A Critical Literacies Read in/From Colombia: Reading Uncertain Times

• In Event: Global Critical Literacies as the Key to Equitable Education: A Transnational Analysis

Abstract

Objectives
This paper outlines the current state of affairs for critical literacies in Colombia, both from scholarship and advocacy, based on meta-analyses of the research literature in the country since 2000 and the authors’ positionalities as critical literacy scholars. We argue that, given the current situation in our country, the central point of critical literacy as a “social imperative” (Author 1A, 2014) is of utmost importance to locate critical literacy within social, political, and economical factors (Luke, 2012). This paper situates the discussion of critical literacy from historical and social perspectives, proposing ways to consider how critical literacies in education are inextricably linked to our current realities.

Theoretical Framework
Our framework blends the works that have largely influenced the field of critical literacy in Latin America and Colombia and the current efforts that young scholars are proposing to reframe critical literacy from, in, and for Colombia (Authors 1A & 1B, 2020). Any understanding of critical literacy moving forward needs to consider those three prepositions as analytical lenses where frameworks need to surface from local authors (from), situated in context (in), and conscious of how to address local realities (for).

Methods
This paper mixes two meta-analyses (Schreiber, 2008; Timulak, 2014) of the existing literature in the field, one more general (Author 1A, et al, 2021) and one that zeroed in on preservice teacher education (Author 1D, 2021), with extended duoethnographic conversations, from their own positionality as critical literacy scholars to raise questions about what new definitions for critical literacy need to inform Colombian scholarship in years to come. This mixture of meta-analysis and duoethnography has helped the authors to determine the trends, epistemological positions, and current issues affecting how we need to frame critical literacy from, in, and for Colombia. On the other hand, all five authors will engage
Findings and Significance
Our meta-analyses show how local scholars are transcending the usual association to traditional scholarship Anglo and from the Global North. Our analysis shows what the current process of rewriting how we frame critical literacy in Colombia looks like, as the remix of broader scholarship samples from the Global South and the new conceptual frameworks emerging in our local work. Through our meta-analyses, we learned that there is fertile soil for this field as we surveyed efforts in master’s and doctoral programs, where more theses and dissertations related to critical literacy are appearing. Although most of this work is mostly emerging from language studies, we find plenty of potential for an expansion of critical literacy to other fields as a possibility to inform the curriculum.
From a critical literacies perspective, we find it fitting to recognize what new conceptual and advocacy stakeholders are surfacing all over the world, how they appropriate and reinvent conventional frameworks to better reflect their own realities, and how learning about this experience is a necessary factor for more coordinated, worldwide efforts toward equity in education and educational research.

Authors

• Raúl Alberto Mora, Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana

• Claudia Cañas, Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana

• Gloria Gutiérrez-Arismendy, Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana

• Natalia Andrea Ramirez, Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana

• Carlos Andrés Gaviria, Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana