“....critical literacy is reading and writing, but it's much, much more. Critical literacy involves knowing, lots of knowing. It also involves seeing, lots of seeing. It enables us to read the social practices of the world all too clearly.... Critical literacy means that we understand how and why knowledge and power are constructed. By whom. For whom.

Reading the Word means:
to decode/encode those words;
to bring ourselves to those pages;
to make meaning of those pages as they relate to our experiences, our possibilities; our cultures; and our knowledges.

Reading the World means:
to decode/encode the people around us;
to decode/encode the community that surrounds us;
to decode/encode the visible and invisible messages of the world. ”

~Joan Wink Critical Pedagogy: Notes from the Real World

When I began reading Joan Wink's book Critical Pedagogy: Notes from the Real World, it helped me reflect on my own education and my life. Winks talks about how people are "put out" by how they look or their economic class. Others labeled me as lower class when I was younger. I was considered poor and didn't have an educational background. I was never engaged in any dialogue in any life situation. After reading, I saw how important it is to ask questions. One question I ask myself now is: Why are things the way they are? I have the right to ask, Why am I being "kept out"? Before the class I was passive. Now I am active through questioning myself and others. I need to question in order to better my child's and my own life.
~ Darlene came to the program in 1989. She had been working on an assembly line for eight years and was out on disability due to depression. She didn't know what she wanted to do with her life but decided to volunteer her time. She had never been to a library, and always thought the library was for "educated people." However, she took a chance that the library might have information where she could volunteer. When a librarian suggested a volunteer position in which she had to read and write, Darlene told her that she struggled with reading and writing. The librarian handed her the Write to Read Program brochure. It took her three months to make the phone call to the literacy program. She is glad she did. Darlene is currently employed as a student advocate for our program.

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Critical education teaches me to understand a fact that education always involves politics. Before my study in the Alameda County Library Literacy Program, I used to view education as pure academic pursuit, and never realized that politics infiltrates it from every aspect. Whenever recalling the traditional education I received, I would ridicule myself for not being aware of the political spell it cast, which mastered the thoughts of most of my fellow countrymen. Our class values "dialogue" very much. It involves horizontal relationships between students and teachers through which we communicate, share experiences and develop knowledge. We are constantly being challenged on our firm beliefs. We spend a lot of time questioning, debating, even arguing, only to find out that what we believed is not necessarily true.
~ Jack came to this country to study democracy and explore new career options. He also came because of the possibility of war in his native land of China. When he came here, he couldn't understand a word people were saying. According to him, his reading and writing was very poor. The Adult Literacy Program gave him the encouragement to go to college. The Program helped him and he helped himself too, because he kept on going in the program. He seized the opportunity to be a student teacher in the program and that is what he is doing now.

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I came into this program as a student, wanting basic reading and writing. When I read a book I would only grasp the basic understanding. When people asked about my opinion or view points about a book, I was very vague. They would assert a more meaningful response about the essence of the history, the culture, and its' morals: all those things I would miss. It wasn't because I couldn't pronounce the words or understand why a person or character was happy or sad; I didn't understand that the history or background would be important.

When I read now, I think more about what I can learn from a book. The Alameda County Library Literacy Program helped me to be more observant and to analyze what I read. In doing that we learn more about the author and recognize the knowledge that goes into reading and understanding for richer and deeper thought. Learning can be just like teaching. Many shared opinions and theories about how we are learning happens, and that to me is the value of critical pedagogy.
~ Born and raised in the Bay Area, Cathy completed high school. Cathy joined our program in 1995 when she recognized that reading words and understanding the meaning of words were two different skills. As a mother of three children, Cathy wanted her family to receive a complete education. For these compelling reasons, Cathy joined the literacy program and the leadership project. In 1999, when Cathy left the program, she felt ready to take on many new responsibilities, including working outside the home for the first time.

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When I first came to this program, I came for improving my English. I could read and write, but I needed the communication skills. Here I found out that most of my classmates were very low-level. It was OK for me because I didn't expect I would learn anything from them. At least I could practice talking with them, was what I thought. I have been working with the program for the last five years. We got deeply into a series of practices and theories such as Paulo Freire and critical pedagogy. Now, when I sit back and think about myself and the changes I made, I realize that I was wrong before. I found out that the background and education of a student are not that important.

People are very complex subjects. No matter how much education or what kind of background they had before, they all have some sort of common sense, perception, intelligence, instinct, consciousness, experience, intuition, awareness, wisdom, opinions, logic or even imagination. Everybody has the ability to create and this ability is based upon all the above factors. It is not limited only to the highest educated people as what I always thought, but it is true for everybody.
~ Susan immigrated to the States about 15 years ago. For the first couple of years, she struggled a lot due to the difficulties resulting from language, cultural adjustment, and life¹s changes. She had a good job in her country of Taiwan. Here, she had nothing; not even a friend to talk to because of her limited English. After some of those lost years, she came into the Adult Literacy Program in Alameda County Library purposelessly. Here she started to practice her oral English, make some good friends and get back her lost confidence. She transformed from a student to a volunteer, a tutor and finally a staff in the program. Now she devotes her energy to make the best part of herself glow. "We learn from books, job, surroundings, and each other. We can also go further beyond; we can have our voices heard in the community and even change the world. My prospect for now is to do my best and help the program run smoothly. Thanks to the Adult Literacy Program. You validate me and make me believe that I am a valuable individual even in a different country, speaking a different language.”

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Please click on a link below to read teacher’s notes
on classes to understand how critical literacy works in our program.

Being Bilingual | Language & Power | Power & Equality in Society | Reading Lists