Multimodal Composition and Social Justice: Videos as a Tool of Advocacy in Social Work Pedagogy

Abstract

In response to emerging active learning strategies, educators throughout the academy are inviting students to create videos and circulate them on social media platforms. The learning benefits of multimodal video composition are manifold, particularly within social work education. Video composition fosters critical thinking, encourages collaboration, and engages audiences that extend beyond the college classroom. Furthermore, when social work students produce videos, they develop technological literacy that prepares them to enter a field with an express commitment to social justice. In this article, we outline the interwoven pedagogical and ideological rationales for implementing video composition assignments in social work classes. Having established a framework for active learning through video composition, we address some pragmatic challenges of multimodal assignments, demonstrate the potential for videos to become tools for social advocacy, and draw connections between technological literacy and practice in the human services.

KEYWORDS:

• active learning
• multimodal composition
• pedagogy
• social justice
• videos