The challenges of implementing Media Literacy in a school in São Paulo

Abstract

This article explores a teacher education course held in a private school in São Paulo, Brazil, as part of my doctoral research, in the field of reading literacy. The course focused on the importance of reading with a view to analyzing, identifying, comparing, contrasting and evaluating the information that we are all exposed to daily. The goal of this paper is to examine the discussions and the activities performed throughout the course, which equipped educators with the necessary tools and strategies to empower themselves and their students to navigate the information landscape with discernment. We propose to show that, to achieve a critical reading level, it is utmost to raise debates on reading strategies, inquiring and social accountability. Educators recognized that reading has become more superficial given the fact that, although nowadays students read more in amount of information,  they read less in depth, which goes in the same direction of the studies of Wolf (2018).

Keywords

Teacher Education, Reading Literacy, Critical Reading, Media Literacy

Considering the increasing amount of information we are all bombarded with on a daily basis, it is crucial to broaden the discussion about Media Literacy with a view to enabling citizens, from an early age, to become critical thinkers, and schools can serve as the setting for these discussions.

Base Nacional Comum Curricular (BNCC), the common core curriculum in Brazil, states that schools should “value and use the historically constructed knowledge about the physical, social, cultural and digital world to understand and explain reality, continue learning and collaborating in the construction of a just, democratic and inclusive society” (Brasil, 2018). Although it recommends that “digital culture” be problematized in Middle School, there is no specific subject dedicated to these practices. It is advised that it be discussed in Language classes, but it does not have any guidance on how or when to do it in class.

Given the vagueness of the official document, schools are free to find ways in which to include Media Literacy in their curriculum. At the private school where I work, in São Paulo, Brazil, the headmasters are dedicated to implementing it and decided to start in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) class. As the English Language coordinator, I am in charge of creating conditions for the teacher to teach Media Literacy in our classes.

In order to achieve that, there was an opportunity to discuss the topic at our school monthly meetings. The team was divided into groups and our team was composed of seven EFL teachers, one Spanish teacher, four bilingual recreational professionals, one English Language coordinator, one recreation coordinator and one headmaster. We held four two-hour meetings in the first semester of 2024 to raise the issue of Media Literacy. 

Setbacks to Media Literacy Implementation

At our first meeting, we realized it would be necessary to review all the curriculum since there were other issues that preceded the implementation of Media Literacy. When we had this moment to analyze the curriculum throughout schooling, we found gaps and repetitive topics. Therefore, our first action was to rearrange the curriculum as a whole, defining, for instance, which genres to work with students in all educational segments and what to teach in reading, writing and speaking in each grade. 

Besides, we also notice the need to raise awareness of the pillars of Media Literacy, especially for professionals who initially associated it only with misinformation. Undoubtedly it is fundamental, but we can not leave out the two other pillars of Media Literacy, participating and writing, since our students are connected to social media for many hours during the day and are not only exposed to all sorts of material such as comments, announcements, news to name a few but also create content, increasing their social responsibility. 

Although we read more in amount of information, we read less in depth as remarked by Wolf (2018), keeping a superficial understanding of what comes across our screens. This was also observed when we received the results of the Programme for International Students Assessment (PISA) from 2022, according to which Brasil holds the 52nd position in reading, among 81 countries, which leaves us below the Organization for Economic Co-operation Development (OECD) average and among the worst worldwide results. 

For our group discussions, this was another setback, meaning that we had firstly to tackle reading literacy as a priority and, along with that, the reading pillar of Media Literacy in order to reach the critical reading level we want our students to achieve.

The challenges were daunting and the headmaster and coordinators defined that we would (i) reorganize the curriculum by genre, (ii) provide theoretical support for teachers of Media Literacy, (iii) strengthen reading strategies and increase reading opportunities in English classes and (iv) include Media Literacy debates in our English classes. 

Taking the first steps

At the second meeting we exchanged views on the two initial materials we had shared with teachers, namely The media education manifesto, by David Buckingham, an interview with the same author, the Media Literacy mandala, by Educamidia and The educator checklist, also by Educamidia. These materials gave teachers the grounds for understanding the principles of Media Literacy and our roles as educators, to increase students’ awareness of their role as consumers and producers of media. As Buckingham stated in the interview, we decided to “start by investigating what students know about media and how they relate to it. A suggestion is to start with a simple mediatic product” (Ratier, 2011, para. 5).

A first attempt

In order to follow Buckingham’s piece of advice, I, as a teacher, prepared an activity with students from Year 7 to raise their awareness of the messages and intentions behind advertising and campaigns so as to encourage their critical thinking. 

We started by talking about how much information we get from the media and if we really think about them. Next, I had the students sit in groups of four and gave each group a different image, so that they would analyse and answer some questions that were on the board: Who is the target audience? How does the image relate to the text? What do the authors want me to do? What do the authors want me to think? ​ What’s the message about the topic? Which ideas, values and information are explicit? Which are implicit?

 Image 1 – Racist ad

Image 2 – Sexist ad

Image 3 – Campaign

Students found the ads in images 1 and 2 shocking due to the implicit racist and sexist messages. As for image 3, students had difficulty understanding the underlying message that the company wanted more clients and wanted to convey the message that they are caring and that they worry about children who have no food.

The second part of the activity was to have each student choose an advertisement or a campaign to analyse and post their answers to the same questions as the previous activities on a Padlet created for the whole class. Two examples from students work as the ones in images 4 and 5.

Image 4 – Student 1’s ad and comments

(…) the authors want the public to encourage women to become more involved in sport and those who already are in skate. (…) should we buy from nike, which supposedly supports women in sport. Despite this, it was implicit what the brand does about this, which could help with advertising, but it was clear at least that they support women in skate. (…)

Image 5 – Student 2’s ad and comments

(…) They want me to do my part and not be racist (…) They want me to think that being racist is wrong and if I see someone being racist, try to stop that fight. (…) you have to teach children at an early age so that when they are adults, they are not racist or  prejudiced.

It was possible to notice that students reflected on the reflective questions that were proposed in order to find their own images to comment on. They could all see their peers’ opinion on the Padlet and talk about them. Although timid, it was the beginning of an attempt to make students think deeper about what they see in the media, to enable them to understand that every message they come across have an intention and they have to be aware of that to avoid being manipulated.

Teachers’ views

It was also interesting to talk to teachers after our fourth meeting about how they felt about Media Literacy. One teacher noted the importance of a comprehensive approach to Media Literacy “It’s not enough, for example, to only teach media education as critical thinking when reading something online; it’s also important to care about the other aspects of the media experience, such as writing an online profile, participating in a thread discussion, and so on”.

In the same way, Teacher 2 stated that the material and discussions with peers in the meetings broadened her view of Media Literacy, understanding that it also means “giving the children and teenagers the tools that can improve their capacity of criticizing and using all the information through the media the best way they can”.

Next steps

Even though it is possible to see a positive movement towards our goal to implement Media Literacy in our curriculum, it is clear for us that there is a long way ahead in order to have it established. The genre by grade that initiated our discussions is ready and, we will require more time to collaborate with the EFL team and further develop the three fronts we want to reinforce at the school, (i) providing teacher education on Media Literacy, (ii) improving students’ reading strategies and (iii) adding Media Literacy discussions in class. 

In an effort to achieve that, our monthly meetings will remain on those topics. We believe that with teamwork we will be able to achieve our goals. While we can’t guarantee that students will apply this teaching in their daily lives, we are committed to our role in equipping them to become more conscientious citizens.

References:

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Brasil. Ministério da Educação. (2017). Base Nacional Comum Curricular. Brasília. Retrieved July 30, 2024, from http://basenacionalcomum.mec.gov.br. 

BRASIL. (2018). Ministério da Educação. Base Nacional Comum Curricular. Brasília.

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Ratier, R. (2011, February 1). David Buckingham fala sobre Educação para as mídias. Nova Escola. Nova Escola. Retrieved August 10, 2024, from https://novaescola.org.br/conteudo/879/david-buckingham-fala-sobre-educacao-para-as-midias

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