How can we teach students to "intervene in their realities" and become "active subjects in their own lives" as Wallowitz (2008, p.3) suggests in Critical Literacy as Resistance?

In order for us to teach students to intervene in their realities and become active subjects in their own lives, we must first set the stage for the classroom environment.  We as teachers need to connect personally with our students and with the different literacies of their lives.  Understanding how to communicate with our students on these different levels of literacy will help cultivate the relationship and trust between student and teacher.  As we continue building this relationship we must not position ourselves “opposite” the student where it is perceived as a lecture type environment in which information is conveyed by the teacher and simply accepted by the student.  Rather, we should position ourselves “next to” our students so that we can question, analyze, and understand the material together.  Questioning and analyzing the material together as a team will help build the foundation of critical literacy in our students thereby opening the students to different views and allowing them to question bigger concepts than that of the content itself.  By approaching each subject this way, the students will liberate their thinking and expand their views on society as well as their own lives and position in society.  This will also help the students to address the hegemony that exists in our schools and society which brings us one step closer in our journey toward social justice.  (KL)