Abstract
The realities that critical literacy is grounded by critical thinking and creative healthy living is grounded
by both critical thinking and literacy are yet to be given scholarly attention. Extant studies on critical
literacy and critical thinking do not reflect on or show the place of these two in healthy living. This study
rises to bridge this laid-bare knowledge gap by dissecting the nexus between critical thinking and
literacy and their significant place in sustainable healthy living. Reflections are made on selected social
media health tips to reveal the place of these two phenomena in attaining, maintaining and sustaining
healthy living by individuals. The study also relies on secondary data, drawn from library and internet
sources. It is premised on pragmatism and psychoanalysis theories of critical thinking, which emphasise
experimentation and uncovering and challenging of assumptions for evidential new behaviour, creative
self-appropriation of knowledge and betterment in all ramifications. The analysis of data reveals that
critical thinking leads one to critical literacy and creative healthy living. The study concludes that what
is read about health as well as general knowledge gets subjected to critical thinking for evaluative,
creative and evidential results, upon which the knowledge got from literacy is put to pragmatic uses for
health and otherwise benefits.
Introduction
There can be no critical literacy without critical thinking. Besides, significant creative sustainable healthy living among individuals is only possible with critical thinking and critical literacy, among other diverse factors. The implication of these two assertions is that there is a nexus between critical literacy and critical thinking on one hand, and critical thinking and critical/creative healthy living on the other. Many
people seem ignorant of the reality of these assertions. Scholars are also yet to take cognisance of this reality and pay deserving scholarly attention to this laid-bare knowledge gap. Thus, to bridge the gap, this study seeks to dissect the nexus between these phenomena, with a view to empirically demonstrate the significant place of critical thinking and literacy in creative sustainable healthy living.
Conceptual Analysis of Critical Literacy and Thinking
Critical literacy, Anderson and Irvine (1993, p. 82) note, ‘is learning to read and write as part of the process of becoming conscious of one’s experience as historically constructed within specific power relations.’ Although this definition confines the purpose of critical literacy to historical constructions and power relations, it explicitly states what it entails, which is learning to read and write for in-depth consciousness, cross-examination of facts, analysis and criticism of historical constructions and power relations. Norton (2007, p. 13) notes that ‘literacy is not only about reading and writing, but [also] about
relationships between text and reader, student and teacher, classroom and community.’ The relationships noted by Norton, among others, point to interconnection (i.e., correlation) between critical literacy and other allied endeavours like critical thinking. It should be noted that critical literacy goes beyond learning to teaching, consumption of produced (written) works of art to producing works of art as the manifestation of critical literacy, which is drawn from critical thinking. Anderson and Irvine (1993, p. 82) are of the opinion that the pedagogic relevance of critical literacy is the peak of its importance. Thus, critical
literacy plays a crucial role in ensuring sustainable creative healthy living, because it educates individuals on how to live a healthy life.
Conceptual Analysis of Critical Literacy and Thinking
Critical literacy, Anderson and Irvine (1993, p. 82) note, ‘is learning to read and write as part of the process of becoming conscious of one’s experience as historically constructed within specific power relations.’ Although this definition confines the purpose of critical literacy to historical constructions and power relations, it explicitly states what it entails, which is learning to read and write for in-depth consciousness, cross-examination of facts, analysis and criticism of historical constructions and power relations. Norton (2007, p. 13) notes that ‘literacy is not only about reading and writing, but [also] about
relationships between text and reader, student and teacher, classroom and community.’ The relationships noted by Norton, among others, point to interconnection (i.e., correlation) between critical literacy and other allied endeavours like critical thinking. It should be noted that critical literacy goes beyond learning to teaching, consumption of produced (written) works of art to producing works of art as the manifestation of critical literacy, which is drawn from critical thinking. Anderson and Irvine (1993, p. 82) are of the opinion that the pedagogic relevance of critical literacy is the peak of its importance. Thus, critical
literacy plays a crucial role in ensuring sustainable creative healthy living, because it educates individuals on how to live a healthy life.
Conceptual Analysis of Critical Literacy and Thinking
Critical literacy, Anderson and Irvine (1993, p. 82) note, ‘is learning to read and write as part of the process of becoming conscious of one’s experience as historically constructed within specific power relations.’ Although this definition confines the purpose of critical literacy to historical constructions and power relations, it explicitly states what it entails, which is learning to read and write for in-depth consciousness, cross-examination of facts, analysis and criticism of historical constructions and power relations. Norton (2007, p. 13) notes that ‘literacy is not only about reading and writing, but [also] about
relationships between text and reader, student and teacher, classroom and community.’ The relationships noted by Norton, among others, point to interconnection (i.e., correlation) between critical literacy and other allied endeavours like critical thinking. It should be noted that critical literacy goes beyond learning to teaching, consumption of produced (written) works of art to producing works of art as the manifestation of critical literacy, which is drawn from critical thinking. Anderson and Irvine (1993, p. 82) are of the opinion that the pedagogic relevance of critical literacy is the peak of its importance. Thus, critical
literacy plays a crucial role in ensuring sustainable creative healthy living, because it educates individuals on how to live a healthy life.
For Lankshear & McLaren (1993, p. xix), critical literacy concerns making concerted efforts to acquire and practically display reading and writing skills at a reasonable extent in productive ways that benefit self, others and the society, with the benefits including enlightened engagement in different affairs, and the attainment of democratic emancipation at both individual and group levels. Critical literacy is said to be ‘built on exploring personal, socio-political, economic and intellectual border identities’ (Bishop, 2014, p.
51). This study adds that it is ultimately built on critical thinking, which lies behind these ‘border identities.’ That is, critical thinking is the springboard or motherboard of critical literacy and the noted built personal, socio-political, economic and intellectual border identities. It should be noted that health is a means of identities, which is even why there are medical (health based) considerations of disability and other like
identities. Critical literacy locates where learners are positioned to operate beyond the confine of the
traditional practice of teacher-to-student alone flow of knowledge, whereby the teacher used to be the monopolist of knowledge in teaching learning activities (Anderson & Irvine, 1993). It is said to be grounded in ethical imperative meant to examine contradictions in society (e.g., freedom, obligations, justice, and political immunity) in relation to the meaning of these contradictions and the constructed and institutionalized silence that permeates incidences of suffering in everyday life. Besides describing critical literacy as ‘a kind of literacy about structures, structural violence, and power systems,’ Bishop (2014, p. 51) points out that it involves the use of texts and print skills in ways that enable students to examine the politics of daily life in the contemporary society.’ The aim is to enable the students ‘understand what it means to locate and actively seek out contradictions within modes of life, theories, and substantive
intellectual positions.’ In this era of digitalization and globalization, social media, as some aspects of technological feats and forums of the new media, house and offer various health tips that require critical literacy on one hand and critical thinking on the other, in order to be able to put the tips into selective, creative, meaningful and non harmful uses. By implication, social media users, who are not well grounded in critical thinking and literacy (i.e., with critical thinking and literacy skills), would likely make use of health tips on the social media as well as other forms of the new media without any form of critical considerations, even at their expense. Not all pieces of information on the new media are true or correct.
Falsehoods largely obtain on social media and other new media. These include fake news, misinformation, disinformation, fallacies, scams, and so on. The argument is that while it is factual that health tips, which produce or lead to attaining and maintaining healthy living, obtain on social media, critical thinking and critical literacy (i.e., their skills), are needed to decide to use and how well to use the tips for the realisation of good health, misinformation, disinformation, fallacies, scams, and so on. The argument is that while it is
factual that health tips, which produce or lead to attaining and maintaining healthy living, obtain on social media, critical thinking and critical literacy (i.e., their skills), are needed to decide to use and how well to use the tips for the realization of good health.
Critical thinking, also regarded as reflective thinking,’ has no single generally accepted definition. Besong (2021, p. 2) defines critical thinking as ‘an act of careful, logical, in depth, reason-based and result-oriented thinking directed at achieving a given goal.’ Its usage in the academic or educational circle is attributed to John Dewey, who had used it interchangeably with ‘reflective thinking’ in 1910 (Besong, 2021, p. 2). For Dewey (1910, p. 6), critical thinking refers to active, persistent and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it, and the further conclusions to which it tends. It also involves constructive thinking that rests on one’s own observations and experiments, and other factors (Ennis, 1962; Fisher & Scriven, 1997; Johnson, 1992), with the central goal of appraising the products of such thinking (Besong, 2021). For Robert, Besong and Danjuma (2022),
critical thinking describes the act and art of engaging in decisive, logical and sustained deep(er) mental reflections on various ideas, aspects, matters and things of life about cosmos, self, others, the Supreme Being, beings, humans and non-humans, and the universe, with a view to making tangible observations for cogent and valued results in form of answers to questions of and about life and existence. They note that this definition attempts to conceive and describe critical thinking from a comprehensive approach, as it concisely captures all what critical thinking entails (Robert, Besong & Danjuma, 2022).
Besides, the definition looks at critical thinking as a concept, an act and an art (Robert, Besong & Danjuma, 2022). The artfulness and resourcefulness of critical thinking are what primarily make it an art. As an exercise involving action in the mind and the brain through other parts of the human body system, it is an act. Its associate attributes: ‘decisive’, ‘logical’, ‘observations’, ‘results’, ‘cogent’, ‘sustained’, and ‘mental reflections’ prove critical thinking to be a tasking exercise that crosses the province of arts and humanities to sciences. It allows its performers or actors (i.e., critical thinkers) to make choices and exploits of what become(s) shared cogent and valued results of individual’s deep mental reflections. The results are most often than not sustainably beneficial to the individual critical thinker and others concurrently (Robert,
Besong & Danjuma, 2022). According to Besong (2021), critical thinking involves thinking critically, logically, creatively diversely about issues; thoroughly processing and organising facts, data and other kinds of information to identify and describe a problem; and evolving, implementing and sustaining efficient solutions to the problems at stake.
Critical thinking skills are noted to include identification (e.g., identifying biases), inference, research, determining relevance, curiosity (the quest to know), observation, introspection, retrospection, inductive and deductive reasoning, critical reflection, creativity, decision-making, problem-solving, analysis, communication, keeping an eye for details, preempting situations, and multitasking, among others (Besong, 2021; Erstad, 2018). Critical thinking is not only affirmed to be the foundation of self-reliance, but also to make one to be conscious of and exhibit self-content, self-worth, self-reliance, responsibility, and selfdevelopment (Besong, 2021; Moore, 2021; Kloppers, 2019; Kim & Isma’il, 2013; Nwokoye, 2009; Fonchingong and Fonjong, 2003). It takes critical thinking to realise the truism or falseness of health tips on social media and other new media, regardless of how interesting the tips may be. This reality applies to other communicative contents of critical literacy, which were first borne out critical thinking, on social media, other new media and the varied forms or sources of the traditional media and data sources in general.
Historicising Critical Literacy Theory
Pioneer theorists and initiators of critical literacy discourse, Freire and Macedo (1987), discuss critical literacy in relation to critical pedagogy, which came to be known simply as the Freirian pedagogy. They argue that critically literate persons do not only understand how meanings are socially constructed in texts, but also understand the political and economic contexts of the created texts. These contexts ground the meanings of the social constructions created in texts. For Lankshear and McLaren (1993), literacy is more complex than the traditionally defined skills of reading and writing.They argue that the traditional definition of literacy ideologically aligns with particular postures of normative and inherently exploitative
socio-political consciousness. For them, critical literacy revolves around the social construction of
reading, writing and text production within political contexts of inequitable economic, cultural, political, and institutional structures. Earlier, Freire (1970) had theorised critical literacy within socio-political context, inclusive of and focusing more specifically on school context. Freire (1970) explains critical literacy in relation to critical pedagogy, whereby both are characterised by socio-political constructions of indoctrination and the development of a critical consciousness.
Besides, Freire (1970) describes political indoctrination and the development of a critical consciousness as ‘careful”. Consciousness is needed to do meaningful reading and writing. By emphasising critically reflective teaching and research agendas, Lankshear and McLaren (1993) implicitly affirm the place of thinking in critical literacy, which is the backbone of critical reflection, reflective teaching and learning,
critical and creative research, and creative healthy living built on critical thinking and literacy. Lankshear and McLaren (1993) are of the view that literate skills and forms are socially praticed. They argue that critical literacy differs from cultural literacy. Thus, unlike cultural literacy that dictates a given knowledge corpus (Hirsch, 1988), the former does not. Rather, it seeks epistemic independence or freedom for students, whereby students are not confined to getting, accepting and holding on to only whatever comes from the teacher. That is, the restrictive, rigid and teacher-centered traditional system of teaching and
learning is discouraged by advocates of critical literacy and thinking. This rigid system is considered the tyranny of academic literacies by Street (1984), Knoblauch and Brannon (1993) and Lankshear and McLaren (1993), among other scholars. It is averred that tyranny of academic literacies could serve the purpose of socially reproducing dominant ideologies, such as racism, sexism, classism, homophobia and xenophobia, which perpetuate different forms of injustice in society (Street, 1984). Given the above,
Lankshear and McLaren (1993, p. 17) condemn the traditional system and call it ‘colonisation culture’ pedagogy. They go on to show that critical literacy seeks to question both historical and contemporary imbalance or inequality and the politics of exclusion among groups from the angle of mainstream narratives (Lankshear & McLaren, 1993). Lankshear and McLaren (1993, p. 17) identify three education practices that demonstrate critical literacy. These are liberal education, pluralism, and transformative praxis. Accordingly, liberal education refers to an approach to disciplinary knowledge, where intellectual freedom exists with considered disparate interpretations, but any form of inevitable contradiction is avoided, while rational argumentation takes precedence and gains victory at last (Bishop, 2014, p. 53). This system of education emphasises reading to evaluate principles that support a loose conception of tolerance of what comes from those who are not mainstream, while at the same time maintaining the mainstream. In our context herein, evaluating the involved principles implies the existence of ethics in this area and the ethical imperatives that have to be examined to realize critical literacy,critical teaching and creative healthy living. The realisation of these three becomes possible with critical thinking, critical reflections, critical and creative reading, writing, learning, teaching and analysis.
Here, praxis refers to the process of naming the conditions of oppression and struggling collectively with others in a cycle of action-reflection-action against such oppression (Freirian, 1970; Bishop, 2014). Lankshear and McLaren (1993, p. 7) maintain that there is ‘a guiding principle behind the processes of
transformative critical literacy praxis,’ which concerns making analysis to understand how agents functioning within the confine of ‘established structures of power participate in the social construction of [different spheres of literacy] literacies.’ Lankshear and McLaren (1993, p. 7) call critical literacy praxis ‘political and social literacies’ involving ‘textual studies that are analysed at the discursive level, in which
the texts were created and sustained (Bishop, 2014, p. 53). Apple (1992) shows that certain knowledge gets socially legitimised in schools. That is because schools make up an essential agent of socialisation. For Apple (1992), texts, the primary property of schools, are characterised by, or rather built on, cultural politics. That is to say the constructions in texts within the school system are political or have political undertone. As Seidel (1985, p. 45) has noted, all kinds of discourse are political, because each discourse serves as a site of struggle, whereby there is a ‘semantic space in which meanings are produced and/or challenged.’ The aim of every political discourse analysis is to expose how political events, acts and processes are organised, structured and expressed, and what kinds of possible influence or effect they may exert on the political cognitions of the public at large (Anderson, 2014). Thus, constructions in
schools are legitimised and institutionalised among generations of learners and teachers. Ideas
(ideologies) are involved. Constructed ideologies get socially legitimised (Apple, 1992). That is the
base of Apple’s (1992) notion of ‘no curriculum is neutral’. According to Apple (1992), curricular information involves and undergoes ideological processes. Apple (1992) demonstrates that pedagogic curriculum involves socio-political constructions that end up spanning ages among schools, teachers, and students. With critical literacy, experiences and knowledge about institutions along with the nature of the
knowledge are creatively constructed in such manners and ways that reflectively determine the democratic functions or otherwise of the school, as an agent of socialisation and society (Apple, 1992; Lankshear & McLaren, 1993). | literacy is figured out as the most distinct of all the four major approaches to critical literacy (inclusive of critical teaching and learning), claimed to be addressing socio-cultural issues, while remaining deliberately disassociated with or non participatory in politics.
The other approaches are functional literacy and the rhetoric of objectivism; interpretive literacy and the politics of nostalgia; expressivism as literacy for personal growth (Knoblauch & Brannon, 1993, p. 152). In other words, Knoblauch and Brannon (1993, p. 152) identify four major approaches to critical teaching and literacy learning, which are critical literacy; functional literacy and the rhetoric of objectivism; interpretive literacy and the politics of nostalgia; expressivism as literacy for personal growth. They emphasise that only critical literacy has, and shows the complexity of a socio-political framework that grounds ‘the relationships of language and power with practical knowledge of how to use language for advocacy, social critique, and cultural transformation’ (Knoblauch & Brannon, 1993, p. 152).
Theoretical Framework
The cognitive theories of critical literacy explain in part the pedagogic relevance of critical literacy, as affirmed by Bassham et al. (2007), Brookfield (2005), Comber (2001), Comber (1993), Hull (1993) and Popper (1959), among others, who analyse the implications of critical literacy for critical literacy learning in schools. Comber (2001) has emphasised that it is best to engage in critical literacy with multiple sources
and opposing views. The aim is to sufficiently or appropriately interrogate constructions and political goals involved. The pragmatism cognitive theory of critical literacy explains the experimentation to bring about better social forms. Causing better social forms requires constant experimentation, learning from mistakes,
deliberately seeking new information and possibilities. In real world application, pragmatism involves phenomenal transfusion. Transfusion implies the attempt to create a connection where one does not exist. It involves as well as requires manipulating the consensus values. While transfusion is a propaganda
technique, pragmatism is a critical thinking technique. These are two cognitive techniques of one pedagogic area– pragmatics.
In real world application, these two techniques are made to connect practically. For example, in a classroom context, a student taking a different stance on a subject matter, following the pragmatic application of critical thinking and literacy, is considered not supporting the others or not taking side with the teacher. Meanwhile, it is possible for the given student to support the class on the subject matter that he or she holds a Literacy and Reading in Nigeria No. 1 March, 2023 different (opposing) view and yet be thinking differently about the subject. The implication is that in the course of doing so or showing such
support to the class (other or some other students, or the teacher), that student brings to place the
transfusion technique that involves manipulation. By supporting the class, an attempt is thereby made by the student to create a connection where it does not exist. By virtue of the creation, manipulation obtains. The transfusion as well as manipulative exercise is undertaken at the cognitive realm that houses ideas (ideologies) from among which constructions are made revealing in practical or real contexts as knowledge, information, meanings, views, realities, experience, principles and/or practices (cultures). Essentially, transfusion points to the stage at which critical thinking becomes creative and gets revealed pragmatically at the stage of critical literacy that involves critical teaching and learning.
In pragmatism, the values of consensus are transfused or manipulated, while in psychoanalysis, these values are sold (i.e., consensus is used as a selling point). Then, in assumptions framing, certain behaviours get uncovered and challenged in the realm of psychoanalysis. Informed decisions follow afterwards. And, other points of views are examined. Thus, with the experimentation of cognitive assumptions, evidence is got uncovering and challenging the assumptions behind empirical new behaviour, creative self appropriation of knowledge and betterment in all ramifications. The foregoing analysis shows both explicitly and implicitly that there is a correlation between critical thinking and critical literacy. The reality of this correlation is also a proof for the existence of interconnected relationship between critical
teaching and learning (Brookfield, 1995), criticality and creativity, performance and productivity, and other dual/multi phenomena. Critical thinking makes it possible for one to know what to believe and what not to believe among what critical literacy offers the learner, as in the case of social media health tips for sustainable healthy living. This is in view of the possibility of façade masquerading as reality, as in bias and prejudice masquerading as empirical fact or objective interpretation. Bassham et al. (2007) observe that if one could understand how bias and prejudice masquerade as such, one would be at a better position to decide on what to believe and that to disbelieve.
For this study, all critical thinking elements essentially apply to critical literacy. These include reasoning, hypothesis, (hypothesising for deduction), deduction, induction, argument, analogy, reading, listening,
writing and speaking, questioning, observation, test, experimentation, grouping, control, familiarisation, informality and formality, (self-) criticism, understanding, cause and effect, and evidence (Bassham et al., 2007; Brookfield, 2005; Popper, 1959). It is understood from Stephen Brookfield that these elements lie behind the ‘Processes of Self (in Culture and Society),’ a taxonomy of the critical thinking theories. In
Brookfield’s theorised conception, the Processes of Self Theory of critical thinking summarily involves productive, positive, lived, process, context-specific, emotive and rational embodiments. These embodiments are followed by critical reflection that is made up of challenging assumptions, contextual awareness, imagining/exploring alternatives and reflective scepticism. Therefore, with these shared elements, critical thinking and literacy share interconnected functions in creating, maintaining and sustaining healthy living.
Betwixt Critical Literacy and Critical Thinking
As the world build individuals, the world is built by individuals too through words and actions. It is in view of this reality that Shor (1999, p. 2) has noted that critical literacy is a kind of literacy involving the use of words to ‘rethink worlds’ and ‘self-dissent in society’. Individuals redefine themselves and remake society through critical literacy in form of alternative rhetoric and dissident projects (Shor, 1999). Critical literacy interrogates power relations, discourses and identities in a world that is yet to be just, humane
and finished (Shor, 1999). In an effort to discover alternative paths for self and social development, critical literacy challenges the status quo (Shor, 1999). It is with critical thinking that critical literacy possibly challenges the status quo. In what lends credence to the position of this paper, Shor (1999, p. 2) states that critical literacy ‘connects the political and the personal, the public and the private, the global and the local, the economic and the pedagogical, for rethinking our lives and for promoting justice in place of inequity.’ The position of this paper regarding the foregoing is that critical literacy and critical thinking correlate, as critical literacy is borne out of, and relies on critical thinking. Both critical teaching and learning are rooted in and rely on critical thinking.
Thus, health tips offered to the social media audience are first borne out of critical thinking before being let out through critical literacy, whereby the audience learns from the content producers how to create, maintain and sustain healthy living. Blackburn and Clark (2007) show a nexus between critical literacy and
activism, as in youth advocacy for justice. Critical literacy is affirmed to be a method of social enquiry, as activism, which propels and offers refined education and impartial justice (Morrell, 2008). By implication, critical literacy is borne out of critical thinking, for which crucial social enquiries are made, meaningful and resourceful education is attained, and justice for identity groups is pursued and realised without bias or, at least, with only minimal bias. By affirming that critical literacy concerns the ‘connections between literacy, power and educational change,’ Norton (2007, p. 6) lends credence to the position of this study that critical literacy is connected to critical thinking and critical teaching. Giving health tips to people to learn, such as on social media, entails critical teaching. Doing so is a form critical teaching. More so, Norton (2007) shows elaborately that critical literacy is a mechanism for international development. This literacy also impacts on culture, making some cultures more prominent and known than others among heterogeneous public. Street (2001) and Canagarajah (1999) also show elaborately that critical literacy is a mechanism for development at all levels, not at the international level alone. It is to that end that Canagarajah (1999) emphasises that understanding the ‘politics of location’ is paramount to understanding the literacy practices of a given community.’ Critical literacy is also affirmed to play a crucial role in education, linguistics, development and health, among others (Kwesiga, 1994; Makoni & Meinhof, 2003; Openjuru, 2003; Parry, 2003). This study argues that while critical literacy propels participation, as
noted by O’Donoghue and Kirshner (2008), critical thinking engenders critical literacy, without which participatory skill is undermined by individuals. Both critical thinking and literacy share the following skills, among others: problemsolving capability, creative thinking (i.e., thinking out of the box) for worthwhile results, collaboration (as in collaborative decisionmaking), teamwork, co-operation and effective
interaction and communication with others, and efficient interpretative skill, among others. Again, critical literacy is a strong factor in cultural studies, education (pedagogic context), identities and differentiations, consciousness, broadened knowledge and intellectuality, diversity and cohesiveness, power relations, and
socio-historical constructions, among others. It is critical thinking that grounds critical literacy, which is made manifest through teaching and learning. These involve ideological and pedagogic processes, logical and evidential evaluation, analysis, criticism and decision-making. Smetanováa, Drbalováa and Vitákováa’s (2015) study reflects the foregoing. Smetanováa, Drbalováa and Vitákováa’s (2015) study concentrates on situating implicit theories of teachers and students in teaching-learning process in the issue of critical thinking in education context. It also sees to what the concept of critical thinking entails, based on the subjective opinions of the respondents on what critical thinking entails and how a critical thinking child could be imagined. Also, it interrogates Czech teachers’ consideration of the desirability or not of critical
thinking. The study proves that the concept of critical thinking is variously conceived among an individuals. It also reveals a correlation between teaching experience and opinions on the need to
develop critical thinking.
Essentially, the foregoing study lends credence to this present one, because the findings apply to the case of the present study. However, while their own study only looks at the pedagogic context of critical thinking, this present study steps beyond that scope to looking at critical thinking in general context in relation to sustainable healthy living and its place in critical literacy that joins forces with critical thinking to pursue and produce sustainable healthy living among individuals in general, not teachers and students alone. In another development, Singer’s (2006) study shows that critical literacy is a viable means of changing the world. The students studied by Singer (2006) wrote about stories of injustice, and finding an audience and collaborators. In doing so, they got themselves ‘consumed’ with activism and the world outside the school. Lankshear and McLaren (1993, p. 8) have talked about this situation in students’ reading and follow-up literary appreciation, as they note that readers, including student readers, are bound to react to what they read in texts with ‘their own ideological investments’. In other words, in the
course of writing about activists while reading Philip Hoose’s (2001) text about the influence of youth throughout the history of the social justice movement in the United States, Singer’s studied students got immersed in the world outside the school, as they got participating in activism and literacy research (Singer, 2006, p. 112). The Singer’s (2006) study illustrates with various stories how reading and writing change the world. It should be noted that reading and writing are language skills. The others in the same categories of language skills are speaking and listening. Listening and reading are categorized as primary/receptive language skills, while writing and speaking are categorized as secondary/
productive skills (Monday & Eze, 2012). These skills are the base of literacy, be it critical or uncritical literacy.
Methodology
Two research methods are employed. These are the descriptive survey design and the analytic methods. The survey design suits the field survey for primary data. The analytic method is employed because of its suitability for the analysis of both primary and secondary data. The primary data are drawn from social media, Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter. Observation is the other source of primary data used. The secondary data are sourced from library and internet print sources, such as textbooks, journals, periodicals, special, conference and seminar papers, newspapers and magazines, among others.
Qualitative approach and content analysis are employed in doing the study, including its analysis.
Data Presentation and Analysis
Here, the primary data sourced from social media are presented in sets and analysed afterwards, with a view to showing the correlation between critical thinking and critical literacy in finding, rousing, attaining and maintaining creative healthy living.
Data Set 1: Dealing with infections and harmful habits to eyes
Source: Authors’ Field Survey, 2022
Obviously, social media users, who are literate in English and suffer from the above noted ailment, would undoubtedly try to experiment what they learn from the encoded piece of information above. First, they would think critically about the truthfulness or the falseness of the health tips given above. That is, they are bound to first interrogate the reality of the health tips given. Then, other decisions, actions and
processes follow up. This is done employing critical thinking. The result of their critical thinking about it would determine their experimentation of the given health tip or not. Upon critical thinking, experimentation follows after collecting the substance, boiling and observing it. Once they get cured of the infections they have, such persons would make valid experiential and evidential conclusion on it and
spread the above health tip. As such, creative good healthy living is attained. If proven otherwise,
they would do otherwise and criticise the same or the like health tips some other time on social
media as well as other new media. It took critical thinking, critical literacy and creativeness to procedurally arrive at the conclusion.
Next, the tips given above highlight habits that are harmful to the eyes, which would be avoided by many who read the post as well as such other posts on what not to do to the eyes. While some of the tips are commonly known, others are not. For example, not quite many people know or believe that it is harmful to: spend too much time on screen, stare directly on light emitting object, use mobile phone in the dark, watch television where there is little or no light, drink too much of alcohol, and smoke often, among others. Thus, critical thinking roused the critical health-concerned research and creative work that put forward the health tips as content for critical literacy, which lead to creative sustainable healthy living. Upon reading, it takes critical thinking about these tips to start doing what would get rid of (or avert) infections and eye problems.
Source: Authors’ Field Survey, 2022
The above caption ‘Know what & what not to take’ is a captivating headline on social media, which symbolically communicates a lot about healthy living. It was borne out of critical thinking for critical literacy to allow for its digestion. Critical thinking, which gave rise to it in the mind of the producer(s), is also applied by the audience in order to accept and put to use what is made known to take and not to take. Thus, critical thinking led to creative healthy living for the audience through critical literacy that makes it possible for the audience to get the useful health tips. Also, critical thinking is needed in order to be creative in digesting the information given. For examples, warnings have been sounded about cancer and the implications of taking caffeine excessively. Learning the tips critically and acting upon them would lead to attaining healthy living (i.e., staying healthy).
It is realised from the data presented above that there are certain challenges people suffer, because they never knew what to do as rightful health practices until they got educated by critical literacy content on the health matters concerning them. First, it is realised that wrong combination of different food varieties causes health challenges, such as cervical cancer, headache and poor sexual performance. It is learnt that smoking by oneself, or inhaling smoke from smokers while they are smoking, exposes one to
cervical cancer. Another risky practice is that of having many sex partners and having unprotected sex with them. It is advisable for one to boost one’s body immunity; avoid excess intake of caffeine; know the food, vegetable and fruits to combine or rather avoid combination; and avoid the use of sexual stimulants. Instead of using stimulants and engaging in unhealthy habitual acts of smoking, alcoholism, and not doing exercises, the content producers exposed the learner to the above packed health tips that are the reverse of what threaten healthy living. One has to be critical and creative enough to make judicious use of the tips for the attainment and maintenance of healthy living. Talking from experience, one of the
content producers stressed the emperative of eating natural food, fruits and vegetable, drinking plenty of water, doing exercises, and avoiding smoking. With critical and creative thinking, a reader of the content understands that it is not just about drinking any kind of water, but portable, drinkable and good water. The unstated information is got from inference and experience, using cognitive skills, reasoning, deduction, induction, logic, evaluation, etc., which together constitute characteristics of critical thinking and literacy. Pragmatics and cognition are the factors behind understanding and stating the unstated
information rightly. To get the stated surprising results of doing the aforementioned, the reader of the above content, has to experiment with the data through various requisite processes and methods until they reach the final stage of verifying the truthfulness or falseness of the literacy content
Data Set 3: Health tips on menstrual healthy living
Source: Authors’ Field Survey, 2022
Borne out of critical thinking, the producers of the above presented social media content educated women (girls, ladies and women) on how to ensure and maintain healthy menstruation through personal hygiene and food selection. The first tip is that of keeping fit through exercises. Women are told that doing exercises is of great benefit to their monthly menstruation. The second tip is on personal hygiene, with the example of washing one’s hands. The consciousness of the menstruating woman is roused to the imperative of washing her hands clean and regularly during her monthly menstruation. This stated information on maintaining personal hygiene during menstruation has pragmatic implications of unstated pieces of information about keeping oneself neater than ever during the period of menstruation.
The menstruating woman is also advised to reduce her rate of salt and sacks consumption, as doing affects her menstruation. Obviously, not all women know this. Many who know it may not have been conscious of this reality. As such, their consciousness is roused to it. For the sake of healthy living, the menstruating woman, who likes snacks and salty food a lot, would reduce the consumption rate. Also, consuming large quantity of salt is detrimental to individuals in various regards. As such, reducing it during menses implies ensuring healthy living beyond the menstrual period. By so doing, the above piece of information, borne out of critical thinking by the content producer(s), contributes to ensuring the
healthy living of the social media users that experiment with these tips. Thus, the producers meaningfully contributed their quota to addressing health issues in society through creative measures borne out of critical thinking, and revealed to the public through critical literacy. Similarly, the menstruating woman is advised against the consumption of plenty of sugar. She is charged to reduce the quantity of sugar she
consumes. The second author of this article feels that this message is of great value to Northern Nigerian women, most of who like sugary food a lot. The warning also applies to those who consume white Maggi, especially in the North and such other parts of Nigeria and the globe at large. The menstruating woman is also advised to reduce the consumption of caffeine to the barest minimum in order to maintain healthy living. Alcohol consumption is supposed to be halted completely during the menstruating woman’s
monthly period. The risk of consuming alcohol during menstruation as well as even generally
afterwards is highlighted. Also, the menstruating woman is told of the effects of chemical products
like perfume and the likes on her during menstruation. Thus, suspending the use of chemicals during menses by the menstruating woman is of great health benefits to her. That is one way of attaining, maintaining and sustaining healthy living through creative healthy menstruation, obtained through critical literacy that resulted from the initial critical thinking of the content producer, who then decided to educate the social media audience with the packaged critical literacy communicative content.
Data Set 4: Health tips on okra health benefits
Source: Authors’ Field Survey, 2022
From the above data, it is gathered that one way of ensuring and maintaining sustainable health is to cleanse up the arteries. This can be done using okra. Okra can be used to prevent constipation and other digestive problems. It increases fertility. Okra is also found to be capable of reducing the risk of cancer, besides protecting cells from damage. Okra also keeps the heart healthy, which is obviously one way of ensuring and maintaining sustainable healthy living that has a bearing to critical thinking, critical literacy,
critical teaching and learning on social media. By taking advantage of the above content of critical literacy, which reveals the above health tips on social media, the audience would get critical and creative about it, experiment with it, and finally attain creative sustainable healthy living.
Data Set 5: Tips on benefits of sexual intercourse
Source: Authors’ Field Survey, 2022
Learning is a continuous process. It is the essence and the end result of literacy, critical and uncritical kinds alike. The social media audience of the above health tips is exposed to some benefits of sexual intercourse, which many people either do not know or usually neglect. The social media users in entangle with these tips would undoubtedly benefit from them. Those who never knew or usually neglect these stated benefits of having sexual intercourse regularly or timely have undoubtedly learnt to do so for the sake of the benefits. Accordingly, the exposed health benefits include increased immunity, effective
control or management of hypertension and high blood pressure, burning out fat from the body, reduced risk of cardiovascular diseases, and balancing the levels of testosterone and oestrogens in the body. These are among other health benefits of sexual intercourse.
With critical thinking, the audience of the above critical literacy health tips on sexual intercourse becomes obliged to do the needful that brings forth the noted health benefits. For instance, persons having hypertension and high blood pressure, who were ignorant of the natural treatment of these aliments by engaging in regular or timely sexual intercourse, would become poised to doing
so. As they do so, they maintain and attain creative healthy living that is sustainable in nature. They
sustain their life as well as health with sexual intercourse. This is particularly so for persons suffering from these ailments who do not like medicines. Partners in love and/or sexual relationships, who erstwhile felt no need for regular or timely sex, get sensitized and roused to having sexual intercourse regularly or timely for the sake of healthy living. In the case of both partners feeling erstwhile to be doing the other partner favour with sex, the mentality would certainly change henceforth. This is made possible by critical literacy, which was borne out of critical thinking about healthy living through sexual intercourse. Then, the
producer then applied creativity to the critical thinking to produce critical thinking content in the form of the critical, creative and sustainable health tips on sexual intercourse. These are among other health benefits of sexual intercourse.
Conclusion
The analysis of the gathered and used data obviously shows that what is read about health as well as every other subject matter or knowledge in general gets subjected to critical thinking for evaluative, creative and evidential results, upon which the knowledge got from literacy is put to pragmatic uses for health and otherwise benefits. What is got from critical literacy via its critically made content is usually borne out of critical thinking. Processing it into any kind of content for critical literacy also involves critical thinking. That is, critical thinking directs the whole process, without which no good or meaningful result is got for presentation to the learner of the communicative content made by the players or actors of critical
literacy. The foregoing applies to the case of pursuing, attaining, maintaining and sustaining sustainable healthy living.
Health tips, such as those found on social media and other new media, are borne out of critical thinking. In creating these tips, the producers first of all think critically and creatively about different health situations and then move to experimenting their thoughts on what they thought out to be the panacea for the health issues, which they take up to address respectively. In the course of processing their thoughts and material substances for experimentation into realities, they still rely on critical thinking in order to obtain good or excellent results. These results become or constitute their processed communicative content for critical literacy. In the case of processed communicative content for critical literacy on health (i.e., healthy living), health tips, such as those analysed herein, are thereby produced and disseminated on critical literacy channels, such as the social media. These health tips borne out of critical thinking get to the audience through critical literacy for creative and sustainable healthy living. Thus, critical thinking and critical literacy are recommended as viable means of attaining, maintaining and sustaining creative healthy living.
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