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Reflective teaching, critical literacyand the teacher's tasks in the criticalliteracy classroom. A confirmatoryinvestigationMark A. Minott aa Department of Teacher Education, University College of theCayman Islands, Olympic Way, Cayman IslandsPublished online: 25 Jan 2011.

To cite this article: Mark A. Minott (2011) Reflective teaching, critical literacy and the teacher'stasks in the critical literacy classroom. A confirmatory investigation, Reflective Practice:International and Multidisciplinary Perspectives, 12:1, 73-85, DOI: 10.1080/14623943.2011.541096

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Reflective PracticeVol. 12, No. 1, February 2011, 73–85

ISSN 1462-3943 print/ISSN 1470-1103 online© 2011 Taylor & FrancisDOI: 10.1080/14623943.2011.541096http://www.informaworld.com

Reflective teaching, critical literacy and the teacher’s tasks in the critical literacy classroom. A confirmatory investigation

Mark A. Minott*

Department of Teacher Education, University College of the Cayman Islands, Olympic Way, Cayman IslandsTaylor and FrancisCREP_A_541096.sgm(Received 20 April 2010; final version received 8 September 2010)10.1080/14623943.2011.541096Reflective Practice1462-3943 (print)/1470-1103 (online)Original Article2011Taylor & Francis121000000February [email protected]

The purpose of this literary investigation is twofold: first, to make explicit theconnections between reflective teaching and critical literacy, and second, to inferfrom the findings key tasks for teachers in the critical literacy classroom.Specifically, the investigation shows that the following features of reflectiveteaching connect with and form the core of critical literacy, and are vital to theteaching of critical literacy: giving careful consideration or thought in order tocreate meaning and pass judgement; questioning personal assumptions, values andbeliefs; taking initiatives and using intuition; taking part in development andchange; and the use of journal writing. Examples of teachers’ tasks in the criticalliteracy classroom include: building time into lesson plans and implementation forstudents to give careful consideration and thought to and to pass judgement on thetext being studied; guiding students’ evaluations and criticisms in a judiciousmanner; encouraging students to look critically at literature and question what theyare reading; emphasizing the readings of texts from a variety of perspectives;allowing students to use journals to write entries that juxtapose multiple viewpoints;and facilitating discussions generally that are based on students’ journal entries.

Keywords: reflective teaching; critical literacy; teaching; teacher; social change;journaling; questioning

Introduction

As a reflective practitioner who teaches the subjects Literacy and Numeracy across theSchool Curriculum and Early Literacy Development, I ‘sensed’ that there was aconnection between reflective teaching and critical literacy.

To confirm my theory, I carried out an investigation of literature on both subjectsand solicited the help of four final year teacher education students at the local univer-sity college where I teach. The students were Thea, Sammy, Micheal and Kerry(pseudonyms). During their pre-service years at the University College they hadcompleted courses in reflective teaching and literacy. The students were given oneweek in which to research, reflect and answer the question, ‘What is the connectionbetween reflective teaching and critical literacy?’ The results of the confirmatoryinvestigation revealed that there are features of reflective teaching that connect withand form the core of critical literacy, and are vital to the teaching of critical literacy.This revelation also has implications for the teaching of critical literacy. This paper

*Email: [email protected]

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outlines and discusses the finding of the investigation and the inferences made aboutthe tasks of teachers in the critical literacy classroom.

Rationale for the investigation

There are four reasons why this investigation is important. First, both reflective teach-ing and critical literacy are important to teachers, schools and the community. Reflec-tive teaching is a perennial and worldwide topic. See, for example, the work of Ghayeand Ghaye (1998), Cole (1997), Canada; Hatton and Smith (1995), Australia;Zeichner and Liston (1996), United States; Day (1999) United Kingdom; Farrell(2001), Singapore; Hyrkas, Tarkka and Ilmonen (2001) Finland; and Minott (2009)Cayman Islands.

It is by engaging in reflective practice that the practice of teaching is improved.This is because a reflective teacher is involved in examining, framing, attempting tosolve dilemmas of classrooms and schools, and asking questions about assumptionsand values he/she brings to teaching. It also involves attending to the institutional andcultural context in which they teach, taking part in curriculum development and beinginvolved in school change (Zeichner & Liston, 1996). Reflective teaching alsodemands that teachers employ and develop their cognitive skills as a means of improv-ing their practice. They should be able to recall, consider and evaluate their teachingexperiences as a means of improving those in the future (Farrell, 2001). Reflectiveteachers need to develop and use self-directed critical thinking and ongoing criticalinquiry in their practice, initiated by them and not administratively decreed. Thisresults in the development of contextualized knowledge (Cole, 1997; Hyrkas et al.,2001). Reflective teaching demands that teachers use and develop their effective skillsas a means of improving their practice. They use their intuition, initiative, values andexperience during teaching, and exercise judgement about the use of various teachingand research skills (Markham, 1999).

Tomlinson (2000) agreed with these ideas when she stated that it is by reflectingon the nature and needs of schools and students and being responsive that change cantake place. Essentially, reflective teaching benefits teachers, students, schools’context, and eventually the wider community, by creating students who are demo-cratic citizens (Zeichner & Liston, 1996).

The idea of critical literacy can be traced back to the works of noted BrazilianEducator Paulo Freire, in particular, his famous work reprinted in 1996 Pedagogy ofthe Oppressed, in which he argued, among other things, that education should facili-tate social change. The need for, and the occurrence of social change is worldwide,and critical literacy is seen as a catalyst for such change. Wallowitz (2008) agreedwith this view, and argued that critical literacy involves the interrogation of texts inorder to identify and challenge social constructs, ideologies, underlying assumptions,and the power structures that intentionally and unintentionally perpetuate socialinequalities and injustices. The main aim of critical literacy is to promote socialchange.

In line with these thoughts, Coffey (2009), defined critical literacy, ‘as the abilityto read texts in an active, reflective manner in order to better understand power,inequality, and injustice in human relationships’. Jones (2006) said that criticalliteracy allows a person to see beyond the familiar and comfortable and involves anunderstanding that language, practices and texts are always informed by ideologies,beliefs and perspectives, whether conscious or otherwise.

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Reflective Practice 75

Second, the importance of the investigation is seen in the fact that it contributes tofilling a literary investigation. There are no known local, and to some extent, limitedinternational writings which make the connection between reflective teaching andcritical literacy explicit. A search of the terms, ‘critical literacy’ and ‘reflective teach-ing’ on the Elton B. Stephens Company (EBSCO) database returned (0) articleswhich combine both terms. The British Education Index (BEI) returned (0) articleswhich combine both terms. The Education Resources Information Center (ERIC)returned (2) and the Australian Education Index (AEI) returned (0) articles whichcombined the terms.

Third, the results of the investigation could be a useful teaching resource forlecturers of both subjects and teachers in general, because it makes clear what shouldbe the tasks of the teacher in a critical literacy classroom.

Fourth, and most important, the investigation continues the process of givingcredence to reflective teaching as being integral to effective teaching and learning.

The investigation also reveals four features of reflective teaching that connect withand form the core of critical literacy, and are vital to the teaching of critical literacy.These are:

(1) Giving careful consideration or thought, being involved in disciplined intellec-tual criticism; combining balanced judgement with knowledge of context(Minott, 2009)

(2) Questioning personal assumptions, values and beliefs, taking initiatives andusing intuition (Hatton & Smith, 1995; Zeichner & Liston, 1996).

(3) Taking part in curriculum development and initiating changes in school(Zeichner & Liston, 1996).

(4) Utilizing journaling as a means of encouraging learning, thinking and thedevelopment of beliefs (Clarke, 2004; Chitpin, 2006; Uline, Wilson, &Cordry, 2004).

I use these as a framework to guide the discussion of the findings in the next sectionof this paper.

Connecting reflective teaching and critical literacy

The essence of this paper is summarized in a quotation from one student teacher whoparticipated in the confirmatory investigation. The student wrote:

You cannot incorporate critical literacy into your teaching programme unless you areprepared to teach reflectively. (Sammy)

Figure 1 and the resulting discussions display, explain and demonstrate this idea bymaking explicit the features of reflective teaching that connects with, forms the coreof critical literacy and are vital to the teaching of critical literacy.Figure 1. A pictorial view of the features of reflective teaching that is at the core of critical literacy and are vital to the teaching of critical literacy.

Feature of reflective teaching 1

Careful consideration or thought

Giving careful consideration or thought is a feature of reflective teaching that is vitalto the teaching of critical literacy. This is because, first, critical literacy involves

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considering or thinking about the purpose of the text and the composer’s motives,understanding that texts are not neutral, that they represent particular views, silenceother points of view and influence people’s ideas (Department of Education,Tasmania, School Education Division, 2007).

Reflective teaching also involves considering or thinking about all aspects of one’steaching, i.e. lesson planning, implementation and evaluation, teaching context and‘self’ as teacher with personal beliefs, values and assumptions, with a view to improveone’s practice.

Second, the obvious use of the word ‘reflective’ in the definition offered by Coffey(2009), in particular the phrase ‘to read in an active reflective manner’ is another indi-cator of the connection between reflective teaching and critical literacy. Embedded inthe phrase is the idea of engaging in careful consideration or thought, recalling andevaluating information, and being involved in a process of disciplined intellectualcriticism, which utilizes balanced judgement (Minott, 2009). Farrell (2001) referred tothis process as critical thinking.

Critical thinking is characterized differently by various writers. Fowler (1996)listed more than 15 definitions of critical thinking proposed by 15 different writers.

Figure 1. A pictorial view of the features of reflective teaching that is at the core of criticalliteracy and are vital to the teaching of critical literacy.

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There are some similarities as well as differences in these. An examination of the defi-nitions suggests that the writers all agree that its binding characteristic is the fact thatit is primarily a mental or cognitive process, with particular outcomes such as arrivingat appropriate beliefs, patterns of reasoning, conclusions as to whether to reject orsuspend judgement on an issue, understanding and meaning of an issue or statementand logical inferences.

This list of outcomes of critical thinking displays not only the different uses andresults of the application of it as a cognitive skill, but also its connection to criticalliteracy. For example, critical thinking can be applied to a particular text or situationand a conclusion drawn with regard to what to believe or what actions to take, or itcan result in making logical inferences from a text or conversation.

However, the point is that critical thinking is an important co-requisite of reflectiveteaching and indispensable to critical literacy and to the teaching of critical literacy.One student teacher noted the importance of critical thinking when he wrote:

Without the ability and opportunity to think critically about the resources and literaturewe are exposing our students to, we are doing them a disservice and ultimately prevent-ing education from equalizing or eliminating the social inequalities that exist. (Sammy)

It can be inferred from Sammy’s comment that he sees the ability to think critically ascrucial to both teachers and students’ engagement with critical literacy. Developingstudents’ ability to engage text critically will allow them to not only become agents ofsocial change, but doing so also enables ‘education’ to be a catalyst for change. Moreis said later in this paper about change as a feature of reflective teaching and a by-product of critical literacy.

Third, careful consideration or thought as a feature of reflective teaching connectswith critical literacy. It is vital to the teaching of critical literacy because the latterinvolves not just considering or thinking about a text, but also the ability to criticizeor pass judgement on views and perspectives underlying it, based on knowledge ofcontext, society, power structures, social inequalities and injustices (Robinson &Robinson, 2003). Reflective teaching also requires that a teacher not only considers orthinks about their teaching but also passes judgement on all aspects of their teachingfor the expressed purpose of improving practice (Zeichner & Liston, 1996).

Importantly, it is via this process of giving careful consideration or thought, recall-ing and evaluating and passing judgement on a text, that meaning is created, i.e. it isvia this process that both what the writer intends to express and what the studentunderstands from the text can be made clear. In support of this thought, anotherstudent teacher wrote:

[One role of critical literacy teaching] is to enable students to analyze messages and themeanings behind them. Critical literacy involves reading between the lines instead of justreading the text for what it is. (Thea)

So what does this mean for the teaching of critical literacy? Broadly speaking, thismeans that in a critical literacy classroom the teacher should provide opportunities,and build the time into his or her lesson plans and their implementation for studentsto give careful consideration and thought and to pass judgement on the text beingstudied.

It is imperative, however, that while students’ evaluations and criticisms should beguided by the teacher through the use of questions (e.g. What is the author’s purpose

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for writing the text? How is the author’s point of view different from others that youhave read? How can a reader determine the author’s attitude or view on the topic? andWhat bias exists in the text?), this should be done judiciously. In other words, it shouldbe done in a manner that reflects care and concern for students’ growth and welfare,which includes encouraging the freedom to make decisions and arrive at alternativeconclusions. Van Manen (1995) made the point that the concept of teachers as peda-gogue assumes that a caring interest in the growth and welfare of students motivatesone’s practice.

Doing this is also in line with the views of Freire (1995), who argued that allapproaches to teaching literacy should be about social and personal liberation. Teach-ers judiciously guiding the students’ evaluation and criticisms could contribute to thestudents experiencing a sense of personal liberation.


Questioning personal assumptions, values and beliefs, taking initiatives and using intuition

Questioning personal assumptions, values, beliefs and using one’s initiative and intu-ition is another feature of reflective teaching that is essential to the teaching of criticalliteracy. This is because critical literacy involves examining attitudes, dispositions,values and beliefs that readers bring to a text which shape the way they perceive it, aswell as the assumptions and beliefs that underlie the text and the perspectives andvoices that are missing or silenced (Luke & Freebody, 1990). Zeichner and Liston(1996) stated:

If a teacher never questions the goals and the values that guide his or her work, thecontext in which he or she teaches, or never examines his or her assumptions, then it isour belief that this individual is not engaged in reflective teaching. (p. 1)

While the similarity is obvious, the difference is that (based on Zeichner & Liston’squotation above), reflective teaching requires a questioning of personal assumptions,values and beliefs with regard to practice. However, critical literacy requires the same,but includes questioning those of the writer or composer of the text. One studentteacher wrote:

Critical literacy posits that individuals question fundamental aspects of language andmake use of higher order thinking skills such as analytical skills and are involved inpulling apart and fitting together bits of information. (Micheal)

As hinted at above, questioning is crucial to the critical literacy process because itfacilitates what Clarke and Whitney (2009) refer to as a ‘disconnect’ between readerand text, where the reader is engaged in pulling back the layers of power, perspectiveand positioning. Clarke and Whitney (2009) explain ‘disconnection’ as questioningthe extent to which the text is different from the lived experiences of the reader, or toquestion what in the text could others have a disconnect with. Using questions in sucha manner also helps to bring to the fore missing or silenced voices, values and beliefs.

Apart from questioning assumptions, values and beliefs (personal and those foundin, and supported by various texts), similar to reflective teaching, critical literacy alsoinvolves taking initiatives and using one’s intuition. This is because, fundamentally, aby-product of critical literacy is that students would ultimately act on their own in

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making social changes. These changes should be the result of an examination of theirperspectives, those of the writers, coupled with the insight gained from this experi-ence, along with their feelings and ‘hunches’. Again, the idea of social change isdiscussed later in this paper.

Therefore, what does this mean for the teaching of critical literacy? First, twostudent teachers’ responses shed some light on this matter. One wrote:

Students in a critical literacy classroom must be encouraged to look critically at literatureand question what they are reading. (Thea)

The other said:

Students should not be encouraged to always take information at face value. They shouldbe allowed to synthesize, analyze, evaluate; they should be allowed to question, and theteacher should encourage this critical attitude by questioning the students. (Micheal)

Another student teacher said:

As a classroom teacher I not only need to ascertain the interests, beliefs, cultural back-grounds and prior knowledge of my students [before engaging with a text], I also needto consider questions such as: Who will benefit? Whose interest does this serve? Whatis the purpose of using this? What is the purpose behind this? When you stop to considerthese aspects and reflect on the assumptions or beliefs that are often taken for granted byeducators, authors, groups in society and so on, both my students and I personally candetermine who is affected, whose views are represented, and help us to understand anddetermine the reality of the world we are living in. (Sammy)

These thoughts are in line with Evans (2001) who, in addressing the use of questionsin the critical literacy process, stated that it is the role of critical literacy to go beyondthe surface-level understanding of a text and encourage students to challenge andquestion the assumptions that hide behind the storyline.

While Beck, McKeown, Hamilton, and Kucan (1997) and Evans (2001) had simi-lar views, the former argued that questions should not only allow students to recall theinformation read, but should support them as they build an understanding of what theyare reading. In other words, questions or queries (Beck et al., 1997) should be lessfocused on assessing and evaluating students and more on supporting students as theyseek to make sense of what they are reading.

To help students to ‘make sense’ of texts, Beck et al. (1997) suggested askingquestions or ‘queries’ that:

● Assist students in grappling with text ideas to construct meaning and not justassess their comprehension of text information after reading.

● Facilitate group discussion about an author’s ideas and prompt student-to-student interactions, and not only evaluate individual student responses to teach-ers’ questions, but prompt teacher-to-student interactions.

● Are used during initial reading and not before or after reading. For conciseexamples of these types of questions or ‘queries’, see Beck et al. (1997,pp. 22–46).

Second, in the critical literacy classroom, this means that the teacher should emphasizethe readings of texts from a variety of perspectives. This is important because students

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interpret texts in light of their own beliefs and values, and texts will have differentmeanings to different students. This requires that students should be provided withopportunities to consider and clarify their own attitudes and values (Department ofEducation, Tasmania, School Education Division, 2007). The use of appropriate ques-tions or ‘queries’ similar to those suggested by Beck et al. (1997) will facilitate these.


Taking part in development and change

The idea of taking part in development and change is a feature of reflective teachingthat is also fundamental to the teaching of critical literacy. The ability to critically assessvarious texts in order to develop social awareness, influence socio-political change, andaddress issues such as injustice and inequity, has not only been hinted at in the foregoingdiscussion but is an important outcome or by-product of critical literacy.

This idea led Wallowitz (2008) to state that critical literacy interrogates texts inorder to identify and challenge social constructs, ideologies, underlying assumptionsand the power structures that intentionally and unintentionally perpetuate socialinequalities and injustices [so as to encourage and promote change). This idea is inline with the thought of Freire (1996), who reminded the world of the potential ofhuman agency in the process of social change.

The idea of social change being a by-product of critical literacy connects withreflective teaching in two ways. First, Zeichner and Liston (1996) quoting Gutmann(1987) argued that one role of ‘good reflective teaching’ is to expose students to avariety of perspectives and to encourage and not repress their rational deliberation onvaried views. Doing so will enable them to play an active role as adult citizens in ademocratic society. I will add that this may encourage and enable them to use rationaldeliberation as a catalyst for social change.

Second, a reflective teacher understands and accepts that there are intended andunintended outcomes or consequences to their teaching. In view of this, he/she evalu-ates his/her teaching by asking broader questions such as: Are the results of my teachinggood and for whom? In what ways? This type of questioning or self-examination shouldlead to the unearthing of personal biases, and to a realization that certain points of viewmay have been inadvertently repressed, and that doing so may deny students an educa-tion which facilitates full participation in a democratic society. Full participation mayalso mean facilitating social changes. One student teacher wrote:

Critical literacy helps an individual to develop changes in attitudes and awareness andallows one to take a stance on certain issues. (Micheal)

Another wrote:

I am not so much of the romantic or idealist that I believe that education via critical liter-acy will eliminate the problems of the world and injustices in society, but it is a big stepin the right direction. (Sammy)

What does this mean for the teaching of critical literacy? This means critical literacyinvolves more than the teaching of reading, writing, listening and speaking, as in atraditional literacy class. It should be conceptualized as a means to an end, for its mainfeature is to develop students’ social awareness and encourage social changes to issues

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such as inequalities and injustice (Clarke & Whitney, 2009). There must also be theunderstanding that teaching critical literacy is a political endeavour, for we are askingstudents not only to question the texts that we as a society hold dear, but also to usethem as catalysts to promote social change (White, 2009). The idea of promotingsocial change was also highlighted by two student teachers. One wrote:

As a teacher, I teach my students to take a stance on certain issues and provide them withthe opportunity to consider their own thinking [specifically]. I have them read regularly,many books or other sources, thus expanding their reasoning and aiding them to becomeactive thinkers, asking questions, and challenging the values and beliefs in the texts. (Thea)

Another wrote:

Literature, prose, words can move you. They have power, are a catalyst to change.People have achieved great things as a consequence of the spoken word. Simply look toMartin Luther King Jr, Nelson Mandela, Gandhi and Pope John Paul; these peopleinspire, empower and are agents of social change just through their words – written,spoken, and ultimately thought about and acted on. (Sammy)

Wellington (1996) pointed to the need for teachers to encourage political awarenessand activism in their students, and to include in their pedagogy continual questioning;they should stress empowerment, personal responsibility and being contextually sensi-tive and responsive.


Journaling

Journaling is a feature of reflective teaching that connects both subjects and is vital tothe teaching of critical literacy. As Clarke and Whitney (2009) noted, it is not enoughjust to understand the text and it is necessary to move from an understanding to creat-ing a new way of thinking, and journaling can be used to achieve this. It is alsofeatured prominently in reflective teaching. Writers such as Clarke (2004), Chitpin(2006), and Uline et al. (2004) argue that one means of facilitating and promotingreflective thinking is the use of journals.

Journaling is also linked to the development of the teachers’ beliefs, their empow-erment and learning. For example, Bell (2001), in her study, used reflective journalwriting paired with inquiry-based science instruction to positively influence pre-service teachers’ beliefs and attitudes about science and science teaching. Bell usedreflective journaling as a component in a number of instructional strategies. In spiteof the fact that reflective journaling was a single component among a number ofinstructional strategies, the writer isolated it as primarily responsible for influencingstudent teachers’ beliefs and attitudes.

The study by Clegg (1997) also pointed to the usefulness of reflective journalingin revealing tensions existing in an organization. The writer, however, made the pointthat participants in her study reported that the process of keeping a reflective journalis empowering and fostered a sense of discovery. This meant that participants inClegg’s study were more aware of contradictions in their own practices, as well as thepractices endorsed by their institution.

What does this mean for the teaching of critical literacy? First, one powerfullearning activity which uses journaling is to have student write entries that juxtapose

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multiple viewpoints. Clarke and Whitney (2009) outlined how this works by givingthe following example. The writers said that after reading the traditional account ofColumbus’s discovery of an island, students were asked to think carefully about thereading, then write in their journal simultaneous accounts of the first encounterbetween Columbus and the indigenous people, as seen through the eyes of Columbusand an indigenous boy.

One student (writing from the perspective of Columbus) said, ‘They look nice andstrong so we can make a profit off them’, and simultaneously wrote about the fears ofthe indigenous boy: ‘These strangers have unusual habits; I hope that our chief doesnot welcome them’. This activity, Clarke and Whitney (2009) stated, can create awonderful entry point to discussing the idea of marginalized peoples and perspectives,and can begin to give voice to those who historically had none.

One student teacher in our study showed a strategy similar to Clarke and Whitney(2009), which made use of journaling. He wrote:

Teachers can provide articles about the same issues written by different authors to thestudents for them to read and analyze. They [students] could make suggestions aboutthe reasons for the differences in how the information is written. Students can [also] beallowed to read and analyze information from different perspectives to develop anunderstanding of multiple meanings that articles do present. They can be encouraged tokeep a journal of the different material read; in doing this they are finding alternativearguments and supporting them with facts. (Micheal)

Second, the idea of discussion as a means of facilitating meaning making is featuredquite prominently in the literature on critical literacy (Beck et al. 1997; Evans, 2001).This idea is also suggested in this section, in that one of the end results of journalingis that it leads to discussion.

Beck et al. (1997) noted that the teacher’s role in the critical literacy classroom isto be the facilitator of discussions which aim to encourage students to consider orthink about an author’s idea and to respond to one another’s interpretation of theseideas. This increases student-to-student and student-to-teacher interactions and resultsin a classroom where students grapple with the author’s text and work together tounderstand it.

Evans (2001) gave a practical demonstration of how this works. She suggestedusing a class read-aloud text; next the teacher gives students time to generate theirown questions based on what they have heard, and then students discuss such ques-tions in small groups. She suggested that the teacher might need to ‘model’ a discus-sion of the questions generated by students before allowing them to engage in smallgroup discussion on their own.

Summary

Having said all this, what exactly is the connection between reflective teaching andcritical literacy, and what are the tasks for teachers in the critical literacy classrooms?Answers to these questions are summarized in Table 1.

Conclusion

This confirmatory investigation makes clear the connection between reflectiveteaching and critical literacy. It also practically displays the implications of this

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Table 1. Summary of the research findings.

This paper reveals that reflective teaching and critical literacy involve:

Tasks for teachers in the critical literacy classrooms

Giving careful consideration or thought so as to create meaning and pass judgment. For reflective teaching, this includes all aspects of one’s teaching and for critical literacy it includes the purpose for the text and the composer’s motives.

• In a critical literacy classroom, the teacher’s task is to build the time into his or her lesson plans and implementation for students to give careful consideration and thought and to pass judgement on the text being studied.

• The teacher’s task is also to guide students’ evaluations and criticisms in a judicious manner.

Questioning personal assumptions, values, and beliefs, taking initiatives and using intuition. Teaching reflectively involves questioning the goals and the values that guide one’s work, the context in which one teaches and an examination of one’s assumptions. Critical literacy involves questioning attitudes, dispositions, values and beliefs that readers bring to a text, as well as the assumptions and beliefs that underlie the text and the perspectives and voices that are missing or silenced.

• The task of the teacher is to encourage students to look critically at literature and question what they are reading. Students should be encouraged not to take information at face value but analyze, evaluate, synthesize and question.

• It is also the task of the teacher to encourage this critical attitude by questioning the students.

• Another task of the teacher is to emphasize the readings of texts from a variety of perspectives. This requires that students should be provided with opportunities to consider and clarify their own attitudes and values.

Encouraging and enabling change. One role of ‘good reflective teaching’ is to expose students to varied perspectives and to encourage and not repress their rational deliberation on a variety of views. Doing so will encourage and enable them to use rational deliberation as a catalyst for social change. In addition, the main outcome of critical literacy is to enable social change via the interrogation of texts.

• This means that the teacher ‘sees’ critical literacy as a means of developing social awareness and as a catalyst for social change to issues such as inequalities and injustice, and not just teaching, reading, writing, listening and speaking.

The use of journaling. Journaling in reflective teaching facilitates and promotes reflective thinking and is linked to the development of teachers’ beliefs, their empowerment, and learning. Journaling in critical literacy helps students to juxtapose multiple viewpoints based on their reading of texts and to use the same to engage in discussion, which builds understanding and meaning.

• The task of the teacher is to allow students to use journals to write entries that juxtapose multiple viewpoints. Students should also be allowed to read and analyze information from different perspectives to develop an understanding of multiple meanings.

• Students should also be encouraged to keep a journal of their findings (based on their readings), which can be used to support various arguments during discussions.

• The teacher’s task is also to facilitate discussions. Students’ journaling could form the basis of these discussions.

• Discussions generally, should encourage students to consider or think about an author’s idea and to respond to one another’s interpretation of these ideas. It should also facilitate student-to-student and student-to-teacher interactions and result in a classroom where students grapple with the author’s text and work together to understand it.

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connectedness for the teaching of critical literacy. It is, however, the combined useof all four features of reflective teaching: giving careful consideration or thought,being involved in disciplined intellectual criticism, combining balanced judgementwith knowledge of context, questioning personal assumptions, values and beliefs,taking initiatives and using intuition, taking part in curriculum development andinitiating changes in school and utilizing journaling that makes critical literacypossible.

This investigation also helps to make the point that if a person teaches reflectively,it means they are using and are equipped with skills disposition, and attitudes that areat the core of critical literacy. Applying the four features of reflective teaching to theteaching of critical literacy suggests that a person will be successful at teachingstudents how to be critically literate individuals with the capacity to facilitate socialchanges. However, to be considered a reflective teacher of critical literacy requiresapplying the four features of reflective teaching not only to the teaching of criticalliteracy, but to all aspects of one’s practice.

Notes on contributorMark A. Minott is an assistant professor in the Department of Teacher Education at theUniversity College of the Cayman Islands. There, he teaches subjects such as: Literacy andNumeracy across the Content Area, Early Literacy Development, Reflective Teaching andICT in the classroom. His research interests include Teacher Education, Reflective Teaching,ICT in the classroom, and the Arts in Education.

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