Despite the need, media literacy is not a common experience in the United States. While there have been efforts to incorporate media literacy in K-12 education, research suggests media literacy courses are limited in American colleges and universities. This article explores the obstacles presented by the neoliberal university and offers strategies…

This essay explores the need to prepare educators to teach their students to think critically about the media and information they use and encounter daily so they can become empowered citizens with a sense of agency to use these tools to participate in shaping democracy. After reviewing the dearth of teacher training in media education, the author…

Inspired by the feminist adage that the personal is political, and by feminism's challenge to conventional forms of research, in this essay I explore my personal struggle with hypermasculinity and the ways cultural studies, feminist media studies, and critical media literacy have allowed me to explore the limitations of hegemonic masculine…

Family literacy initiatives are historically rooted in positivism. In relationship to family literacy, the positivist paradigm is dangerous, as it strips the participants of power and removes their opportunities for voice. In response, a socially just approach to family literacy intervention is offered here. This approach embraces the context of…

In this article, we discuss "heliaki," the use of metaphoric language in Tonga (Kaeppler, 2007), and its relationship to literacy. Viewing "heliaki" through the lens of critical literacy (Freire & Macedo, 2005), we argue that performances of "heliaki" not only represent an indigenous approach to reading and…