Public Voices, Public Spheres: Pedagogy for Critical Citizenship and Social Change

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My presentation details practice, research, and theory employed in a course explicitly concerned with critical thinking methodology, transformative Freirian problem posing, and global citizenship called: “Activism, Arts, and Social Change.” My course description reads: “In our class, I ask you to approach your studies as a civic agent in a changing world. As such, we will consider the historical, political, legal, and economic boundaries of entrenched ideologies and institutions. You will then be asked to explore ways that individual activists, artists, and grassroots organizations seek to facilitate change by decentering notions of constructed ‘truths.’ Ultimately, each of you will be asked to raise your own voice and develop blueprints and strategies to enact in the public sphere.”

Students, in the interest of engaged citizenship do actions in the legal sphere and also write extensive proposal of larger activist projects that challenge institutions and oppressive ideologies. I examine the learning processes and outcomes as they extend beyond the classroom. Drawing on s practice, research, and theory, I examine how students are urged to move from passivity towards action, translating formal canons of knowledge into transformative possibilities in their real and immediate worlds.

Stream: Curriculum and Pedagogy; Student Learning, Learner Experiences, Learner Diversity

Paper: A paper has not yet been submitted.

Julie Bolt is an Assistant Professor of English at Bronx Community College. Her doctorate is in Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies from The University of Arizona. Areas of interest include border pedagogy, contemporary American Indian literature, post-colonial literatures of the Americas, and the study of activism through the arts. She has presented papers in conferences across the country and abroad. Her essays have appreared in Radical Teacher, The Journal for Education and Cultural Studies, The Facts on File Companion to 20th Century American Poetry, and Puero del Sol. Her poetry and stories have been featured in Slow Trains Literary Magazine, Thieves Jargon, Syntax, The Red River Review, and many other print and on-line literary journals.