Abstract
Participatory literacies are central to developing instruction that makes curriculum real, relevant, and alive to students. This chapter focuses on how to integrate participatory practices and place-based narratives into instruction in order to engage students in reading, writing, and taking action in their school communities. The chapter looks at ways that teachers have incorporated multimodal narratives and multiliteracies to engage students in both using and producing products through written, oral, and digital modes. Guided by theoretical views of participatory literacies, place, community-based pedagogies, and multimodal narratives, the chapter explores ways to engage students in creating multimodal content to represent their learning as well as take action within the school and wider community.
TopPlace-Based Pedagogy
This work is informed by place and community-based pedagogy which holds the potential to transform the space and place of learning, through intersections of place, community, and local knowledge (Sobol & Smith, 2015, Cresswell 2004). Focusing curriculum within school communities provides a means for students to become more deeply connected to the community, and to find and strengthen their own voices. Place-based instruction is characterized by four tenets (Smith, & Sobel, 2014):
- 1.
Teachers act as co-learners and brokers of community resources,
- 2.
local phenomena guide curriculum,
- 3.
students act as creators of knowledge rather than consumers,
- 4.
students’ questions, concerns, engagement, and agency become central to the curriculum.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Placemaking: This refers to the ways in which our experiences lead us to our conceptions of a place.
Place-Based Instruction: An immersive learning experience that places students in local heritage, cultures, landscapes, opportunities and experiences, and incorporates this study across the curriculum, often resulting in social change.
Critical Pedagogy: A teaching approach which attempts to help students question and challenge domination, and the beliefs and practices that contribute to the oppression of others through an imbalance of power.
Culturally Relevant Instruction: A theory that informs instructional practice focusing on academic achievement, cultural competence and sociopolitical consciousness.
Multiple Literacies: A broader view of literacy, also referred to as “new literacies” or “multiliteracies.” These multiliteracies include linguistic, visual, audio, spatial, and gestural ways of meaning-making.
Artifactual Literacies: A theory of recognizing the role of artifacts in the narratives of students’ lives and inviting those into the classroom.
Community: A physical or representational space whereby members engage in activities based on shared interests.
Participatory Literacies: An approach to learning, texts are used as part of a mix of that includes magazine articles, student-generated materials, hypermedia productions, visuals, which students use, create, and collaborate on for larger audiences.