Constructing critical literacy in English language education policy

This chapter focuses on how critical literacy is represented in policy ensembles – "collections of related policies" – for example, official curriculum texts, guidelines, and companion documents that shape the teaching of English language learners in high schools across different but related global contexts. It interrogates what value is ascribed to critical literacy for English as an Additional Language (EAL) learners within English teaching in schools in this historical moment which is characterised by discourses of English learner deficit and renewed calls for back to basics curriculum. It contributes to what Green (2018) calls the process of "exploring and interrogating the curriculum concept". Within the current policy borrowing environment, this chapter offers an overarching critical analysis of how wider discourses generated by an increasingly neo-liberalised education reform agenda are influencing constructions of critical literacy in English language education policy in schools across five contexts: Queensland, Australia; England; Ontario, Canada; California, USA; and Sweden.