“ It was our right ” : Multimodal Texts as Resources for Challenging Inequities

1. “It was our right”: Multimodal Texts as Resources for Challenging Inequities Lisa Simon City College City University of New York National Reading Conference

2. Critical Literacy Framework (Freire, 2001; Janks, 2000; Kalantzis & Cope, 2004; Norton, 2005) Texts • are central to the reproduction of dominant perspectives and marginalization of diverse stories • have the potential to transform • are multimodal- image, sound, gesture, and performance as well as print

3. Critical literacy framework. (Freire, 2001; Janks, 2000; Kalantzis & Cope, 2004; Norton, 2005) • Allows recognition of the significant ways individuals are interacting with texts • Shows how diverse texts like oral stories, songs, jokes, and graffiti are being used to challenge marginalization and inequities Marginalized aspects of children’s agencies can more readily be revealed through the lenses provided by this framework

4. Freire… states that we must teach students to combine critique with hope. When we teach students how to critique the injustice in the world, we should help them formulate possibilities for action to change the world to make it more democratic and just. (Banks, 2003, p. 18)

5. Tenets of Social ActivismBanks, 2003; Freire, 2001; Nieto, 1999 • Identify inequitable practices by critically reading current context/world • Formulate an alternative vision • Use that vision to guide and sustain the work needed to transform identified inequities • Work collectively to pool resources for change. • Formulate and take action wherein all individuals contribute to working for change

6. Larger Study: Preadolescent Girls’ Understandings of Their Worlds Participants: 14 girls eight to 11 years old, living in the same urban area, diverse in ethnicity, economic status, languages, family structures, and spirituality Site: urban summer day camp Data Collection: focus groups, artifact production, participant observation, shadowing, interviews with participants, camp personnel and family members Data analysis – 2 stages Stage 1: recursive; constant comparison analysis to identify themes Stage 2: narrative analysis of focal participants’ oral and written stories

7. Leah Leah: I remember one time Sirona liked this boy and everybody was chasing after them and trying to get them into a circle and they were telling them to kiss each other and they just kept them there. And they didn’t kiss each other. Lisa: The counselors were there? Leah: They were cheering them on too. And I felt bad and I was trying to tell them to leave Sirona alone. And she felt embarrassed too. And I was trying to keep - I was trying to go somewhere else with her so that they wouldn’t bother her. They eventually stopped when it was time to go to another place but they kept bothering her and I felt bad about that. Lisa: And the counselors were there? [Leah nods]. That sounds very scary… that nobody helped her. I mean none of the adults. Leah: And that was one of the times when I felt that it wasn’t really like a summer camp cause the counselors are there to watch the kids they’re not there to make them feel bad.

8. Leah Findings: • Moral understandings played an important role in her self-understanding and actions. • Linked perception that aspects of the camp were unfair to her efforts to challenge those aspects. • Depicted self as individual observer or actor.

9. Stage 3: Compare Leah to an Adult Activist Compare Leah to Fannie Lou Hamer in order to understand: • Leah’s efforts outside a developmental framework • The use of multimodal texts as resources in working for change • Where Leah’s social activism needs additional support

10. Fannie Lou Hamer

11. Social Activism: Identify inequitable practices by critically reading current context/world McMillen : What was your life like when you were a little girl? Hamer: My family moved here, and we moved on a plantation…. Life was very hard; we never hardly had enough to eat; we didn't have clothes to wear. We had to work real hard, because I started working when I was about six years old. I didn't have a chance to go to school too much, because school would only last about four months at the time when I was a kid going to school. Most of the time we didn't have clothes to wear to that [school]; and then if any work would come up that we would have to do, the parents would take us out of the school to cut stalks and burn stalks or work in dead lands or things like that. It was just really tough as a kid when I was a child. Leah: I remember one time Sirona liked this boy and everybody was chasing after them and trying to get them into a circle and they were telling them to kiss each other and they just kept them there.

12. Social Activism: Formulate an alternative vision Leah: And that was one of the times when I felt that it wasn’t really like a summer camp cause the counselors are there to watch the kids they’re not there to make them feel bad. McMillen: Tell us about your efforts to vote. Hamer: Well, I didn't know anything about voting; I didn't know anything about registering to vote. One night I went to the church. They had a mass meeting. And I went to the church, and they talked about how it was our right, that we could register and vote. They were talking about we could vote out people that we didn't want in office…. That sounded interesting enough to me that I wanted to try it.

13. Social Activism: Use alternative vision to guide and sustain the work needed to transform identified inequities All of this is on account of we want to register, to become first-class citizens. And if the Freedom Democratic Party is not seated now, I question America. Is this America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, where we have to sleep with our telephones off of the hooks because our lives be threatened daily, because we want to live as decent human beings, in America?

14. Social Activism: Use alternative vision to guide and sustain the work needed to transform identified inequities And I felt bad and I was trying to tell them to leave Sirona alone…. I was trying to go somewhere else with her so that they wouldn’t bother her.

15. Social Activism: Work collectively to pool resources for change I was trying to tell them to leave Sirona alone. And I was trying to keep - I was trying to go somewhere else with her so that they wouldn’t bother her. April, 1964: Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) officially established. • Hamer elected MFDP’s rep for 2nd District; member of MFDP’s executive committee; delegate and vice chair of delegation to go to state convention • Hamer and Ella Baker speak at numerous rallies along the East Coast to get MFDP message out. • “Mrs Hamer remained at the core of MFDP from the day it was founded, through the long weeks of organizing in Mississippi, and when the challengers took center stage along the Boardwalk in the convention hall.” (Mills, p. 105)

16. Social Activism: Formulate and take action wherein all individuals contribute to working for change MDFP was offered a compromise: the two middle class delegates can be seated as at-large delegates; the others, including Hamer, would be treated as honored guests but not recognized in any other way. “Mrs. Hamer rose and said they had come with nothing and they would go home with nothing. She told the liberals who had just spoken that she understood why they thought two seats were better than none. But she thought they were wrong.” (Mills, 130). When the vote was taken, the majority of delegates voted to reject the compromise

18. Crucial Resources • Cultural “tool kit” • Key texts

19. Cultural Tool Kit Culture is a ‘tool kit’ of symbols, stories, rituals, and world views…. Actors select different tools and use them in different configurations to solve problems and construct ‘lines of action’ (Swidler, 1986, pp. 273, 277)

20. Cultural Resources: The Black Church (Barnes, 2005; Pattillo-McCoy, 1998) World Views • Reminders of the inherent value of people of African descent and their right to equality in all its forms; • Singing to fortify courage and provide meaning during challenging times • Collective, civic activism Texts: These emphases are invigorated by, entwined with and manifested in texts such as: song, story, prayer, and call and response

21. Leah: I try not to be mean to anybody and do something that bothers them and if I did do something that bothered them, I would apologize to them Cultural Resources: Nice v. Mean

22. Cultural Resources: The Reading/Writing Group Leah: I realized that I liked to be with the [reading and writing] group more than do something else with the rest of the camp. Because the people in the group were the people I liked a lot in the camp. And the people who joined the group were really the people who were nice. The people who weren’t nice I don’t think they wanted to join. Lisa: What makes somebody nice? Leah: Well I think they weren’t mean to the other people and like Julie teased Danielle. [The people in the group] didn’t do that. They didn’t make fun of anybody. Lisa: But Jackie and Sirona did a couple of times right? Leah: Yeah but they apologized and they […] admitted that they felt sorry about doing that.

23. Read and critique oppressive practices Teasing used to • Control gender boundaries (e.g., heterosexuality, body image, physical movement) Leah: Danielle was really clumsy and she did clumsy things all the time. And they teased her and they said she was fat and…maybe she was a little bigger but Julie was bigger too • Access power (popularity) Leah: Maybe Julie just thought if she just teased Danielle because everybody else was teasing her, they would think she [Julie] was more popular.

24. Collaborate to Construct Alternative Texts Leah: I think that everybody can make mistakes sometimes, even Danielle who made more mistakes than other people would usually do. I think that’s still normal. Lisa: What kind of mistakes did Danielle make? Leah: Like if they were playing a game she would sometimes bump into it and like ruin the game. And I remember one time when me and Camille were playing “Connect Four” and Danielle didn’t know what the thing at the bottom was for. And she moved it over and all the pieces fell out. And we were just about to see if anybody won cause we thought Camille won. But we still forgave her for it.

25. Hamer: Church meeting One night I went to the church.… They were talking about we could vote out people that we didn't want in office….. That sounded interesting enough to me that I wanted to try it.. Leah: Her mother’s words My mother told me that if somebody said something about me and I didn’t think that it was true and I felt happy about myself then I could just ignore them…. But if I’m mean to them then I should be nicer to them but if they just want to make me feel bad by saying that I was mean, I should be able to know that I was being mean or not….. Cultural Resources: Key Texts

26. Child development Expand focus of children’s moral understandings from individual to collaborative Question/step outside of linear view of development to highlight children’s critiques and actions “Ordinary courage – loss of voice” phenomenon: what supports in relation to social action tenets could be relevant? ImplicationsClassroom teachers, Researchers, Teacher Educators

27. Cultural tool kit What is the range of resources your students bring with them? What histories of social action are already part of their cultural tool kit? How can you highlight these histories as well as learn from them? What texts – genres and modalities – are part of students’ cultural tool kits? What role can they play in engaged academic learning? ImplicationsClassroom teachers, Researchers, Teacher Educators

28. Civic action Expand understanding to recognize the role of protest as well as voting in civic action ImplicationsClassroom teachers, Researchers, Teacher Educators