During my 25 years of teaching humanistic subjects – namely media literacy education, religious education, personal and social development, and social and environmental studies – the questions that my new students often asked were all related to their relevance to everyday life.
I always felt these questions were legitimate and justified, to such an extent that they needed to be addressed through serious research that would require time and energy. So I embarked on a long doctoral research journey at Bournemouth University in September 2016, that ended just a few weeks ago.
My doctoral thesis was titled ‘Facilitating the Adolescent Search for Meaning Through Creative Narrative Pedagogies: Unleashing the Power of Digital Technologies for Identity Formation in and through Media Literacy and Religious Education’. Its aim was to investigate whether and how the use of creative multimodal productions can facilitate adolescent search for meaning through the reimagination of life experiences, shared in a classroom context. More specifically, it sought to understand how adolescent meaning-making can be facilitated through the curricular subjects of religious education (RE) and media literacy education (MLE).
The research showed that linking these subjects to adolescents’ life is indeed possible through a multimodal narrative-hermeneutical approach to teaching and learning, which could potentially contribute to more effective pedagogies in the specified subjects, and possibly others. This pedagogical approach provides students with ample opportunities to work on tasks related to their learning outcomes, utilising various modes of learning.
Such an approach to teaching and learning has great potential to be a source of empowerment and resilience
Such diverse modes would engage all the students’ senses, as well as their potential for deep reflection on the connection between the learning outcomes and their everyday life experiences.
As the students engage in learning activities that range from simple storyboards and mood boards, story scripts and filming, to the editing of all these into one multimodal presentation that is shared in the context of a community of learning, they reflect on their life experiences and lessons learnt from them.
They would also have opportunities to reinterpret these experiences from the past and present to envisage a better future for themselves, and feel empowered and encouraged to pursue it.
Firstly, this approach cultivated a ‘pedagogy of agency’, as students satisfy their need to voice themselves, not just their ideas, views and opinions in contexts of discussion on a wide array of issues, but also some life experiences that could be reflected upon in relation to knowledge attained in the classroom. This would make knowledge more relevant to students’ life, contributing to more positive attitudes that students have of certain curricular subjects, especially RE and MLE.
Secondly, it nurtured a ‘pedagogy of empathy and compassion’, as students satisfy a strong inner desire that others make them feel respected, recognised and appreciated for their real worth and for who they are, as well as feel loved and cared for. In turn, these feelings make them calmer, safer and freer to think, and generate solutions for the challenges they face.
As they empathised with each other, and reciprocated a sense of compassion, and worked collaboratively on their tasks, they learnt more about themselves and others. Consequently, they nurtured positive, productive and respectful human relationships, which in turn led to more effective learning, critical reflection and self-reflexivity.
Thirdly, this approach shapes a ‘pedagogy of vulnerability’, as students learn not to view vulnerability as something bad or negative or tabooed, but something delicate that could be managed appropriately and professionally, for positive things to emerge out of it.
Students have belief and hope that when vulnerabilities are shared with courage with those who can be trusted, good things and new opportunities transpire. In this way, they feel strengthened to explore and unravel new positive potential within them.
Such an approach to teaching and learning has great potential to be a source of empowerment and resilience, especially during the dark moments of life.
The ways through which it facilitates meaning-making provide students with a sense of hope, especially in a community context.
My seven-year research project sought to address a few lacunae in our pedagogies, and built on insights and ideas from previous research studies.
I hope other researchers would be enthusiastic and willing to build on it to make religious and media literacy education more relevant, as it would speak more to, and enlighten students’ lives, ensuring that more cross-curricular initiatives are undertaken to help students see connections among their curricular subjects.
Acknowledgement
The author’s research was made possible thanks to a scholarship awarded through the Endeavour Scholarships Scheme B aimed at supporting part-time doctoral students whose research has potential to contribute something of value to society. To contact the author, e-mail edward.74.wright@gmail.com.