Critically Thinking about Practical Skills: The Development of a Media Literacy Curriculum for a High School in Western Massachusetts

• In Event: Media Literacy and Outreach in Ethnically Diverse High Schools

Abstract

This paper describes a school-university partnership in the development of a media literacy curriculum in the “IT, Film and Media Academy” of the Science and Technology High School in Springfield, Massachusetts, a post-industrial city located in the rural region of the state. Teachers collaborated with an UMass Amherst Communication professor in the creation of a new 9th grade semester-long course entitled “Introduction to Media and Society,” the only one of its kind at a high school in Western Massachusetts. However, the implementation of the course and the inclusion of a media literacy project has not been an easy. This paper discusses the challenges and opportunities of a high school curriculum that emphasizes practical skills, and the tensions that emerge over critical considerations of race, ethnicity and culture in area of study and professional practice that is often believed to be “neutral.”

Author

• Mari Castaneda, University of Massachusetts, Amherst