In this paper, I seek to ascertain whether critical literacy may have an important and realisable place in current English pedagogy, having first tried to establish what is meant by critical literacy, and what its contexts are for my purposes here, including the nature of initial teacher education (ITE). The paper then reports and reflects on some experiences of a Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) English group in exploring elements of critical literacy, and focuses especially on two lessons taught by two members of the PGCE group. Whilst acknowledging that any conclusions must be tentative, I go on to propose that a synthesis may be possible between different traditions of English pedagogy to enable critical literacy more easily to flourish.