Street Wisdom: A Critical Study on Youth Homelessness and Decolonizing Arts-Based Research

• In Event: A Praxis of Possibilities: Creative and Critical Research for Social Justice With Young People

Abstract

Purpose: This paper investigates the learning constituted within a street youth-led, participatory theatre production that was advocating for the reopening of emergency safe houses for youth ages 13 to 15 (Author et al., 2014). By focusing on particular pedagogical moments within the play creation, I examine how meaning is collectively constructed through multimodal literacy practices, inquiring into how critical multimodal meaning-making processes with street youth contribute to social change.

Theoretical Framework: Researchers studying critical arts pedagogies as modes for literacy learning and identity construction within social contexts (Medina, 2004; Rogers, Winters, Perry, & LaMonde, 2010) use arts–based and critical multimodal representations (e.g., play scripts, photography, film) to demonstrate how youth negotiate their beliefs and opinions. These scholars argue that within situated contexts, multimodal literacy experiences (Jewitt & Kress, 2008; Kalantzis & Cope, 2012) are a large part of how people construct knowledge and their identities.

Author

• Amanda Claudia Wager, Vancouver Island University