Embodying Difference: A Case for Anti-Racist and Decolonizing Approaches to Multiliteracies

This paper asks what pedagogies are needed as Canadians are invited to reconcile colonial pasts with contemporary forms of racism and enduring colonial structures. Sharing discourses of race from youth who participated in a year-long ethnography, and moments from a drama-based pedagogical collaborat...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Sara Schroeter
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Brock University 2019-03-01
Series:Studies in Social Justice
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.library.brocku.ca/index.php/SSJ/article/view/1920
_version_ 1828274369081638912
author Sara Schroeter
author_facet Sara Schroeter
author_sort Sara Schroeter
collection DOAJ
description This paper asks what pedagogies are needed as Canadians are invited to reconcile colonial pasts with contemporary forms of racism and enduring colonial structures. Sharing discourses of race from youth who participated in a year-long ethnography, and moments from a drama-based pedagogical collaboration, this paper suggests ways of updating multiliteracies frameworks so as to better account for the networks of power that circulate in classrooms. This project had the dual aims of exploring discourses of difference used by students, as well as drama as a multimodal, embodied, and (post)critical pedagogy for unpacking differences embedded in the Grade 9 social studies curriculum. Drawing on feminist pedagogies, critical race studies, and Indigenous critiques of education, the author argues that embodiment and subjectivity are central to teaching and learning, and illustrates through excerpts from interviews and fieldnotes, how race, intersectionality, and White supremacy influence interactions in the classroom. The paper concludes by proposing that multiliteracies and multimodal pedagogies would benefit from centralizing anti-racist and decolonizing approaches to learning, in addition to the networks in which literacy practices occur and through which meaning is made.
first_indexed 2024-04-13T06:33:32Z
format Article
id doaj.art-38778d2969344d3f9f5f3df15cfcca8b
institution Directory Open Access Journal
issn 1911-4788
language English
last_indexed 2024-04-13T06:33:32Z
publishDate 2019-03-01
publisher Brock University
record_format Article
series Studies in Social Justice
spelling doaj.art-38778d2969344d3f9f5f3df15cfcca8b2022-12-22T02:58:00ZengBrock UniversityStudies in Social Justice1911-47882019-03-011311421581920Embodying Difference: A Case for Anti-Racist and Decolonizing Approaches to MultiliteraciesSara Schroeter0University of ReginaThis paper asks what pedagogies are needed as Canadians are invited to reconcile colonial pasts with contemporary forms of racism and enduring colonial structures. Sharing discourses of race from youth who participated in a year-long ethnography, and moments from a drama-based pedagogical collaboration, this paper suggests ways of updating multiliteracies frameworks so as to better account for the networks of power that circulate in classrooms. This project had the dual aims of exploring discourses of difference used by students, as well as drama as a multimodal, embodied, and (post)critical pedagogy for unpacking differences embedded in the Grade 9 social studies curriculum. Drawing on feminist pedagogies, critical race studies, and Indigenous critiques of education, the author argues that embodiment and subjectivity are central to teaching and learning, and illustrates through excerpts from interviews and fieldnotes, how race, intersectionality, and White supremacy influence interactions in the classroom. The paper concludes by proposing that multiliteracies and multimodal pedagogies would benefit from centralizing anti-racist and decolonizing approaches to learning, in addition to the networks in which literacy practices occur and through which meaning is made.https://journals.library.brocku.ca/index.php/SSJ/article/view/1920multiliteracies;racedecolonizationdramasocial studies
spellingShingle Sara Schroeter
Embodying Difference: A Case for Anti-Racist and Decolonizing Approaches to Multiliteracies
Studies in Social Justice
multiliteracies;
race
decolonization
drama
social studies
title Embodying Difference: A Case for Anti-Racist and Decolonizing Approaches to Multiliteracies
title_full Embodying Difference: A Case for Anti-Racist and Decolonizing Approaches to Multiliteracies
title_fullStr Embodying Difference: A Case for Anti-Racist and Decolonizing Approaches to Multiliteracies
title_full_unstemmed Embodying Difference: A Case for Anti-Racist and Decolonizing Approaches to Multiliteracies
title_short Embodying Difference: A Case for Anti-Racist and Decolonizing Approaches to Multiliteracies
title_sort embodying difference a case for anti racist and decolonizing approaches to multiliteracies
topic multiliteracies;
race
decolonization
drama
social studies
url https://journals.library.brocku.ca/index.php/SSJ/article/view/1920
work_keys_str_mv AT saraschroeter embodyingdifferenceacaseforantiracistanddecolonizingapproachestomultiliteracies