The Conceptualization of Critical Literacy and its Historical Development

Abstract

This paper reviews and examines critical literacy, its conceptualization and historical development by delineating the concept of critical literacy, definitions of its core principles, and how it has developed over the years. In addition, the historical development of critical literacy was examined with a framework by Yoon and Sharif, using four broad themes (Language, Power, Identity, Multimodality). “Education” was introduced as an additional theme because it is the means through which critical literacy is passed. Additionally, the issue of racism in the educational system was analyzed and discussed in liberation literacy, which was grouped as a subset under the “Identity” theme. Keywords: Critical literacy, language, power, identity, multimodality.