What You Need to Know

Key Concept Diagram

All texts represent particular viewpoints while marginalising others

Questioning a text: Who wrote it? For whom? What is foregrounded or omitted?

Dominant readings accept the text's intended meaning; resistant readings question it

Power structures such as gender, class, and race are reinforced or challenged in texts

Key Vocabulary

Critical literacy

The ability to read texts in an active, questioning way that examines power and perspective

Dominant reading

Accepting the preferred or intended meaning of a text uncritically

Resistant reading

Reading against the grain by questioning the assumptions and values embedded in a text

Marginalised voice

A perspective or group that is minimised or excluded from a text's representation

Knowledge Check

Select the correct answer for each question. Click "Check Answer" to see if you are right.

Question 1

Critical literacy encourages readers to:

Accept the author's message without question Focus only on grammar and spelling Question whose viewpoints are represented and whose are excluded Identify only explicit information in texts

Question 2

A media article about crime statistics focuses only on crimes committed by one demographic group. A critically literate reader would:

Accept the statistics as complete and unbiased Assume all media is equally biased Only check if the statistics are numerically correct Question whose crimes are being reported and why this group was selected

Question 3

Which of the following is an example of a resistant reading?

Questioning why female characters are given minimal agency in a story Accepting the hero as a positive role model as intended by the author Summarising the main events of a story Identifying the narrative structure of a text

Critical Literacy