Use of the Fable Genre Empowers Students’ Cultural Expression in a College Communications Class

• In Event: Roundtable Session 38
  In Roundtable Session: Classroom Experiences and College Outcomes

Abstract

The critical pedagogues (Freire, 1970, 1973; Giroux; 1982, 2009) maintain that literacy instruction provides an instrument in which to view oneself and the world critically. With this philosophy in mind, one hundred seventy-five college freshmen from diversified cultural and ethnic backgrounds in a college communications course received instruction in fable writing over a three-month semester. Students were asked to write original fables that illustrated a lesson worth sharing with their classmates. The topics students chose and the lessons they conveyed appeared to be strongly influenced by their cultural heritage. Regardless of the length of time they spent in the United States, students retained their identity to family and cultural ties.

Author

• Bettina P. Murray, John Jay College of Criminal Justice - CUNY