Through Their Eyes: Israeli Arab Minority Students Speak Up Through Participatory Documentary Photography Projects

• In Event: 65.080 - Roundtable Session 24
  In Roundtable Session: 65.080-16 - Eyeing Curriculum Studies at the Crossroads of Decolonizing, Transnational, and Indigenous Inquiry

Abstract

Engaging in documentary photography projects provide opportunities for students to highlight problematic issues to the wider community and act for enhancing reality. Grounded in critical literacy theory, this research tool empowers youth with little money, power, or status by inviting them to voice their critique. After students take photos of deficiencies in their society and elaborate on them in writing, they display their “voices” in a walk-in exhibit attended by leading figures in students’ society. Through sharing their projects with the visitors, students seek avenues for affecting change. Examples of my minority students’ photos will be shared with the conference audience to show how they started using the language of critique to disrupt the status quo and demand social change.

Author

• Rawia Hayik, Sakhnin College