Critical literacy practices as a self-liberating process

Abstract

The present qualitative action research study approaches a critical visual literacy EFL learning process in which life stories of tenth graders at a public school in Bogota were the principal source of knowledge. By examining visual literacy material e.g. musical videos, short movies and movies from their personal context, students had the opportunity to understand their difficult life conditions (family, socio economic and academic), to reflect on them and tackle personal problems from a different view- point and take action towards it. By means of written life stories and round table discussions from a critical literacy perspective, the EFL class was organized around students’ needs and their life issues as a relevant source in the teaching-learning language process. Lessons were planned based on Pailliotet’s (1993) visual literacy model as a way to promote tenth graders’ reflections in the EFL classroom thus creating possibilities to reflect and reconstruct students’ personal context to encourage their future lives. Data were collected through students’ life stories and the researcher´s field notes. Eventually, the findings which emerged from those instruments reported that through a critical literacy process, learners developed inquiry skills and visual, oral, and written literacies to reconstruct themselves and recognize the importance of overseeing their own lives showing a liberating process.