The Use of Story in Critical Literacy Practice

Story-telling and story-writing as pedagogical practices hold a pre-eminent place within critical literacy practices. In Toronto, Canada's largest city, progressive community-based literacy programmes begin the educational process by assisting adult literacy students to learn to read and write by using the language experience method. The educational process is furthered when the programmes publish the autobiographical accounts that these learners have created. They publish these accounts as a way of generating relevant educational reading texts for adult new readers, and more significantly as a form of cultural expression for people marginalised by poverty. Elaine Gaber-Katz, a feminist educator literacy practitioner, explores how critical literacy programmes purposefully seek out the voices of those who have been silenced. She also explores the ways in which these programmes create the spaces for these voices to be heard. Focusing on the use of story, the author assesses the value of publishing these kinds of learners' stories and confronts some of its inherent limitations.