Exploring textual methods in South Africa

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When I first searched for KwaZulu-Natal on Google Maps, I realized how necessary mapping was to my socio-cultural construction of reality. In order to envision this place, I needed to identify its location as the google map interactive image embedded above denotes for this blog's viewers. By clicking on the "Ter" option, I'm able to view the topographical landscape of the area, further imagining its climate, possible vegetation and animal populations. The connotative meanings are plentiful for me as I link my experiences in similar climates and terrains which are limited to North America and Europe and my interactions with animals from this region of Africa, which I have only viewed in captivity in North American zoological parks. But had the map been denotative of demographic information, such as cultural and ethnic groups, gender groups, or populations infected by HIV/AIDs, the connotative meanings I would assign and add to my construction of this micro-world prior to actually having experienced it would differ greatly.

What is it that I seek to know and how are those particular questions born of an instinct of self-preservation? At its roots, I wonder to myself, are my assumptions emerging as they once did visiting inner city high schools during my pre-service teacher experiences? Am I unfolding the imaginary red cape and re-assuming some quasi-white man's burden? What are the details of my intentions in extending my research agenda, applying my teaching experience, and offering support to the research team at the Centre for Visual Methodologies and Social Change?

Below is an excerpt from my research proposal, which outlines the driving questions and research objectives. Though Dr. Mitchell has already read this proposal, those of you who are learning about this project for the first time may benefit from understanding the purpose, activities, and intended outcomes of my journey:

In my research I will explore the possibilities of blogging as a mode of learner praxis, which offers instructors and students a vehicle of reflection, critical cognition, and self-empowerment—one that “approaches individual growth as an active, cooperative, and social process” (Shor, 1992, p. 15). In this way, my research will investigate whether or not blogging transcends formal power dynamics within traditional classroom meetings, which may prevent students from articulating a more comprehensive critical response in class discussions or if their blog postings actually aid their class responses. My research will further examine blogging in this light, questioning the traditional roles of instructor and student in and beyond the university classroom in order to determine if blogs may provide students with substantive, interactive, and critically discursive learning experiences (Farrell, 2005; Harper, 2005; Kellner & Share, 2005; Penrod, 2007; Stiler & Philleo, 2003; West et al, 2006). This study aims to add to a knowledge-base regarding the potential of new media in higher education and, in particular, the uses of blogs as a form of learner praxis, as well as suggest a framework of evaluating and implementing forms of blogging in and beyond the university classroom in order to propose a grounded educational theory incorporating the uses of blogs in higher education.
The proposed project will investigate the effectiveness (as indicated below) of blog constructions and blog postings as an arts-based participatory methodology in collaboration with researchers Dr. Jean Stewart and Dr. Claudia Mitchell, who are currently carrying out their study, “Youth as knowledge producers: Arts-based approaches to HIV and AIDS prevention and education in rural KwaZuLu Natal, South Africa.” Overall, this collaboration will involve scaffolding the current objectives of Dr. Stewart and Dr. Mitchell’s study to engage in “research as social change through an in-depth study of a set of arts-based interventions involving a cohort of beginning teachers, who are themselves young people, and a group of learners and practicing teachers and principals in several rural schools…” Their research objectives are based on three driving questions:
1. How can arts-based methodologies be used with young people in rural schools to create a more youth-focused and learner-centered approach to knowledge production and behavior change in the context of HIV and AIDS?
2. How can a Faculty of Education effectively set up a partnership to work with a cohort of young people who are beginning teachers and a cohort of practicing rural teachers and principals and community health workers to contribute to the support of learner-centered arts-based approaches to addressing HIV and AIDS?
3. What tools and approaches can we use to study the impact of these various arts-based approaches within HIV and AIDS education and prevention interventions?
As a co-investigator and collaborator, my study will extend my previous experience as a teacher educator in the areas of literacy, critical thinking, communication, and cultural studies as well as contribute to my prior study of an undergraduate teacher education course, EDEC 248: Multicultural Education, completed in fall 2007 at McGill University. As the primary instructor of the course, I introduced, implemented and reviewed the construction of student blogs and student blog postings periodically throughout the semester. The objectives of this study (still in progress) include:
• Determining (by method of textual analysis of the questions/prompts posed by the instructor and the written responses posted by students on their individual blogs) clear indicators of critical thinking skills evident in the language of student postings otherwise not communicated in the classroom or other modes of assessment produced in order to meet the course learning objectives;
• Analyzing the articulation of student voices within their blogs by examining the multi-modal elements of student blog constructions that aided their written postings (such as YouTube videos, links to other blogs and/or websites, posting of personal or public photographs, etc.) in order to further empower or negate their informed responses to critical thinking questions posed by the instructor in class discussions;
• Comparing and contrasting the effectiveness and outcomes (quality and quantity of student writing; level of student literacy and critical thinking skills) of traditional course assessments (including an auto-ethnographic essay, a unit plan, and other various in-class smaller assessments) with the effectiveness and outcomes of student blogs. The “effectiveness” and “outcomes” will be qualitatively determined by examining what happens pedagogically, cognitively, and politically to students as they engage in blog construction and creating blog postings that does not appear in their other course assessments.
These objectives reflect an urgent call to educators posed by researchers in new literacy and media studies (Penrod, 2007; Lankshear & Knobel, 2006; Jenkins et al, 2006; Kellner & Share, 2005; Kellner, 1998, 2004; Stiler & Philleo, 2003) to redevelop pedagogical practices that address the activity of teens actively involve in what Jenkins and his team of researchers at MIT name participatory cultures (2006, p. 3). According to their report “Confronting the challenges of participatory culture: Media education for the 21st century,” several elements of participatory culture qualify participatory engagement through uses of new media (Excerpted from Jenkins, p. 3):
• Affiliations: memberships, formal and informal, in online communities centered around various forms of media (such as Friendster, Facebook, message boards, metagaming, game clans, or MySpace)
• Expressions: producing new creative forms (such as digital sampling, skinning and modding, fan videomaking, fan fiction writing, zines, mash-ups)
• Collaborative Problem-solving: working together in teams, formal and informal to complete tasks and develop new knowledge (such as through Wikipedia, alternative reality gaming, spoiling)
• Circulations: shaping the flow of media (such as podcasting, blogging)
The four elements noted above contribute to the manifestation of my research objectives, which collectively seek to explore the uses of web blogs in and beyond teacher education classrooms. Due to the participatory and community-based learning skills required by participants related to affiliations, expressions, collaborations, and circulations in online media environments, productions, and digital practices, several distinct possibilities are available to this co-investigation in order to coordinate with Drs. Mitchell and Stewart in their efforts at arts-based methodologies at the Univesrity of KwaZulu-Natal in Edgewood and the Centre for Visual Methodologies and Social Change from which they are affectively engaging their participants—pre-service teachers.

[References cited above available upon request]

If you're unfamiliar with the work of Dr. Henry Jenkins and his work on digital media and learning for the MacArthur Foundation, please take a gander at his recent paper available free online: http://digitallearning.macfound.org/atf/cf/{7E45C7E0-A3E0-4B89-AC9C-E807E1B0AE4E}/JENKINS_WHITE_PAPER.PDF