Critical Approaches to Media in Urban English Language Arts Teacher Development

• In Event: Literacy in the 21st Century: Reenvisioning Teaching and Research

Abstract

Classrooms are changing in their demographic composition, becoming increasingly diverse ethnically, socioeconomically, and linguistically (Council of Great City Schools, 2010). The teaching force is changing rapidly as many educators near retirement and many new teachers leave the field each year, (Darling-Hammond, 2000). The discipline of English is changing in the postmodern landscape of the 21 st century (Scholes, 1998). Advances in technology are transforming what it means to be literate (Cushman, Kingten, Kroll, & Rose, 2001; Kress, 2003) while the new economy demands literacies that schools, at present, do not provide for all students (Alvermann, 2001). With this background in mind, the proposed paper addresses the following questions

1. In what ways does an engagement of youth as media producers lead to academic literacy development?
2. How should the popular cultural practices of young people be incorporated into secondary English classrooms?
3. What are possible applications of a critical pedagogy of urban English education that acknowledges and honors non-school literacy practices and promotes literacy as a tool for academic development, cultural production, and social change?

Theoretical Framework
In response to the discourse of illiteracy and popular notions of a "great cognitive divide" between literate and nonliterate nations and communities (Goody & Watt, 1968), sociocultural theory (Barton & Hamilton, 2000; Moll et. al. 1992) upholds that all students are learners and users of language and literacy in their everyday activities. New literacy studies scholars further assert that there are multiple ways of producing and interacting with texts (Barton & Hamilton, 2000; Kress, 2003; New London Group, 1996), and that literacy is culturally situated (Ferdman,1990), ideological (Street, 1995) and tied to larger power relations in society (Gee, 1996). Scholars have used the ethnography of communication (Gumperz & Hymes, 1972) as a tool to study the everyday literacy practices of historically marginalized youth. They have found that young people engage in a variety of sophisticated activities, from hip-hop and spoken-word poetry (Alim, 2006) to videogame playing (Gee, 2003) to digital film production (Morrell, 2008).

Evidence
Through a comparative case study of two English preservice classes and a program that works with practicing literacy educators this paper examines a critical literacy approach to English teacher education that fosters increased engagement and achievement for historically underserved youth. It then discusses several projects from English methods courses including a microethnography of literacy project and a multimedia theme-based unit, as examples of ways to link theory to practice in English education. The paper next investigates several activity systems that have proven powerful for teacher learning to push us toward a more critical model of urban literacy teacher development. These include a community asset mapping activity, a neighborhood exploration project, and two programs that engage practicing teachers as critical social scientists.

Significance
This paper offers strategies to develop literacy methods courses and collaborations with practicing teachers that embrace critical approaches to new media literacies while also helping preservice and practicing teachers to enact classroom practices that simultaneously empower students culturally and adhere to state and national literacy standards.

Author

• Ernest D. Morrell, Teachers College, Columbia University