Critical reflection is defined as an educational imagination that allows candidates to look at themselves and their situations with new eyes, and in the process, become conscious of the multiple ways they can interpret, critique, challenge, confront, and reconstruct teaching. This study examines the effectiveness of using explicit instruction in methods courses to increase the capacity of alternative licensed literacy teachers (ALLTs) to develop critical reflective practice. This study makes important contributions to bridging the theory-practice gap in reflection between teacher education and the specific field of literacy teacher education. A study of critical reflection from interdisciplinary perspectives between the wider field of teacher education and the specific field of literacy teacher education offers useful insights and strengthens literacy education programs. This study also demonstrates how literacy methods professors can use an explicit instruction model to support ALLTs' critical reflection. Explicit instruction involves a framework for organizing teaching/learning where the professor "explicitly includes declarative, procedural, and conditional understandings within a gradual release of responsibility, or heavily scaffolded format." The goal of explicit instruction is to facilitate critical, deliberate, purposeful, pre-planned, shared, and regular reflective practice. (Contains 1 figure and 1 table.)