CITATION AND COPYRIGHT INFORMATION:
Cite as: Rajendram, C. P. (1997). Critical pedagogy and the absent learner in media education. Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University. Advisor, Brenda Dervin.
© Christlin Parimalanathan Rajendram (1997).
You may be able to order a full copy of this dissertation through the author, or through ProQuest Dissertation Express.

ADVISOR:
Brenda Dervin

ABSTRACT:
Media education has spoken of critical pedagogy from the time it came into existence. Critical is the operative word that brought it into the limelight. However, there has been little critical research about media education. It has failed miserably in bringing students towards a critical awareness concerning the media. Students know the history of television and have learned to “deconstruct” entire TV programs, but still do not make connections to their own conditions. This dissertation suggests that it is imperative that an analogous situation in the lives of the students be made problematic, for them to grasp the ideological relation between “text” and “reader.”

This dissertation sets out to contribute to media education, specifically toward an altered media education pedagogy, by giving the learner voice in the media education curriculum. By drawing insights from observations of current media education practice, this dissertation addresses the two major gaps that a new critical pedagogy for media education confronts: first, little empirical research has been done on how learners evaluate their media experiences and, as a result, empirical grounds for understanding how media education might be altered does not exist other than as a general call for change towards dialogic learning; second, methodology for involving the learner in media education practice has not been developed.

This study focuses on conceptualizing the learner in media education through Freirean and feminist critical pedagogies. A methodology for integrating the learner and the learner’s life experience in the curriculum development and pedagogical practices of media education was developed and tested using Sense-Making interviewing. Participant observation, Sense-Making interviewing and text analysis have been used to assess current media education practice in two high schools and in one university. In addition, a field experiment involving the use of Sense-Making as a formalized means for giving voice to learners was implemented in a media education classroom.

In current media education practice, although there is awareness about the need for integrating student experience in the curriculum, no concrete methods have been developed. Some of the present innovative methods have the potential towards a new student-centered critical pedagogy. The field test proved that even in its most rudimentary format, Sense-Making can provide a method for integrating student voice in media education practice today.

OTHER MATERIALS BY THIS AUTHOR ON THIS WEBSITE:
See: http://communication.sbs.ohio-state.edu/sense-making/AAauthors/authorlistrajendram.html