| In the context of an online media literacy course for junior high school students, predominantly from low-income families, this critical autoethnography explores the question: What good does it do to know and teach about the media? In so doing, it pays particular attention to the challenges of utilizing critical pedagogy within a specific setting, and documents my attempt to engage in praxis---that is, theory, action, and reflection.; The original question arose out of my recognition that the incorporation and co-optation of socially transgressive practices and ideas generally prevents them from having any long-term radical impact on society's hegemonic norms. Additionally, many of those educated in critical media literacy demonstrate enlightened false consciousness. Consequently, I began to wonder whether engaging students in critical media literacy pedagogy is a worthwhile endeavor.; In considering this question, I came to realize that the question itself---as well as many of my pedagogical practices---seemed to derive from assumptions born of my race and class privilege. In turn, I came to recognize that media literacy is, in fact, a crucial tool for preparing students to participate in any kind of social activism. Moreover, I began to understand the process of being critically engaged in struggle as a meaningful end in itself.; This dissertation tells the story of my research. Woven into the narrative are critical reflections on: online learning environments, intermedial literacy, whiteness, and class privilege. The merits of differentiated instruction, the specific needs of learners from low-income backgrounds, transcripts of online chats, and reflections on the practice of critical pedagogy are also explored. The concluding chapter is composed as a hypertext document to reflect the experience of the class and the spiraling process of growth that can occur in an autoethnogaphic project. This chapter includes film reviews as a way of approaching the initial set of problems. This approach also allows me another opportunity to step outside myself in order to see my quandaries more clearly, and to incorporate the manner in which film analysis has for me become an epistemological tool. |
