Reimagining: Using Image and PhotoVoice as Curriculum with ELL Adolescent Immigrants to Reimagine Personal Trajectories
Abstract
As a practitioner-researcher and ESL Teacher, the author of this study examined the literacy practices of her adolescent ELL students as they engaged together in a curricular unit using PhotoVoice. PhotoVoice is a community and participatory research method rooted in empowerment education, critical feminist theory, and documentary photography, and aims to enable people with little money, power, or status to communicate needed changes to policymakers. Students’ interests in racial discrimination and national conversations about immigration reform led them to center their PhotoVoice project around two opposing questions: ‘What feels safe?’ and ‘What feels unsafe?’ Student work samples reveal powerful insights and empowering messages of self-identification, advocacy, and pride.
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