Experiencing the World through Multicultural Lenses: Interpreting and Producing Social Issues Texts in the Classroom
Biographical Sketch
Charity Gordon is an instructor in the Department of Middle and Secondary Education at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia. Her research and scholarship focuses on dialogic teaching, critical literacy, English education, and urban education. Her work explores how teachers use dialogic pedagogy to cultivate critical literacy practices in urban, public schools. Through her scholarship, she aims to construct knowledge about teaching and learning that promotes equity and social justice.
Type of Presentation
Individual presentation
Brief Description of Presentation
In this presentation, I will describe how I used critical dialogue in an urban, high school English classroom to explore the documentaries, Chicano! and 13th and the critical texts that students produced as a result of classroom dialogue. These two documentaries played a pivotal role in broadening student’s perspectives and deepening their understandings of social justice issues, such as the impact of U.S. immigration laws and the mass incarceration of Blacks and Latino/as.
Abstract of Proposal
In U.S. classrooms, it is more important now than ever before for educators to address the questions: 1) How is knowledge about the world constructed? and 2) Who is involved in the construction of knowledge? When teachers present knowledge in a singular way, they may contribute to dominant ideologies and the marginalization of diverse worldviews and practices. Schools need more multicultural content and inclusive teaching practices to address the needs of diverse learners and to promote equity across all school contexts. Documentaries present diverse perspectives of the world, inspire critical dialogue about important social issues, and can serve as models for students’ critical text production. Through critical dialogue, teachers and students can explore the relationship between knowledge and the contexts in which they are situated and re-imagine new realities.
In this presentation I will describe how the documentaries, Chicano!, which chronicles the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement, and 13th, which details the history of mass incarceration of Blacks and Latinos/as, inspired in-depth conversations and modeled criticality for culturally and linguistically diverse students of color. Because the authors of these social issues texts discussed topics from culturally-diverse viewpoints, students often identified with the authors’ experiences and found the content relatable. Class participants engaged in robust, critical conversations on topics such as social class, gender, and race in the U.S. They then created their own critical texts in response to these discussions. Critical dialogue helped students see the possibilities for change and also see themselves as a part of the solution.
References
DuVernay, A. (Director). (2016). 13th [Documentary]. USA: Kandoo Films.
Ruiz, J. L. (1996). Chicano! The history of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement [TV Series]. Los Angeles, CA: NLCC Educational Media, 1996.
Start Date
2-24-2018 8:10 AM
End Date
2-24-2018 9:40 AM
Recommended Citation
Gordon, Charity, "Experiencing the World through Multicultural Lenses: Interpreting and Producing Social Issues Texts in the Classroom" (2018). International Critical Media Literacy Conference. 36.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/criticalmedialiteracy/2018/2018/36
Experiencing the World through Multicultural Lenses: Interpreting and Producing Social Issues Texts in the Classroom
In U.S. classrooms, it is more important now than ever before for educators to address the questions: 1) How is knowledge about the world constructed? and 2) Who is involved in the construction of knowledge? When teachers present knowledge in a singular way, they may contribute to dominant ideologies and the marginalization of diverse worldviews and practices. Schools need more multicultural content and inclusive teaching practices to address the needs of diverse learners and to promote equity across all school contexts. Documentaries present diverse perspectives of the world, inspire critical dialogue about important social issues, and can serve as models for students’ critical text production. Through critical dialogue, teachers and students can explore the relationship between knowledge and the contexts in which they are situated and re-imagine new realities.
In this presentation I will describe how the documentaries, Chicano!, which chronicles the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement, and 13th, which details the history of mass incarceration of Blacks and Latinos/as, inspired in-depth conversations and modeled criticality for culturally and linguistically diverse students of color. Because the authors of these social issues texts discussed topics from culturally-diverse viewpoints, students often identified with the authors’ experiences and found the content relatable. Class participants engaged in robust, critical conversations on topics such as social class, gender, and race in the U.S. They then created their own critical texts in response to these discussions. Critical dialogue helped students see the possibilities for change and also see themselves as a part of the solution.
References
DuVernay, A. (Director). (2016). 13th [Documentary]. USA: Kandoo Films.
Ruiz, J. L. (1996). Chicano! The history of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement [TV Series]. Los Angeles, CA: NLCC Educational Media, 1996.
