Cultural literacies,critical literacies,and the English school curriculum in Australia

Abstract

In this article I want to reflect on the contemporary currency of what Richard Hoggart has called ‘critical literacy’ through a discussion of a series of debates about a very different formation of ‘critical literacies’ in the senior school English curriculum in Australia. Among the ramifications of these debates is the complicated political and pedagogical alignments it has created: a cultural studies scholar such as myself finds that he is located on the same side of the debate as those who would entirely disapprove of cultural studies, while arguing for the importance of categories of experience - such as the literary text - that cultural studies has often set aside.