The goal of critical media literacy is to engage with media through critically examining representations, systems, structures, ideologies, and power dynamics that shape and reproduce culture and society. It is an inquiry-based process for analyzing and creating media by interrogating the relationships between power and knowledge. Critical media literacy is a dialogical process for social and environmental justice that incorporates Paulo Freire’s (1970) notion of praxis, “reflection and action upon the world in order to transform it” (p. 36). This pedagogical project questions representations of class, gender, race, sexuality, and other forms of identity and challenges media messages that reproduce oppression and discrimination. It celebrates positive representations and beneficial aspects of media while challenging problems and negative consequences, recognizing media are never neutral. Critical media literacy is a transformative pedagogy for developing and empowering critical, caring, nurturing, and conscientious people.
Critical Media Literacy of the Americas Steering Committee, 2021
Make your “Lesser of Two Evils” Meme
Keep in touch! Please share your contact info here.
Critical Media Literacy Analysis digital handout (for NCTE 2025)
RESOURCES
Kellner, D. and Share, J. (2019). The Critical Media Literacy Guide. Brill.
Critical Media Project (Includes great DIY projects under the ‘Learn and Do’ section)
Ecomedia Literacy Resources for Educators and Ecomedia Literacy Quickstart Guide
Critical Media Literacy Resources at the UCLA Library
The Critical Media Literacy Educator
Exemplars
Infusing CML through Adapted Curricula
It is vital that we teachers learn to adapt curricula to be responsive to students’ strengths, areas for growth, and both local or broader issues of concern. What is handed to a teacher by an administrator or district leader as a starting point and not a set of directives to be rigidly enacted in the classroom. In a time when many educators experience prescription (e.g., inflexible pacing calendars, text selections, or packaged curricula) and have to fight to exercise their professional agency (Luke, Woods, & Weir, 2012) to design curricula, it is vital that teachers have an opportunity to practice adapting curricula.
To this end, in-service teachers have been invited to take an existing curriculum, one that they have either taught previously or have plans to teach in the near future, and infuse it with both critical analysis of media texts and critical production of media texts. These exemplars show a range of K-12 units that have been revised by the teacher to infuse Critical Media Literacy into student learning in other domains.
Exemplars from the English Language Arts and English Language Development
Literacy in Latin American Media Created by Pedro Valle
Exemplars from Social Science/Social Studies
Cortés meets Montezuma Created by Caitlin Fountain and Michelle Santos
Exemplars from Languages other than English (LOTE)
Los Desafíos Mundiales, AP Spanish Coming soon
Exemplars from Art Education
Street Art Created by Rigo Gutierrez
Exemplars from Science Education
Genetics Created by Patricia Sanchez-Atalar, based on materials adapted from the following textbook:
SEPUP. (2016). Science and Global Issues: Biology, 2nd edition , Teacher’s Edition. The Lawrence Hall of Science, University of California, Berkeley. Published by LAB-AIDS ®, Inc., Ronkonkoma NY
Microbiome Unit on Health Information Literacy (6th grade) Created by Ryan Pumilia
Exemplars from Mathematics
Exponentials and Social Issues Coming soon
Exemplars from Elementary Education
Understanding Water and Drought in California (4th/5th grade) Created by Meghan Hart, Emily Mancinelli, and Natalie Salamy
Fairy Tale Unit (1st grade) Created by Sarah Alexander
Theory to Practice Media Projects
Pre-service teachers have been invited to critique and challenge perceptions of what it means to teach in the Theory to Practice Media Project.
One Art educator’s vision of humanizing pedagogy Created by Francisco Valdez
One English educator’s vision of Ganas in the ELA classroom Created by Edgar Medina
One Art educator’s vision of the Art classroom: What can I be? Created by Edward Gonzalez
One science teacher’s vision of Humanizing Literacy in the Physics classroom Created by Benito Velasco
justice.education 
You must be logged in to post a comment.