Domination, Access, Diversity and Design: A synthesis for critical literacy education

Abstract

Critical literacy education, based on a sociocultural theory of language, is particularly concerned with teaching learners to understand and manage the relationship between language and power. However, different realisations of critical literacy operate with different conceptions of this relationship by foregrounding one or other of domination, access, diversity or design. This paper argues that these different orientations in critical literacy education are crucially interdependent. This interdependence is then illustrated with three examples.