Ninth graders’ critical literacy awareness through creative problem solving

Abstract

To appreciate the world as a whole, to go beyond our own understanding of it, and to challenge students in the way they see and read the world, it is necessary to address Critical Literacy (CL) to help students build a more complete and complex vision of the world and their context. This qualitative study developed with ninth graders in a public school, attempts to help students to develop awareness of Critical Literacy while implementing Creative Problem Solving (CPS) activities in an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom, so as to help students gain awareness while reflecting about their surroundings, and to propose ingenious alternatives through problem solving activities. For the purpose of this investigation surveys, interviews, observations, and field notes were conducted. This study followed four main stages based on the stages proposed for CPS which are: Negotiation Stage, Information Stage, Thinking about alternatives, and Creative Solution Stage; as a way to help students to reflect and create their own vision of the world keeping in mind the context surrounding them. The findings of this study revealed that awareness of CL is developed through a continuous process of questioning and evaluation of the information by the empowering of students when talking about decision making and students’ own learning process while making sense of the implications of social justice in the Colombian context