Students’ Critical Consciousness Through Critical Literacy Awareness

Koo Yew Lie, Wong Fook Fei, Kemboja Ismail

Abstract


To think critically is undeniably one of the major elements of “first class human capital” in a knowledge economy. It is most regrettable that Malaysian students, even at the tertiary level, tend to be uncritical due to socialisation processes in the educational and sociocultural environment. Responding to this identified need to raise the critical consciousness of students, this paper examines how a Higher Education teacher challenged her postgraduate students to be critical learners through the use of CLA (Critical literacy awareness) strategies in her Language and Literacy course. The paper suggests that the use of CLA strategies has increased student engagement and strengthened student voices. This paper concludes by proposing that CLA should be included in pedagogical practices in Higher Education given that active participation in knowledge economies is the vision of the Malaysian Higher Education Action Plan (MoHE 2007a, b). 


Keywords


CLA (Critical Literacy Awareness), pluriliteracy, multiliteracies, postgraduate students’ voices, classroom intervention.

Full Text:

PDF

References


Allen, J., Fabergas, V., Hankins, K., Hull, G., Labbo, L. & Lawson, H. (2002). PhOLKS lore: Learning from photographs, families, and children. Language Arts, 79(4), 312-322.

Ambigapathy Pandian. (2007). Literacy skills in higher education: A comparative study between public and private university students. In Sarjit Kaur, Morshidi Sirat & Norzaini Azman. (Eds.), Globalisation and internationalisation of Higher Education in Malaysia. Penang: University of Science Malaysia Press.

Facione, A. (1990). The Delphi report. Executive summary. Critical thinking: A statement of expert consensus for purposes and educational assessment and instruction. CA: The California Academic Press.

Freire P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Continuum.

Freire, P. & Macedo, D. (1987). Literacy: Reading the word and the world. South Hadley, MA: Bergin and Garvey.

Gee, J. P. (1996). Social linguistics and literacies. London: The Falmer Press.

Gee, J. P. (2004). Situated language and learning A critique of traditional schooling. New York: Routledge.

Koo Y. L., Kalminderjit Kaur & Siti Hamin Stapa. (2010). Critical literacy: Teacher reflections on reading practices in Malaysian classrooms. In Ambigapathy Pandian, Shaik Abdul Malik Mohamed Ismail & Sunny Tan Siew Bek (Eds.), Forging unity amidst diversity: From classroom to beyond. Pulau Pinang: University of Science Malaysia Press.

Koo Y. L. & Kalminderjit Kaur. (2009). Critical literacy: Teacher reflections on reading practices in Malaysian classrooms. Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Literacy, LITCON 2009. Literacy: Forging pathways to unity, 348-357. Berjaya Georgetown Hotel, Penang, Malaysia.

Koo Y. L. (2008). The politics of cultural production and meaning-making in ELT: exploring a reflexive pedagogy of pluriliteracy in higher education (HE). In Z. Moris, H. Abdul Rahim, & S. Abd. Manan (Eds.), Higher Education in the Asia Pacific: Emerging trends in teaching and learning (pp. 234-257). Penang, Malaysia: IPPTN/ National Higher Education Research Institute (NAHERI) and University of Science Malaysia Press.

Koo Y. L. (2003). Socioculturally-oriented critical reading in the learning space: empowering multicultural/lingual voices. In Ambigapathy Pandian, Gitu Chakravarthy & Kell, P. (Eds.), New literacies, new practices, new times (pp. 128-138). Selangor: Universiti Putra Malaysia Press.

Koo Y. L. (2001). Reading as social practice. In Marlyna Maros & Quah C. K. (Eds.), Writings in applied linguistics, Festschrift in Honour of Associate Professor Dr. Abdul Aziz Idris (pp. 53-64). School of Language studies and Linguistics, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.

Kress, G. (2003). Literacy in the new media age. New York: Routledge.

Lanshear, C., Gee, J. P., Knobel, M., & Searle, C. (1997). Changing literacies. Buckingham and Philadelphia: Open University Press.

Lankshear, C. & McLaren, P. (1993). Critical literacy: Politics, praxis, and the postmodern. Washington: SUNY Press.

Lemke, J. (1990). Talking science: Language, learning and values. NJ: Ablex.

Matthews, B. (2006). Engaging education: Developing emotional literacy, equity and co-education. Berkshire: Open University Press.

Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia (MOHE). (2007a). National higher education action plan 2007-2010: Triggering higher education transformation. Putrajaya: Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia.

Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia (MOHE). (2007b). Pelan strategik pengajian tinggi negara melangkaui tahun 2020 (National higher education strategic plan). Putrajaya: Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia.

New London Group. (1996). A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures. Harvard Educational Review, 66(1), 60-92.

Reich, R. B. (1992). The work of nations: Preparing ourselves for 21st century capitalism. New York: Vintage Books.

Scriven, M. & Paul, R. (2003). Defining critical thinking. National Council for excellence in critical thinking instruction. Foundation for Critical Thinking. Dillon Beach, CA. (Online) Retrieved 12 October 2009, from http://www.criticalthinking.org/page.cfm?PageID=410&CategoryID=51

Shor, I. (1992). Education is politics: Paulo Freire’s critical pedagogy. In McLaren, P. & Leonard, P. (Eds.), Paulo Freire: A critical encounter (pp. 25-36). New York: Routledge.

Street, B. (1998). New literacies in theory and practice: What are the implications for language in education? Linguistics and Education 10(1), 1-24.

Street, B. V. (1995). Literacy in theory and practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

The Postgraduate Guidebook (Buku Panduan Siswazah, Fakulti Sains Sosial dan Kemanusiaan). (2008). Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.

UNESCO Education Sector, Position Paper. (2004a). The plurality of literacy and its implication for policies and programmes. Paris: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. (Online) Retrieved 4 April 2012, from

http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001362/136246e.pdf

Wallace, C. (1988). Learning to read in a multicultural society. Cambridge: Prentice Hall International.


Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


 

 

 

eISSN : 2550-2131

ISSN : 1675-8021