Picturing Culturally Relevant Literacy Practices: Using Photography to See How Literacy Pedagogies Matter to Urban Youth

Authors

  • Kristien Zenkov George Mason University
  • Anthony Pellegrino George Mason University
  • James Harmon Euclid City Schools
  • Marriam Ewaida Manassas City Schools
  • Athene Bell Manassas City Schools
  • Megan Lynch Prince William County Schools
  • Corey Sell George Mason University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18251/ijme.v15i2.555

Keywords:

Literacy education, English education, urban education, cultural relevance, multicultural education, photo elicitation, youth perspectives

Abstract

This article reports on the findings of a photography and literacy project the authors conducted with 117 diverse city students. Relying on a critical pedagogy framework, the foundations for this study include research on cultural relevance, literacy, and visual sociology. The authors used Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) and photo elicitation methods to allow young adults to document their impressions of the purposes of, supports for, and impediments to school. Through a multi-stage process of analyzing these pictures and writings, the authors discovered insights about what youth believe are literacy pedagogies that are relevant to their cultures and help them to achieve in school.

 

Author Biographies

Kristien Zenkov, George Mason University

Associate Professor, Secondary and Literacy Education

Anthony Pellegrino, George Mason University

Assistant Professor of Social Studies Education

James Harmon, Euclid City Schools

English Teacher

Marriam Ewaida, Manassas City Schools

Reading Specialist

Athene Bell, Manassas City Schools

Literacy Specialist

Megan Lynch, Prince William County Schools

English/French teacher

Corey Sell, George Mason University

Assistant Professor of Elementary Education

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Published

2013-07-06

How to Cite

Zenkov, K., Pellegrino, A., Harmon, J., Ewaida, M., Bell, A., Lynch, M., & Sell, C. (2013). Picturing Culturally Relevant Literacy Practices: Using Photography to See How Literacy Pedagogies Matter to Urban Youth. International Journal of Multicultural Education, 15(2). https://doi.org/10.18251/ijme.v15i2.555

Issue

Vol. 15 No. 2 (2013): Open Theme Issue

Section

Articles (Peer-reviewed)

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