Spatial literacies, design texts, and emergent pedagogies in purposeful literacy curriculum

There has recently been an emphasis within literacy studies on both the spatial dimensions of social practices (Leander & Sheehy, 2004) and the importance of incorporating design and multiple modes of meaning-making into contemporary understandings of literacy (Cope & Kalantzis, 2000; New London Group, 1996). Kress (2003) in particular has outlined the potential implications of the cultural shift from the dominance of writing, based on a logic of time and sequence in time, to the dominance of the mode of the image, based on a logic of space. However, the widespread re-design of curriculum and pedagogy by classroom teachers to allow students to capitalise on the various affordances of different modes of meaning-making – including the spatial – remains in an emergent stage. We report on a project in which university researchers’ expertise in architecture, literacy and communications enabled two teachers in one school to expand the forms of literacy that primary school children engaged in. Starting from the school community’s concerns about an urban renewal project in their neighbourhood, we worked together to develop a curriculum of spatial literacies with real-world goals and outcomes

The Hell of Lies, Denial, and Distraction: Critical Environmental Pedagogy Through Popular Dystopic Films

This chapter discusses the importance of global warming and its representation in popular dystopic films. The chapter analyzes the status of climate change in the era of lies, climate change deniers, popular climate disaster films, cultural hegemony, critical media literacy, and critical eco-pedagogy. It demonstrates that there is an essential connection between critical pedagogy and critical media literacy in education and activism. Neoliberal schooling is taken to task for its standardization, testing, and accountability fetish. This “mainstream” schooling is shown to lead to acquiescence and the development of consumer citizens rather than critical citizens. The development of a critical eco-pedagogy and critical media literacy are proposed as alternatives