When the present research is viewed from a critical theory perspective, a need to problematize literacy and examine the positions of people in relation to the institutions becomes evident. Adler and Goodman (1986) state that a distinctive aspect of critical theory is attending to this power in society and the roles that schools play in creating and perpetuating a social reality by serving only some class interests. Literacy assumptions and presuppositions, differential access to literacy enhancing opportunities and school-based attainment must be questioned. Cherryholmes (1993) stresses the need to trace how power and underlying ideologies "weave through the hegemonic values and practices of education" (p. 18). He argues that students learn hegemonic accounts of social relations through texts that are products of the powerful dominant class and which may foster acquiescence in the students. Further, this class privilege and domination contribute to a generic social reproduction maintaining social and political privilege and inequalities.

Capper (1998), a critical theorist and postmodern scholar, recognizes that many school administrators deal primarily with the daily functioning of the school. She argues that few of them view schools as agents in the reproduction of a social class system and so therefore do not want to or recognize a need to transform the system in place. In contrast, she says that those educators who adopt a critical theory perspective as part of their curriculum:

believe society is teeming with injustice and oppression. They wish to initiate social change to emancipate the oppressed and disenfranchised. Social change is accomplished by taking a critical view of education and focusing on power relationships through rational, intellectual dialogue about problems of practice…[the teachers] decide whether educational practices address social justice and empowerment for oppressed persons. (Capper, 1998, p. 356)