Critical literacy is about taking a critical and analytical approach towards texts, rather than passively consuming their content as if it was neutral. It refers to an understanding of text not exclusively as means of communication but as ways to construct reality (Janks, 2010; Luke, 2014). Thus, texts cannot be regarded as neutral representations of reality, but must be read as conscious expressions with underlying attitudes, motives, and ideologies. In recent years, critical literacy has gained a central position in educational research in the Nordic countries (Frønes et al., 2022; Veum et al., 2022). The research includes studies of students' competence in critical literacy (e.g. Blikstad-Balas & Foldvik, 2017; Undrum, 2022) and prerequisites for the development of critical literacy in the classroom (e.g. Magnusson, 2022; Nemeth, 2021; Veum & Skovholt, 2020). The interest in critical literacy is often connected to the rapid development in digital communication and major changes in text culture. Internet and social media have created new arenas for textual interaction and new text types with blurred boundaries between informative and commercial content and between facts and private opinions. Such a text culture requires text users who can orient themselves in large amounts of text and treat texts critically and analytically (Blikstad-Balas, 2023; Frønes et al., 2022; Veum & Skovholt, 2020). The topic of critical literacy is highly relevant for all European countries – as increased digitalization both in and out of schools is exposing students to an unprecedented amount of text – from a variety of authors with a variety of purposes, motives and rhetorical strategies. 

As a theoretical field, critical literacy has deep roots in critical theory and critical pedagogy, and a strong focus on the democratic potential of education (Janks, 2010; Vasquez et al., 2019). It indicates that learning to read and write are understood as essential for individual's active participation in society, and preconditional for social equality and liberation. Critical literacy thus has a strong political dimension. However, several studies show that the understanding of critical literacy in the educational context is unclear and often reduced to students exercising source criticism or measuring students' ability to determine whether sources are reliable or not (Johansson & Limberg, 2017; Molin et al., 2018; Wennås & Lund, 2017). In this abstract I present a study of how a group of future L1- teachers understand critical approaches towards text, how they understand the necessities of such approaches and how they facilitate for critical approaches towards text in the classroom during their internships in school. Based on findings in the material, I discuss how to prepare future L1- teachers for future requirements for text competences in school.

The article is based on qualitative interviews with 20 pre-service teachers who just came back to campus after field placement. At the time of the interview, the students, all of them aiming to be L1-teachers, had completed their second year of teacher education. The interviews were conducted on Zoom or face-to-face at the students' request and lasted between 30 and 60 minutes. Audio recordings were made of the interviews, which were subsequently transcribed. A qualitative research interview enables insight into aspects of the interviewees' lifeworld (Kvale & Brinkmann, 2015). The intention of such a research approach was to gain knowledge about the pre-service teachers' perceptions of “the critical” and their experiences with critical text work from practice in school. Their reflections on practice are thus understood as expressions of knowledge that can be transformed into action in the classroom. The participants were recruited to take part in the study during a university course in L1-didactics where the interviewer was an observer. The course thus served as a common frame of reference during the interviews. The participants were first asked about their motivation for choosing teacher education, and then asked to share experiences from their teaching during the field placement. The questions were open-ended and invited the pre-service teachers to share their experiences. During the interview they were specifically encouraged to talk about what critical aspects may entail in the context of L1-subject. They were also asked to talk about and reflect on specific teaching activities they had conducted where their students had worked with text in different ways. If they did not automatically legitimate objectives and the reasons for choices, follow-up questions were asked. The interviews were processed and analyzed through five different steps (Creswell & Creswell, 2018). First, they were transcribed and read several times to get an understanding of the material. The material was then coded in four categories through an inductive approach: Definitions and explanations of the critical; justifications for the necessity of critical approaches; examples of working with text in the classroom; overall aims and objectives in the L1- subject. The categories were then seen in the context of the four components of Freebody and Luke’s model of critical literacy (1990), and the following thematic categories were developed: Knowledge of language and text, Meaning-making and contextual understanding, Becoming a textual actor, Reading critically.

There is great variation in the students understanding of “the critical” aspect of L1 didactics, how they justify the necessity of critical approaches and how they facilitate for critical approaches to text in the context of L1. 12 students understand "the critical" as a broad textual competence that involves analysis and interpretation of the text in different context and ability to ask exploratory questions about intentions and underlying premises of the text. Such a text comprehension presupposes reading skills and specific knowledge of language and text. These students also point out that "the critical" implies a participant aspect, i.e. being able to express opinions orally and in writing in specific contexts. 4 students understand "the critical" in a narrower sense as source criticism or being able to assess the credibility and reliability of texts. 4 students perceived "the critical" as something complex, and therefor they were not able to explain their understanding. There is a clear connection between the students understanding of critical approaches, the importance they add to such approaches and how they choose to work with texts in the classroom. The four students who believe that the critical is synonymous with source criticism seem to find little room for critical approaches to text within the framework of the L1-subject. The same applies to the four students who did not formulate an understanding of “the critical”. However, most of the 12 students who have a broader understanding of “the critical” seem to find possibilities for such text work, and they talk about activities that triggers specific components of critical literacy as an included aspect of their teaching. The study shows that even though the critical aspects of reading are emphasized in the curriculum, student teachers have different perceptions of what it is and how it can be achieved

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