Critical Literacy as Comprehension: Expanding Reader Response

This article presents the theoretical underpinnings of critical literacy and related principles. It also provides ideas for creating environments to promote reading from a critical stance, teaching strategies, sample classroom applications, and annotated lists of theme‐related texts. When engaging in critical literacy, readers move beyond traditional beliefs about reading comprehension to read not only the word but also the world. Raising questions about whose voices are represented in the text, whose voices are missing, and who gains and who loses by the reading of the text helps readers understand the text's purpose and avoid being manipulated by it. A number of essential understandings and beliefs about the power relationship between the reader and the author underpin critical literacy. These principles include focusing on issues of power and promoting reflection, transformation, and action; focusing on the problem and its complexity; understanding that critical literacy strategies are dynamic and adapt to the contexts in which they are used; and examining multiple perspectives.