This paper introduces the concept of critical viewing and illustrates what it means to take a critical stance in classroom teaching practice. The paper's purposes are: first, to discuss the possibilities of criticism in classroom practice as defined by progressive educators; second, to explain the interrelationship between critical literacy and the pedagogy of representation; and, third, to explore critical viewing as a response to "Intermediality." Intermediality implies taking a critical stance toward the multiple perspectives embedded in Intermedial, or simply, multi-layered texts. Defining critical viewing as a critical pedagogy of representation exposes the misconceptions associated with response-centered approaches which have assumed the central position of critical reader/viewing practices. The paper's aim is to show how a teacher can use critical viewing as a language of criticism to sift through multiple layers of texts, to go beyond surface impressions, traditional myths, and routine cliches, and to apply the meaning to each person's own social context. The paper challenges teachers to reevaluate current analytical schemes to gain a more contextual understanding of the mutually constitutive nature of theory and practice. It states that, to implement the vision of criticism illustrated here, students will be able to: (1) acknowledge the "multiple and insidious ways" in which power operates in the larger society to "reproduce the interests of the dominant culture"; and (2) analyze the hierarchical positioning of individuals within the social order on the basis of race, class, gender, and sexuality. Contains 58 references. (NKA)