Critical Literacy

A provocative collection that redefines literacy as a political and transformative practice, challenging readers to see reading and writing as tools for questioning power and advancing social change.

What does it mean to be literate in a world shaped by power, culture, and contestation? Critical Literacy brings together some of the most influential voices in literacy studies to confront this urgent question head-on.

Edited by Colin Lankshear and Peter L. McLaren, Critical Literacy reimagines literacy not as a neutral skill, but as a deeply political practice—one that can either reproduce systems of domination or become a powerful tool for liberation. Bridging theory and practice, the contributors explore how literacy operates across diverse contexts: from classrooms and communities to media, gender, culture, and revolutionary movements.

Engaging with postmodern perspectives and critical pedagogy, the essays challenge readers to interrogate taken-for-granted assumptions about knowledge, language, and democracy. From ethnographic insights and feminist critiques to analyses of media and popular education, this collection opens new pathways for understanding literacy as a site of struggle and possibility.

Provocative, timely, and transformative, this book invites educators, researchers, and activists alike to rethink literacy as a dynamic force in shaping more just and democratic futures.

Colin Lankshear , formerly Senior Lecturer in Education at Auckland University in New Zealand, is an educational consultant and writer. He is the author of several books, including, Freedom and Education, Education and Rights (with Ivan Snook), Going for Gold (with Allan Levett), and Literacy, Schooling, and Revolution. Peter McLaren is Professor and Renowned Scholar in Residence in the School of Education and Allied Professions at Miami University, and co-director of the Center for Education and Cultural Studies. He is the author of numerous books in education, including Life in Schools and Schooling as a Ritual Performance, and editor with Henry Giroux of Critical Pedagogy, the State, and Cultural Struggle, also published by SUNY Press.