| The purpose of this qualitative, multiple case study is to examine the media literacy praxis, that is, the theory, practice, and reflections, of secondary Language arts teachers with a focus on the complexities of teachers' beliefs, knowledge, and pedagogies. Of particular interest is the influence of the teachers' chosen approach to media literacy on the pedagogics used in the classroom. My study fills the gap in existent research by focusing on how media literacy is actually being taught in U.S. schools in this southwestern state.; Four secondary Language arts teachers in two cities participated in this case study, and data was collected through multiple, semi-structured interviews, a series of participant observations, and a collection of classroom artifacts over the course of one semester. Three of the participating teachers taught media communication classes with media literacy as the goal and subject of the course, and one participating teacher included an eight week unit of media literacy as part of her junior English course. The data was recursively analyzed following ethnographic, inductive techniques to find emergent patterns and themes.; Significant findings became apparent in three major areas: teachers' conceptions about the subject and their subject content knowledge influenced the design of the courses and the pedagogies used; the protectionist paradigm of media instruction, the primary goal being to protect students from the negative influences of the media, was the dominant approach the participating teachers used; and knowledge and institutional barriers exist to the detriment of critical media literacy inclusion. Findings also demonstrated that while teachers had the autonomy to design their own courses, they had little or no support to increase their developing subject content knowledge. Without further professional development to increase the participants' subject knowledge, moving beyond simple textual analysis and the protectionist approach into the realm of critical media literacy is challenging. |
