From Critical Pedagogy to Communication Activism Pedagogy in a Large Lecture Classroom: Increasing Awareness, Knowledge, and a Desire for Change

Abstract

Using pre- and post-semester surveys in a large lecture classroom focusing on social justice, human rights, and the media, this study measures the change in students’ beliefs regarding the importance of social justice issues, how media represents social justice issues, and whether students believe that their participation matters. The course was designed to move students beyond understanding to action, thus encouraging them to become involved in societal change. Discussion, understanding, and action cultivated a critical pedagogy/communication activism pedagogy environment. A significant difference was noted in whether the students considered social justice issues “a big problem.” There was also a significant difference from the beginning to the end of the semester in whether the students believed their participation mattered in social justice movements. Findings show that critical and communication activism pedagogy is possible in a large lecture classroom and that students’ beliefs, knowledge, and allyship can be converted into actionable efforts.

Keywords:

• Critical pedagogy
• social justice

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The author wishes to acknowledge the difference between social justice and racial justice. For the purposes of this study, the term social justice is used throughout the manuscript because that was the course title. However, many of the issues discussed were racial justice issues. In-class discussions covered intersectionality as well as racial, gender, and sexuality oppression, but the survey conducted was meant to broadly measure topics discussed. For simplicity, this manuscript uses the term social justice, but collapsing the terms racial justice and social justice was not the intent of the research or the course.