Critical Conversations: Using Podcasts to Facilitate Graduate Student Discussions on Diversity and Equity

• In Event: Visual and Audio-Based Media as a Research Technique to Explore Issues of Equity and Social Justice

Abstract

The steady changing of U.S. demographics has necessitated the need to address issues of race and diversity in teacher educations across the U.S. This illuminates the need to assist pre-service teachers and other education majors in acquiring the skills and knowledge necessary to facilitate said conversations in the classroom (Howard & Rosario, 2000). This growing need is juxtaposed to the increasing use of digital media to facilitate dialogue and particularly difficult conversations that center on race, diversity, and equity issues. The use of podcasts in education has received much attention over the last decade and has been the subject of a plethora of research studies (Kay, 2012; Sprague & Pixley, 2012; Robinson & Ritzko, 2009). Yet, little research is available, which documents the use of podcasts as a technique for facilitating difficult conversations on race and diversity issues. In response to these converging trends, some instructors have explored alternative methods to spur discourse around topics of equity and diversity.

This method of scholarship and instruction has garnered much attention in the last decade as academics and scholars grapple with the changing digital platforms available to share their work. On September 17th students in a Ph.D. course centered on diversity and equity were placed into two-person dyads teams with the expectation of them hosting a “Podcast” that addressed the corresponding readings for each respective week. The Podcasts, titled “Critical Conversations” served as prompts for the dyads teams as they were charged with the responsibility of leading class discussions on issues of diversity and equity. Hosts for the Podcasts were deemed as the “Reactors'' for the weekly readings as it was also their job to react to the readings of the week in an online thread. Dyad teams or Reactors engaged in threaded dialogue each week with their “First Responders,” which covered the topics of the week. First responders were charged with being the “first” group to respond to the online thread. Other students in the course were allowed to respond as well but their response was not mandated.

In this demonstration, we will examine the use of weekly podcasts hosted by student participants and their effectiveness as a communication technique. Prior to the corresponding semester of instruction, instructors for the diversity and equity course were able to secure IRB approval to record the Podcast sessions. Instructors sought out IRB approval for this process with the explicit goal of archiving student presentations with hopes of presenting and/or publishing results from the discourse derived from these presentations.

Authors

• Mwenda O Kudumu, North Carolina State University

• Cameron DeLeon Denson, North Carolina State University