Free Essay On A Critically Literate Citizen

A critically literate citizen is a citizen who questions texts in order to have a deeper understanding. A critically literate citizen is person who questions the status quo in order to establish better ways of handling things. Such a citizen does an analysis on the influence of culture, power, gender and class in the text. They will always engage in a critical thinking. The citizen does not view things at face value. Critically literacy is important in developing strong democracies because citizens play an active role. A critically literate citizen looks at different perspectives and questions assumptions to ensure social and self development. Critical literacy involves critically questioning the information in texts so as to develop a stronger understanding of issues and developing perspectives.
A citizen who is critically literate looks at the different perspectives in which things can be viewed. This in essence means that a reader of a text should not merely adopt ideas propagated in the text. The reader should explore new perspectives about things. The reader, therefore, should play an active role in the author-reader relationship. The active role taken by the reader in terms of coming up with ideas improves the relationship between the reader and the author. The ideas propagated by authors may not be the best and, therefore, believing it without trying to find alternatives makes citizens passive. Coming up with new or even better ways of doing things is the hallmark of critical literacy. For example, a reader should read with the aim of creating new and better ways of dealing with matters. A reader that does not look at different perspectives cannot be regarded as critically literate.
Secondly, questioning texts by active readers creates a deeper understanding of power relations, equality, and justice. Social and economic contexts of texts are only understood if the reader adopts an active role. A deeper understanding is developed through examination of issues and questioning the concepts, theories and ideas proposed by authors. Passive readers merely acquaint themselves with the texts written by authors without examining them for feasibility. Questioning the power relations, social contexts and other aspects of a text makes the reader appreciate the text. Examining and questioning the text makes readers active participants in the relationship. Questioning means that the readers are critical in their reader. For example, a reader should not embrace ideas in a text without examining them for truthfulness, veracity and accuracy. It is necessary to doubt the preposition of authors in order to fully understand texts.
Critically literate citizens bring in great benefits. The ability to examine the texts and question the power relations between the author and the reader is important in creating a more informed society. Questioning ideas leads to the creation of new perspectives which contributes to transformation of a society. Opposing the status quo is important in developing new perspectives. Social and individual development can, therefore, be realized through critically literacy. Things can be done different to realize greater gains for society if the reader becomes active. The readers that are active participants in the author-reader relationship contribute to the development of society. More understanding is realized through active participation. The relationship should not merely be that of the informer and the informed. Questioning the power relationship between the author and the reader enables the reader to challenge the ideologies propagated by the authors.