Social Activism
The second documentary produced in my fall of 2006 learning community
demonstrated the potential for student excellence in the realm of
student documentary proposals.
The group of three young women in the "Save the Planet, Now"
community, instead of taking an environmentalist approach to the theme,
opted on taking a social activist approach to the documentary project.
Inspired by her Jewish faith, one student felt a strong desire to take
action and educate students about the devastating genocide that is
occurring in Darfur, Sudan. The other group members were also compelled
by this argument, and the result is a student documentary project that
is a deeply moving, inspirational call to social action.
The girls incorporate still photography, text, maps and
charts, a haunting soundtrack, emotional and informative interviews,
and a personal message proposing how college students can make an
impact and enact social change.
The composition classroom as a forum for critical, social
activism is an exciting prospect. Using multimedia texts to that end is
a rational step in this process. In 1996, the Harvard Educational
Review published an article/manifesto entitled, "Pedagogy of
Multiliteracies: Designing Social Futures." Written by a group of
scholars calling themselves The New London Group, this article
illuminates the social impact that multiliteracies have on the future.
They write:
If it were possible to define generally the mission of
education, one could say that its fundamental purpose is to ensure that
all students benefit from learning in ways that allow them to
participate fully in public, community and economic life . . . literacy
pedagogy now must account for the burgeoning variety of text forms
associated with information and multimedia technologies. (1-3)
The New London Group goes further to suggest that multimedia technologies demand a new pedagogical approach:
Mutliliteracies also creates a
different kind of pedagogy, one in which language and other modes of
meaning are dynamic representational resources, constantly being remade
by their users as they work to achieve their various culture purposes.
. . . Indeed, these are fundamental issues about our future. In
addressing these issues, literacy educators and students must see
themselves as active participants in social change, as learners and
students who can be active designers-makers of social futures. (4-5)
By
asking students to develop a proposal argument in their documentary
projects, students are able to become, as the New London Group
suggests, "active participants in social change."
The outcome is stirring and memorable.
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Image by Taekwonweirdo