Multimodal Approaches to Racial Literacy for Activism in K–12 Classrooms

• In Event: Centering Broad Voices: Equity-Oriented Multimodal Methods in Literacy Research

Abstract

Objectives: During this time of heightened sociopolitical discord in our country stemming from acts of racial violence, a growing disregard for public health, and exacerbated disparities in public education, this paper seeks to examine media making about racial equity for social change across two school settings in a large northeastern city.

Perspectives:
This study is informed by scholarship about racial literacy (Guinier, 2004; Author, 2021), critical inquiry with children's literature (Author, 2020), and multimodal inquiry (Ajayi, 2018; Vasudevan, 2014) to explore the potential for multimodal text set curation to serve as a site of inquiry and investigation about racial literacy with K-12 students.

Methods and Data:
In this paper, we present two case studies (Dyson & Genishi, 2005) of K-12 students engaging in multimodal literacies focused on racial equity in their community. The authors conducted this study across two urban public schools using ethnographic methods to collect data (n=40) for six months. In the midst of contentious conversations about addressing race, racism, and white supremacy in K-12 education, we developed these case studies informed by the racial literacy for activism framework (Author, 2021) to answer the question: How do teachers in K-12 school settings foster racial literacy through multimodal media making? In each case, we analyzed multimodal artifacts, lesson plans, transcriptions of discussions, and field notes to discuss the conceptual and practical tools educators and students use to construct multimodal artifacts about racism to advance an equity-oriented agenda for social change in their school communities.

Results and Significance:
The findings presented in this paper reveal the participants relied on conceptual tools such as racial literacy, multiliteracies, critical literacies, and digital literacies to guide their approach to planning lessons and experimenting with multimodal text production about racism and equity in our society. The data also show strategies students used to design artifacts for specific audiences and platforms to promote civic engagement and activism.

Authors

• Detra Price-Dennis, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz, Teachers College, Columbia University