Abstract
This paper provides an overview of what literacy and critical literacy are and why they are important
to teachers and students. The definitions of literacy and critical literacy are highlighted by seeing
literacy as the ability, confidence and willingness to engage with language to acquire, construct and
communicate meaning in all aspects of daily living and from different modes of communication. Critical
literacy on its part views readers as active participants in the reading process which invites them to
move beyond passively accepting the text’s message to question, examining, or disputing the power
relations that exist between readers and authors. These insights help to assess the background
knowledge that students may have in relation to critical literacy teaching and learning. The paper also
provides discussions in the areas of: teaching literacy with young children and school-age children;
importance of using critical literacy in the classroom, how critical literacy could be used to change the
world, and the gains of critical literacy as sustainable educational development. The discussion
establishes the need to guide students to get the best from critical literacy lessons and to facilitate
planning for making teachers become efficient in their teaching. The paper ends with conclusion and
recommendations on the way forward in promoting critical literacy in students in order to help them
read between the lines and also think out of the box.

Introduction
Critical literacy is one of those terms that at first seems straightforward, but asking people to define it deceptively suggests simplicity, but instead opens up a world of complexity. Because there are so many different ways people think about literacy, it is worthwhile to examine some ideas associated with it. For example, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO, 2009-2014) has
discussed literacy not just in reference to teaching practices in schools but in reference to the meaning of literacy across the world. Two key components to their description are that literacy is a fundamental human right and that it is the foundation for lifelong learning.
One will not really begin to appreciate literacy as a fundamental human right until he/she started working in schools. This will give many opportunities to observe students who had developed extraordinarily high levels of literacy, and also many students who had not (Abednia, & Izadinia, 2013). As part of the job, you will work with teams to find out those students who were struggling with learning disabilities in literacy areas, such as reading, listening comprehension, oral expression, and written expression. You would rather be surprised that a large number of students who were having trouble developing literacy skills did not necessarily have learning disabilities (Abednia, & Izadinia, 2013). This goes to say that most teachers simply cling to teaching what they love, regardless of the effects on
students.
Believing that students who were having difficulty learning how to read must haven something wrong with them, and that it is part of a school, the classroom teacher’s job to figure out what was wrong with the child should be disregarded (Edelsky, & Cherland, 2016). This is because majority of students who struggled with reading could learn to read quite well, but the trick is focusing on the kind of instruction students needed rather than focusing on what was wrong with students. In other words, practice should shift from seeking explanations of literacy problems based on fixed factors within the child, to seeking
solutions within the instructional environment.
Developing Critical Literacy on the other handshould rather ensure that all forms of communication are social and political acts that can be used to influence students and can lead them to social change (Comber & Simpson, 2001). According to Freire (1997), students are active participants in the reading process so Critical literacy should encourage students to question, explore, or challenge the power
relationships that exist between authors and readers. It should examine issues of power and promote reflection, transformative change, and action. Reading from a critical perspective should involve thinking beyond the text to understand issues such as why the author wrote about a particular topic, wrote from a particular perspective, or chose to include some ideas about the topic and exclude others (Gainer, 2017).
It is at this juncture that one should begin to conceptualize critical literacy in the same way that UNESCO discussed it – as a fundamental human right, foundation for lifelong learning. It is this point that has led to this study, since what teachers do will have a major influence on what the students know and can do, not only in the classroom, but for the rest of their live.