Picturing a Writing Process: Photovoice and Teaching Writing to Urban Youth

Abstract

In response to a thirty‐year pattern of elevated high school dropout rates and a multi‐generational disengagement from traditional school‐based literacy practices among urban community members, the project on which this article reports asked a group of city students to document photographically what they perceived as the purposes of, impediments to, and supports for their school success. Grounded in “New Literacy” and visual sociology traditions, this examination utilized as research tools image‐based mechanisms with which city students were already proficient. Findings drawn from three versions of this project conducted with nearly 100 youth suggest that English language arts teachers committed to engaging their students in effective writing instruction might focus more on the use of arts‐based methods and open‐ended questions as “ways in” to writing, on sharing these youths' writing efforts with broader—and younger—community members, and on more 1:1 student/teacher interactions that occur over extended periods of time. ملخص البحث: تنقل هذه المقالة خبراً عن مشروع قد طلب من مجموعة من طلاب المدينة أن يدوّنوا وجهات نظرهم تجاه أسباب نجاحهم الدراسية وعوائقه وأدعامه بواسطة الصور في رد على نسبة انسحاب طلاب الثانوية العامة المرتفعة على مدى ثلاثين سنة والتراجع المتعدد الأجيال من ممارسات التعلم المبني على الدراسة التقليدية بين أفراد المجتمع المدني. وبناء على نظرية ((التعلم الجديد)) وتقاليد علم الاجتماع البصرية قد استخدمت هذه الدراسة كأدوات بحثية أجهزة تصويرية كان الطلاب على علم باستخدامها حق العلم. إذ تقترح النتائج المستخلصة من ثلاثة نماذج من هذا المشروع أجريت مع 100 شاب تقريباً أن معلمي فنون اللغة الإنكليزية الملتزمين بتشغيل طلابهم في تعليم الكتابة الفعالي قد يركزون أكثر على استخدام المناهج المبنية على الفنون وطرح الأسئلة المفتوحة كـ((الوسائل)) للكتابة وعلى مشاركة جهود الشباب الكتابية مع أفراد المجتمع بشكل عام والأولاد الصغار بشكل خاص وعلى التفاعلات بين المعلم والطالب وجه لوجه التي تحدث عبر فترة طويلة من الزمان. 本文所报告的研究计划，要求一小组城市学生通过摄影去记载他们对学业成功的目的、障碍及支援的看法。研究计划的目的，是对三十年来高中生退学率剧增这问题作出回应，也对一代一代的都市社区成员不能投入传统式以学校为本的读写实践这问题作出回应。本研究是以「新读写文化」和视觉社会学传统作为基础，采用城市学生所熟练的以图像为本的机制作为研究工具。从本研究计划的三个不同版本，以一百名年青人为研究对象所得的结果显示：致力于促进学生投入高效能写作教学的英国语文教师，可能需要把重点多集中于使用以艺术为本的方法和开放式的问题，作为学生「进入」写作的「通道」；多集中于把这些年青人为写作而作出的努力，与更加广泛、更年轻的社区成员一起分享；并多集中于更多的长期性一对一学生与教师之间的互动。 En réponse à trente ans de pourcentages élevés d'abandon scolaire au lycée et au désaveu depuis plusieurs générations à l'égard des pratiques scolaires traditionnelles de lecture‐écriture du public des banlieues, cet article rapporte un projet où il était demandé à un groupe d'élèves de cités de présenter sous forme de photographies ce qu'ils percevaient comme les buts, les obstacles, et les soutiens à l'égard de leur réussite scolaire. En se basant sur les traditions de « La nouvelle littératie » et de la sociologie visuelle, cet examen a utilisé comme outils de recherche des mécanismes basés sur l'image que les élèves des cités utilisent déjà couramment. Les résultats tirés de trois versions de ce projet conduit avec près de 100 jeunes suggèrent que les enseignants d'anglais ayant à e...

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