As a student of social studies, English, and occasionally Spanish as well, I have come to realize that nothing that can be taught is confined to one area of study. Geography, history, cultural studies, economics, politics, and literature written in any language all overlap in content, and subject matter from all disciplines can be used to enhance understanding in the others. Having students realize this is one of my prime goals as a teacher, as it will make it easier for them to connect information and use critical thinking. For these reasons, the kind of literacy I would like my students to obtain would include elements from both the cultural and critical definitions in the article by Steve Tozer and Arlette Ingram Willis. I take this position from the perspective of a high school teacher in one of my subjects of study; had I been looking for a definition of literacy to use at a different grade level or to use as a United States census count, my conclusions surely would be different.
Cultural literacy would be a useful approach because of the focus on teaching students to use what they know in order to understand more about what is happening in the world around them, whether it be what they read in the newspaper or what they are taught in the next class period. This goes along with an approach of forming connections across subject material. However, I must agree with the argument presented in the article that a generic “shopping list” of things for students to learn would not be an effective approach to gaining the cultural knowledge necessary to understand written media. Instead, I am of the opinion that students should be presented with challenging material and asked to consider what cultural forces may be behind it, and in that way introduced to the background of different subject matters. The Eurocentric nature of information presented is another problem presented in the article; when dealing with literacy, world literature and other media could replace some of the more traditional texts.
The definition of critical theory adds one more missing element to the definition provided by cultural literacy. It asks that literacy include the ability to analyze one’s own situation and to apply what one knows about social conditions, politics, etc. to the world around them. This would not necessarily have to result in liberation from some overwhelming oppression, but in today’s society it could help students become more aware of stereotypes and other negative influences. They would then be in a better position to be liberated from these influences and achieve full potential, whatever that may mean to them. This could only happen, in my opinion, by the incorporating the exploration that takes place through the cultural approach.
