Through Their Lenses: Arab Students' Environmental Documentation and Action

• In Event: Moscone Center North Roundtable Session 8
  In Roundtable Session: Pedagogies of Solidarity, Resistance, and Action With Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students

Abstract

Grounded in critical literacy pedagogy, this study connects language teaching to students’ realities through inviting them to use the empowering tool "PhotoVoice" to document and report problems in their environment to their community. In a context where the focus is on teaching linguistic skills and standards, Arab minority students use photography and language to engage in environmental activism. Enacting this project in a context often absent from research brings into the public and academic sphere their concerns, voices, and reflections on reality. It also has implications on interventions aimed at perpetuating and promoting civic engagement through suggesting to teachers, administrators and policy makers an engaging way for addressing environmental problems while honing students' literacy capabilities.

Author

• Rawia Hayik, Israel Institute visiting scholar, UCLA