“Bigger than us…bigger than a school project”: Media Production Creating Opportunities for Youth Civic Engagement

• In Event: World Building as a Balm for Civic Education: Graduate Student Research Perspectives

Abstract

The ongoing climate crisis, longstanding environmental injustices, and racial and socioeconomic disparities resulting from racist policies and practices highlight the need for a civically engaged youth – and climate justice education – that is responsive to our current moment. In their online lives, youth navigate a complex media landscape, actively participate in digital discourse, and take activist stances (Smith & Beach, 2023; Funk et al., 2016). However, like many frameworks for civic learning in the U.S., climate change education is often siloed in content classrooms and focused on learning facts over taking action (Monroe et al., 2016; Mirra & Garcia, 2023). Roderick (2023) has noted that “When climate education is offered, it is generally about climate change rather than for a habitable planet, for the transition from fossil fuels to sustainable sources of energy, and for climate justice” (p.2). To navigate the current media landscape and position youth as agents of political and environmental change, we need civic and literacy education that is responsive to our world. Integrating ideas from critical race and multiliteracies theories, Mirra and Garcia have argued that speculative civic literacies – “expansive, creative forms of meaning-making and communication aimed at radically reorienting the nature and purpose of shared democratic life towards equity, empathy, and justice” – are needed to push back against traditional forms of civic learning that embraced systems that have continued to fail (2020; p 297). Mirra and Garcia’s framework positions youth –``who they are, what they care about, and how they want to live” – over knowledge about democratic structures they are expected to engage (2020, p. 317).

In this qualitative case study, I explore how youth media production provided opportunities for civic learning during an interdisciplinary Environmental Justice Expedition (EJE) project. After learning about environmental justice (EJ) issues in their local community, students produced mini-documentary films designed to educate others and advocate for change. At a final event, students screened films, began community conversations, and called for action. Two years after the project, I conducted a focus group with students to understand how they experienced their learning and how it impacted their future thinking, learning, and actions. A comprehensive analysis of teacher-facing planning documents, student work, and retrospective reflections from project alums revealed how media production provided opportunities for social analysis and social action. Morrell et al. have argued that 21st-century adolescents are uniquely well-positioned to create media and use it to make change, start dialogue, and have their voices heard (2015). By engaging critically within the media landscape and becoming media producers, students can tell their truths about the issues most relevant to them (Morrell et al., 2015). This case has relevance for teachers, teacher educators, and educational researchers interested in how speculative civic literacies – those that promote “doing citizenship” over learning facts and promote “social dreaming” amid struggles for justice – can have a lasting impact (Mirra & Garcia, 2023; p31-32).

Author

• Anthony Voulgarides, Hunter College - CUNY