![Sample our Education journals, sign in here to start your access, latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5932/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Education.jpg"})
Abstract
This article explores the ways that alternative digital media production by elementary students can support education for critical democracy. The article centers on a collaborative, qualitative study in which students in a 3rd-grade class at a Title One school created and disseminated podcasts about issues of historical injustice rooted in the key tenets of critical literacy. Producing this counter-hegemonic digital media supported students becoming a community of active citizens dedicated to promoting social justice. The students used their podcasts as a public forum to educate others about historical injustice and take action for social change.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author would like to formally thank the Room 203 students and their teacher, Laura, for their contributions to this study. The podcast project would not have been possible without Laura’s collaboration and vision regarding the intersection of critical literacy and digital media production.
Notes
1 The 2001 No Child Left Behind Act allowed each state in the United States to establish its own definition of what constitutes AYP (U.S. Department of Education, Citation2002). In the state where this study took place, AYP is determined by students’ standardized test scores in English/Language Arts and Math, attendance rates, and graduation rates (State Department of Education, Citation2014).
2 Note that pseudonyms are being used in an effort to protect the identity of the participants.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Sarah E. Montgomery
SARAH E. MONTGOMERY is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction at the University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA 50614-0606. She can be contacted at [email protected].