TikToks as Resources for Critical Reflection, Discussion, and Growth: Pursuing Critical Literacies Through Translanguaging Pedagogies in a College Course for "Heritage" Speakers

• In Event: Translanguaging for Critical Literacy: An Expansive, Ecological View of Language

Abstract

Objectives
While criticality is a key (yet underexplored) objective in heritage language education, recent proposals have discussed the possibilities of translanguaging in this regard (Leeman & Serafini 2016; Prada, 2019, 2021). The present study contributes to this gap. In this talk, I explore a three-week module created to promote critical literacies among Spanish-English bilingual Latinxs within the context of a 16-week college Spanish course for ‘heritage’ speakers. As an original component, the module centers the use of TikToks (short videos posted on the social network ‘TikTok’) as resources for critical reflection, discussion, exploration and representation of embodied practices and experiences of racialized, language minoritized bilinguals. The conceptualization of TikToks as texts, and their inclusion in the curriculum bring into the classroom complex and fluid meaning-making strategies, and their intersections with race, time and space in ways that are best understood through an ecological lens, promoting an expansive and integrative stance. The study reports on how this type of multimodal materials and the translanguaging pedagogical understructure in which they were integrated served the purpose of promoting critical literacy among young-adult bilingual Latinxs.

Theoretical framework
Critical literacy is concerned with teaching students to understand the relationships between language and power (Janks, 2000). It focuses on “learning to read and write as part of the process of becoming conscious of one’s experience as historically constructed within specific power relations” (Anderson & Irvine, 1993) by centering the interpretation of texts in different environmental and cultural contexts (Luke, 2000). Critical literacy promotes a deeper understanding of socially constructed concepts, such as power, inequality, and injustice in human relationships. As a learning approach, through critical literacies students examine various texts to understand the relationship between language and the power it can hold. Connectedly, in today’s world, new media literacy can be defined as “ability to critically assess and develop content that uses new media forms, and to leverage new media for persuasive communication” (Davies, Fidler, & Gorbis, 2011).

Data sources and analysis
Data sources include a combination of (a) individually-produced written reflections, (b) audio recordings of small group discussions, and (c) individual interviews with four key respondents. The written reflections, discussions and interviews focused on six TikToks presented in class as objects of analysis. Group discussions and interviews were transcribed, and the three data sources were explored via qualitative content analysis (Forman & Damschroder, 2007).

Results and scholarly significance of the study
Three categories emerged from the data, providing insight into (1) the students’ changing conceptualization of text, (2) the students’ shifting views on Spanglish as a global phenomenon, and (3) instances of students’ repositioning as empowered racialized bilinguals. These categories are discussed against the pedagogical design of the module and its role within the course’s broader curriculum, bringing to focus the strengths and weaknesses of this particular module, its objectives, outcomes, and the processes engaged by the students.

Author

• Josh Lius Prada, Indiana University - IUPUI