other list servs. Why do you think that is? Andrea
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