Research Question: How do connected learning and critical literacy opportunities outside of the traditional classroom help develop students' civic agency through while improving their writing in public urban partnership schools?
Annotated Bibliography
Comber, Barbara, "Critical Literacy and Social Justice." Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, Vol. 58, Issue 5. December 22, 2014. pp. 362-367.
Comber provides an analysis of past studies on the issue of social justice and critical literacy. Her findings reveal six elements of schools that make a difference in literacy for students of poverty. Central to her research is the idea that students struggle to find interest and motivation to read and critically analyze texts and information that contain “dominant cultural narratives which reproduce dangerous stereotypes” about the students in teachers’ classrooms. Conversely, “counter stories” have been produced and utilized by some teachers because of their ability to take back the power from the dominant narratives and to explore and fight for social justice in schools and communities which are underreported by traditional media sources.
Ito, Mizuko, Soep, Elisabeth, Klinger-Vilenchik, Neta, Shresthova, Sangita, Gamber-Thompson, Liana & Zimmerman, Arely, “Learning connected civics: Narratives, practices, infrastructures", Curriculum Inquiry, Vol. 45, No. 1. 2015. p. 10-29.
Ito et al. (2015) proposes a “connected civics” in order to transform student writing and composition to the world by embracing students’ “interests and identities in the service of achieving the kind of civic voice and influence that is characteristic of participatory politics.” In order to support connected civics, Ito et al. propose three kinds of supports: (1) constructing hybrid narratives between personal and political themes (evidenced by growth and visibility of youth created podcasts, YouTube videos, tweets, memes, etc.); (2) shared civic practices in which students engage in civic and political action; and (3) developing cross-cutting infrastructure in which students work with adult collaborators in order to institutionalize student work into something that is is socially-organized and recognized outside of the school context (leveraging digital and networked tools to organize at scale more cheaply). These supports were recognized through studies of youth popular culture and sociocultural approaches to learning.
Based on the reading from Ito et al. (2015), students need to be active participants in the work that they do in the classroom. If we want to train students to be a part of the realities of democracy in the 21st century technological world, then we must invite and embrace student’s work as a part of the participatory politics that shape the world they learn and live in. In order for this to be done, teachers must embrace the digital tools that students use and collaborate with them in order to “encourage [students] to make and share creative products and practices that matter to them, supported by informal mentorship.” If teachers want to increase students’ desire to write and compose, particularly in areas of high poverty, creating writing and learning opportunities that will have a lasting and meaningful impact means connecting topics, interests, and identities to the world outside the context of the school walls is essential. In particular, making compositions a part of a valuable narrative that provides student voice to the world is paramount to building writing skills, but also providing students with the opportunity to participate in politics and civic engagement through means that are relevant to them.This could be done, particularly through social media, podcasts, blogs, and student-created websites that can be co-created with students and teachers as well as through alternative means that interest the students.
Kahne, Joseph, Hodgin, Erica, and Eidman-Aadahl, Elyse, "Redesigning Civic Education for the Digital Age: Participatory Politics and the Pursuit of Democratic Engagement." Theory & Research in Social Education, Vol. 44, Issue 1. February 29, 2016. pp.1-35.
Kahne, Joseph, Bowyer, Benjamin, “Educating for Democracy in a Partisan Age: Confronting the Challenges of Motivated Reasoning and Misinformation.” American Educational Research Journal, Vol. 54, No. 1. February 2017. pp. 3-34.
Kahne and Bowyer (2017) sought to assess the challenges facing schools and their role in helping students learn how to evaluate sources for misinformation and bias. His argument is grounded in the idea that in the Digital Age, partisanship is manifesting itself throughout many digital formats on the internet and in the content we consume on a daily basis. This digital content is being fed to us through social media and the sources of information that we select on a daily basis. However, the origins of this content is susceptible to manipulation of our emotions and feelings that lead to confirmation bias and perpetuation of misinformation. Thus, students in the 21st century, in concert with the requirements of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), must develop their skills as perceptive and critical viewers and consumers of digital content.
Students, as writers and citizens, must learn to develop astute analyses of instances of misinformation and media biases in order to be critical consumers of media. In helping students to develop this skill, “educators [must] identify ways to counteract the impact of directional motivation [the desire to justify conclusions that align with prior beliefs] on judgments of partisan content.” In pursuing the development of this skill, motivation for students must be a important element of designing such understanding. In supporting this goal, Kahne finds that media literacy education is both an important motivating factor, as well as proven to “promote accurate judgments of truth claims” through “critical loyalty”. In helping to answer my research question, Kahne’s research implies that students who learn to become the gatekeepers of their own information and communities of information are better off in determining bias and misinformation in other contexts. Thus, when we allow students to be the creators of information and content, students will be able to become more astute when it comes to the CCSS. In other words, creators of content are more likely to accurately evaluate the validity of other content.
Kirshner, Ben, “Youth Activism as a Context for Learning and Development”, American Behavioral Scientist, Vol. 51, No. 3. November 2007.
Kirshner (2007) describes a paradox of youth activism in which adolescents are at their peak of activism during their mid- to late teenage years, however, due to the constraints of the education system are often provided with the fewest number of “opportunities to participate in adult institutions and give input to political decision making” (p. 367). Thus, students’ desire and ability to have their voice heard and create voice for themselves and others are often squashed by the very system that tells them, “You are the future” or “Civic participation is crucial to the survival of a democratic society”. Thus, Kirshner advocates for the continuation of and contribution to youth activism groups in order to have youth “contribute their interests and skills to a collective cause that goes beyond their narrow interests, enabling them to accomplish goals that might be unreachable on their own” (p. 373). Kirshner also proposes four qualities of learning environments in youth activism groups: (1) collective problem solving; (2) youth-adult interaction; (3) exploration of alternative frames for identity; and (4) bridges to academic and civic institutions.
Mirra, Nicole and Garcia, Antero, “Civic Participation Reimagined: Youth Interrogation and Innovation in the Multimodal Public Sphere", Review of Research in Education, Vol. 41. March 2017. pp. 136-158
Mirra and Garcia define “civic” as “the idea of democratic community--both the formal communities of local, state, and national politics and the informal communities of fellow citizens united by shared interests and concerns” (p. 139). For many in America, this definition of “civic” lacks certain elements of patriotism or allegiance to one’s country. However, as we seek to engage students who have been wrought with centuries of discrimination, racism, segregation, and oft dismissal from the traditional political process, becoming civically-minded requires a rethinking of how we approach civic engagement and participation. Thus, Mirra and Garcia advocate for the expansion of the definition and value of civic participation to include “how youth organize, socialize, and produce complex media” through means of YouTube, Twitter, video game design, remix culture (videos, memes, music), and other digital technologies.
As we seek out ways to engage students of traditionally oppressed ethnic and affinity groups in education and through civic participation, we must keep in mind that “youth interests and online social forums have the potential to become the seeds of 21st-century collaboration and organization around political interests” through interactive, peer-based acts through which individuals and groups seek to exert both voice and influence on issues of public concern” (p. 146). Most importantly for my research is the idea that in order for education to become more civically engaging for youth who have been traditionally disenfranchised is that students must play a role in determining and designing platforms and opportunities for youth to participate and give voice to those experiences. No longer are adolescents moved simply by the prospect of voting when they turn 18, but we should instead value, embrace, and fuel the desires of youth to participate in deciding what, how, and why certain political issues should be brought to the forefront of local, state, and national political debate.
Mirra, Nicole, Morrell, Ernest, and Filipiak, Danielle, "From Digital Consumption to Digital Invention: Toward a New Critical Theory and Practice of Multiliteracies." Theory into Practice, Volume 57, Issue 1, December 8, 2017, pp. 12-19.
Mirra, Morrell, and Filipiak (2018) discuss the need for teachers to help move students from the simple, raw, and mass consumption of digital media to the more powerful, engaging, and effective creation and invention of new media. While the use of digital tools and technologies in order to engage and teach students about content, the more broadly effective and critical use of technology is from students analyzing the roles of those involved in the production of a piece of media and, more directly, the hands-on creation of such media. In concert with many aspects of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), Mirra, Morrell, and Filipiak propose “a pedagogy of digital invention…[which] opens new spaces of possibility for educators to enact curricular and pedagogical approaches that prepare students to practice solving problems for which answers do not exist” (p. 15). Through analysis and production-centered skills, students are led toward “innovation and original creation”. Important to note in the process of helping students become innovators and creators of digital media is the role of the teacher in guiding students through the experiences of production and critiquing of the affordances and shortcomings of other forms of media in order to improve upon and innovate new media formats. Crucial to this endeavor is the “authentic engagement with individuals outside of the traditional classroom space” (p. 16) in order to make students not only critical consumers, but to help students to “dream up digital forms of expression that adults cannot imagine” (p. 17).
Critical to my research is the idea that in order to guide students toward becoming the innovators and creators of future forms of media, students must be guided through the multiple stages of digital consumption, analysis, production, and eventually critical digital invention. In other words, if teachers are not helping students to move beyond mass consumption of media and into the role of producers of such media, then students will be far less likely to ever become creators of the new digital media formats that have not yet been invented. As students engage with multiple platforms of digital media and work through the 21st century standards as directed by the CCSS, they can be guided through the positive elements and the downfalls of each platform as it is essential for students who become lifelong learners to become astute at taking what exists, critically analyzing it, and asking themselves, “what is this missing?” or “how could this better emphasize my point?”. Thus, in order to guide my students through the stages of digital media production and invention, it is not enough to simply have my students consume the curriculum that someone creates, but instead to become an active participant in the creation of that curriculum, how it is presented, and how that innovative process of co-constructing curriculum can be presented to the world.
Scorza, D’Artgnan, Mirra, Nicole & Morrell, Ernest, “It should just be Education: Critical Pedagogy Normalized as Academic Excellence”, International Journal of Critical Pedagogy, Vol. 4, No. 2. 2013.
Scorza, Mirra, and Morrell (2013) work to make strong arguments for and applications of critical pedagogy to the everyday work of teachers, administrators, and schools. Since much of the work around critical pedagogy and critical literacy practices are largely theoretical in nature, this research endeavors to find normalizing strategies for engaging and teaching in non-dominant communities. Critical to this work is valuing the “capital these youth bring into the learning environment and mitigate the degree to which critical sills inform the learning community…[thus] privileging students’ funds of knowledge, cultural heritage, and development of critical consciousness” must be embedded in the work of teachers in non-dominant communities (p. 18).
Furthermore, Morrell “challenges educators to find ways to forge meaningful relationships with students who come from different worlds, while also helping these students develop academic skills and the skills needed to become critical citizens in a multicultural democracy” (p. 19). Integral to improving students’ self-efficacy and self-concept in education is that students feel “the validation that students experience for their hard work in a public arena from individuals who are considered traditional researchers [that] helped them realize what they had accomplished and how powerful their voices [are]” (p. 28). Perhaps most importantly, normalizing critical pedagogy intends to “encourage empowered collectives to create change in the world and to challenge inequitable treatment” (p. 29). By linking academic knowledge and skills to real-life civic action empowers students, reinforces learning, and further motivates student learning.
The research and work related to critical pedagogy is essential to the co-construction of curriculum and development of civic participation and agency. Central to critical pedagogy are the ideas that (1) student voice, particularly that of non-dominant communities, is represented and valued; (2) students’ identities and self-efficacy are empowered; and (3) education creates civic engagement that empowers students to create change and challenge inequitable treatment around the world. In order to address these issues, students should be provided voice and opportunity to work alongside adults in order to help create learning opportunities or help shape the type of learning they engage in, determine the content they will learn, or how they wish and how they wish to connect that learning to the world around them. Given these connections, students who engage in the creation of curriculum will be more likely to be engaged in the learning activities, become more academically empowered by the work they do, and become more civically engaged in creating positive change in the world.