ISSN 2549-5607 The 1st International Conference on Language, Literature and Teaching 474 DEVELOPING STUDENTS’ CRITICAL LITERACY IN READING CLASS AT AN ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT IN INDONESIA Mauly Halwat Hikmat Muhammadiyah University of Surakarta Mauly.Hikmat@ums.ac.id Abstract Critical Literacy approach suggests that teaching reading should not only be focused on language but also on developing students’ critical literacy. This article discusses the fndings of research focusing on strategies used in developing critical literacy in Reading class at English Education Department of Muhammadiyah University of Surakarta and challenges faced by the lecturers in developing students’ critical literacy. The subjects were 20 English Education Department stu- dents and three lecturers of Reading. The data were collected using interview, observation, and documentation. They were analyzed through data reduction, data display for categorization and conclusion by using relevant framework of critical literacy. The fndings showed that the strat- egies used by the lecturers include using various texts, stimulating the students’ interest, asking critical questions, discussing questions collaboratively, and writing summary and response. The challenges faced by the lecturers in developing students’ critical literacy were students’ low of critical literacy, students’ lack of self confdence, students’ low English profciency and students’ dependence of guidance. Keywords: critical literacy, critical reading INTRODUCTION Critical literacy approach has become an important issue which is supported by high order think- ing skill. It has replaced the skills-centered model of learning to read and write, and becomes increasingly important nowadays as students need to interact with more media of information and flter all the information so that they can select which information is useful for them and which one is not. As language becomes the means of conveying ideas and information, students who learn the language should be equipped with critical competence, enabling them to become critically literate. Critical literacy is “learning to read and write as part of the process of becoming conscious of one’s experience as historically constructed within specifc power relations” (Anderson and Ir- vine, 1993: 82). Another defnition is given by Luke and Dooley (2011): Critical literacy is the use of texts to analyse and transform relations of cultural, social and po- litical power… to address social, economic and cultural injustice and inequality… it views texts – print and multimodal, paper-based and digital - and their codes and discourses as human tech- nologies for representing and reshaping possible worlds. Texts are not taken as part of a canonical curriculum tradition or received wisdom that is beyond criticism (Luke & Dooley, 2011) The position of the students in critical literacy are the user of the language who digest the text and the information and question the message behind the text, as stated by McLaughlin & De- Voogd, (2004), critical literacy is diferent from traditional reading in which the author who has the power. In critical literacy the readers have the power to analyze and be critical toward the hidden meaning and message. However, students who learn the language not only need critical literacy but also basic literacy to be able to take a position clarifying the issues and point of views conveyed in a text.