Title: Media Studies and Emancipatory Praxis: An Autoethnographic Essay on Critical Pedagogy
Abstract: Pedagogy refers to the process by which teachers and students negotiate and produce meaning. This, in turn, takes into consideration how teachers and students are positioned within discursive practices and power/knowledge relations, Pedagogy also refers to haw we represent ourselves, others, and the communities in which we choose to live. The term pedagogy, by distinction, underscores the partisan nature of learning and struggle; it provides a starting point for linking knowledge to and a commitment to developing forms of community life that take seriously the struggle for democracy and social justice.' Peter McLaren I FIND IT DIFFICULT to answer questions about my identity, my sense of my self, with complete clarity because the fact is that little in my life seems fixed; I am both insider and outsider and fill a multiplicity of social roles in the midst of constant change. In Minimal Selves, Stuart Hall describes his narrative of migration as one version of the 'real me' (45). He opens the essay by talking about his sense of identity as a migrant, as someone different, and confides that finally he feels He writes, Now that, in the postmodern age, you all feel so dispersed, I become centered. What I've thought of as dispersed and fragmented comes, paradoxically, to be the representative modern experience! (44). This description resonates powerfully with those of us actively involved in the journey of transforming our own lives to work for social justice, a transformation that includes creating opportunities for praxis and democratic engagement among our students. Teaching and the Self I have written earlier about my distinct but overlapping selves to theorize the teaching experience in the context of other roles I fill (Dalton, 1996). We all, I believe, use stories to make sense of our lives, and we all have our own life narratives that help us form connections with other people (Carr, 1986; Hall, 1987; Denzin, 1989; Witherell and Noddings, 1991; casey, 1993). The stories we see as narratives of popular culture and the stories we hear as anecdotes from family and friends combine to provide us with scripts that we may see as suitable storylines for our own lived experience. In other words, the stories we already know form the range of possible narrative devices available for the stories we are yet to tell. It is the role of the teacherto expand the available storylines students may draw on, to help students identify the complexity and contradiction inherent in the master narratives, and to remind students that some stories-especially those that involve social justice-are better than others. This essay will explore that particular self-the teacher-separate from the others, and discuss how my experience as a professor of film and media studies with a feminist perspective informs my ability to engage in a pedagogy that is intended to be both and emancipatory. As teacher, I find myself establishing relationships with my students that call to mind Dwayne Huebner's and political value frameworks; critical and emancipatory are two of the five value systems he uses to characterize curriculum.2 Huebner writes that ethical valuing demands that the human situation existing between student and teacher must be uppermost, and that content must be seen as an arena ofthat human confrontation (229). He identifies political valuing in the dynamics of the classroom and cautions that if and prestige are sought as ends, rather than as means for responsible and creative influence, evil and immorality may be produced. Yet dreams and visions are not realized without personal or professional power (22425). I define myself as teacher through my personal encounters with students, while also remaining conscious of the dynamics in the classroom.3 We cannot ignore the role our own lives, our own subjective ways of being in and with the world, play in influencing our students. …
Publication Year: 2003
Publication Date: 2003-07-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 8
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