Facilitating Public Film Screening Events as Equity Literacy Discussion Invitations

• In Event: Moscone Center West Roundtable Session 13
  In Roundtable Session: How Do We Discuss This? Facilitating Equity Literacy and Community Partnership via Discussion Formats

Abstract

With community partners: Jenny Robinson & Tracy Bee.

Objectives
Since 2010, education documentary films have proliferated covering a variety of issues like racial bias, bullying, overtesting, and school funding- offering opportunities to discuss school equity. We theorize screening films to facilitate equity literacy publicly as critical literacy.

We will: (1) contextualize public film screening events as one equity literacy tool utilized within a larger community-led participatory action research collective focused on school equity, (2) describe five film screening formats tailored to particular stakeholders relevant to school equity in our community, (3) highlight lessons learned for future screening events.

Perspective
Community/equity literacy demands knowledge and skills, so “we [understand] the relationship between texts, meaning-making, and power to undertake transformative social action that contributes to the achievement of a more equitable social order” (Janks & Vasquez, 2011, p. 1). This framing suggests how exactly researchers and community members might come together to disrupt the common place, interrogate multiple viewpoints (Lewison, Flint and Van Sluys, 2002), and focus on “wicked” (Comber, 2015) sociopolitical issues.

Methods
We utilized a community-led participatory action research approach (Cipollone, 2019), following stakeholders most affected in researching and analyzing community issues collaboratively, in the public sphere (Kemmis 2006).

Data
Data includes: (1) planning/organizational documents, meeting notes and reflection around five film screenings from 2014-2019, (2) fieldnotes and artifacts from screening events (e.g. audience observation, panel/discussion recordings), and (3) survey responses from 130+ attendees.

Findings & Significance
Five screening formats facilitated equity literacy:

-Screening at a local public high school engaged 150+ teachers, students, parents and administrators, as partners sharing concern for equitable school resource allocation. A panel of state/local school leaders, policymakers, teachers, and parents fielded moderated and audience-submitted questions focused on what local stakeholders should know to advocate for public schools. This format reached many people, but was less effective in channeling energies into action.

-Screening at a church leveraged activist networks connected with the faith community. Afterward, 23 congregational members with varied educational viewpoints (some dedicated to public education, others advocates for the local charter school) came together using a structured discussion protocol format, Microlabs (NSRF 2019). This format gleaned insights from social justice-oriented activists deeply entrenched in education issues.

-Encouraging viewing parties in teachers’ homes allowed 40+ educators to discuss with trusted colleagues privately. The school district purchased multiple copies for checkout in a professional resource library coupled with discussion guides.

-Screening at the University engaged campus in local K-12 issues, bridging the town/gown divide. A panel comprised of teachers, professors, and a union rep instrumental in getting a teacher elected to the legislature, discussed local/state education policy strategy and implications with an audience of students, staff and faculty.

-Screening at the public library, in conjunction with outreach to parents of vulnerable populations and the school district’s diversity coordinator, initiated coalition-building and channeled energies toward focused action; the panel included youth voices.

In sum, various film screening/discussion formats have fostered community/research connections over time, slowly-building in part as a result of these public events, to move us forward.

Authors

• Christy Wessel-Powell, Purdue University

• Regina Marie Weir, Indiana University