Master of Science / Curriculum and Instruction / Thomas Vontz / Discourse analysis (DA) explores the relationships between discursive practices and wider social and cultural structures, relations, and processes. In this paper I explore, through a qualitative DA of education reporting in the Topeka Capital Journal (January 2014- January 2016), state press releases, and gubernatorial state speeches, how notions of fiscal crisis, both material and narratively cultivated, function to underscore the logic of neoliberalism. While considering potential context specific properties of local reporting and the cultural, geographical, and historical context of the region, I connect my findings with the larger, scholarly body of work pertaining to these issues. Connecting media language and policy discourse across local and global dimensions adds to a growing theoretical and qualitative understanding of the facets of education restructuring and reform within the framework of the global movement and adds material resources in the form of analysis as tools for educational practitioners and grassroots organizations working to craft alternatives to the neoliberal doctrine.

This body of work endeavours to interrogate mainstream media and popular culture [mis]representations of racialized persons, in addition to the negative impact such imageries have on identity formation processes - principally amongst populations of young men and women of African descent. While this work focuses on North American contexts, this examination is applicable to all peoples in the African Diaspora. I intend to uncover the learning possibilities for racialized youth, by introducing an educational model that prepares students to critique various forms of media, as well as teaching and encouraging them to create their own realities through the use of a critical form of media education in multiple level classrooms, starting with those in the Toronto District School Board. The ultimate goal of this project is to propel racialized students to move away from the [mis]educative effects of the media, toward beginning to define themselves on their own terms.

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This thesis reports on a qualitative case study that explores the perceptions of seven elementary school teachers on the concept of media educational practices in the classroom. This study explores the opinions of selected elementary school teachers concerning media educational practices in the elementary classrooms. These perspectives may assist learners to explore their self-identities, develop critical thinking, express and practice creativity, represent their social position, and foster critical consciousness. The study participants included seven elementary school teachers who have adopted various modes of media educational practices in their teaching praxis utilizing technology and their conceptualizations of media education. One primary research question was addressed: What are elementary school teachers’ understandings of critical media education in the classroom? Three sub-questions have been used to inform the primary research question in three categories of contexts, processes, and outcomes. Through data collected by a semi-structured interviewing method, this study describes and analyzes personal teaching experiences of elementary teachers to provide a deeper understanding of the context of media education, the instructional process for developing critical thinking and creative expression, and the criteria for measuring competencies in media education outcomes. This research highlights teachers’ perspectives on the successes and challenges associated with their efforts to implement media literacy into school curricula; and on the importance of cross-curricular integration of media educational practices in elementary classrooms. The findings of this study provide insights into the importance of cross-curricular integration of media educational practices associated with critical thinking and creative expressions in elementary classrooms. These practices play a significant role for both students and teachers in becoming change agents in a dynamic teaching and learning environment that promotes critical thinking, creativity, and positive transformation for self and community.

The purpose of this action research study was to improve the education of Indigenous students enrolled at an inner-city urban alternative high school for adolescent mothers and/or mothers-to-be. Seven adult students agreed to participate in this study, as did the English Language Arts teacher who facilitated the critical literacy classroom activities. The study investigated the impact that critical mathematics and critical literacy activities had on developing students’ critical consciousness (Freire, 2000), which is a key component of transformative learning (Mezirow, 1997). The findings indicate that the cumulative effect of the critical curricular activities enacted during this study led to critical consciousness development in students, and thereby contributed to a more transformative learning experience for them. The findings also indicate that action research was integral to changing the mathematics and English Language Arts classroom practices in this study. / February 2017

Like many developing countries, and for many years, Morocco has sought the help of television to disseminate development ideas to its citizens. The Moroccan government has recently given policy considerations to regulate the use of television and radio airwaves as important outside sources for promoting its development objectives. The newly assigned importance of television in Moroccan developmental policies makes a study on the relationship between television and development interesting and crucial. This study investigates the extent to which the Moroccan public service television meets the challenges of effectively contributing to the development objectives of the nation. It focuses on the two government-owned public service television stations, Radiodiffusion et Television Marocaine (RTM) and Soread 2M. Based on initial observations, the general hypothesis is that television programming decisions in the two public television stations are influenced by the elite class that wants more entertainment and has less need for educational programs than their rural and urban-poor counterparts. Concerning methodology, the study uses three main areas in critical media studies: content analysis, production analysis, and audience analysis. The study conducted a quantitative and a qualitative content analysis of a sample of Moroccan produced programs to examine the developmental themes addressed by the two public service television stations. Concerning the production study, the study carried out a critical assessment of the current choices undertaken by the TV producers in the two public service television stations through conducting in-depth interviews with media executives. The third important area is audience reception. Addressing this area helps tackle these research questions from both 'sides' of the screen, examining the issues from the perspectives of both the broadcasters and the audience. The audience reception study assesses the opinions of television viewers on the quality of Moroccan produced programs and their perceptions on the public service provided by the two TV stations. The audience study uses focus groups as a standalone data-gathering strategy. Finally, the study offers a list of recommendations for the use of TV for development.

This dissertation analyses social critique, communication critique and aestheticalcritique in television produced by artists. Theoretically it draws on researchon alternative media, TV studies, especially genre analysis and narratology,and media aesthetics. It conducts a text-production study of three examplesof alternative television from the period 2004-2008: ContemporaryArt Center TV (CAC TV): A show produced by the CAC in Vilnius, Lithuaniaand aired on a commercial TV-channel; Good TV who aired video art ona local public access channel in Stockholm, Sweden; and Candyland TV, apirate transmission from an art gallery in central Stockholm.Empirically it builds on TV-texts, web sites and documents, as well asinterviews with participants. Through a study of form and stylistics, relationto conventional genres and modes of narration, it engages in a discussionabout the features of a critical, alternative media text.The study shows how these televisions work in a tradition of alternativetelevision and connects them to tactics and aesthetical forms as found inhistorical examples, but also how this type of formalist media critiquemight inform an understanding of alternative media. From the analysis ofrelations between social and formalist aspects of alternative television, adistinction between alternative as ”alternative worldview” and as ”alternativeexpressions” is suggested, a distinction that contributes to the developmentof theory in the study of alternative media.

abstract: Employing qualitative methods and drawing from an intersectional framework which focuses on the multiple identities we all embody, this dissertation focuses on oppressions and resistance strategies employed by women of color in Xbox live, an online gaming community. Ethnographic observations and narrative interviewing reveal that women of color, as deviants within the space, face intersecting oppressions in gaming as in life outside the gaming world. They are linguistically profiled within the space based off of how they sound. They have responded with various strategies to combat the discrimination they experience. Some segregate themselves from the larger gaming population and many refuse to purchase games that depict women in a hyper-sexualized manner or that present people of color stereotypically. For others, the solution is to "sit-in" on games and disrupt game flow by 'player-killing' or engage in other 'griefing' activities. I analyze this behavior in the context of Black feminist consciousness and resistance and uncover that these methods are similar to women who employ resistance strategies for survival within the real world. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Justice Studies 2011

Grounded in the a Pedagogy of Multiliteracies (New London Group, 1996), this dissertation reports on the implementation of a fourth semester French curriculum informed by Cope and Kalantzis's (2000, 2009, 2015) framework of learning by design, with a focus on visual and critical media literacy development to enable intermediate French students to consider multimodal texts from the perspective of consumers as well as producers and to understand the meaning potential that exists between and within the semiotic resources afforded in media production (Nelson and Kern, 2012). Drawing upon "the value of postmethod [and] postlinguistic teaching… which are not looking at language learning in the traditional sense… [but] rather at learners’ acquisition of… the ability to reflect on textualization and contextualization, considering language as one important dimension of semiosis among others" (Nelson and Kern, 2012, p. 61), this dissertation project examined how the frameworks of visual and critical media literacy within the process of design enhanced students' voice and agency in the foreign language classroom. The first inquiry aims to explore if and how a curriculum centered around visual and critical media literacies creates the conditions to 1) foster students' awareness of media ethics in the consumption and production of everyday media, and 2) engage students in a process of reflection upon the meanings created by semiotics resources used in mediated-texts, and their impact on shaping their vision of the world. Findings demonstrated that the implementation of visual and critical media literacy frameworks gave students the opportunity to reflect on their use of media and the ethical implications, and to foster students' greater understanding and interest in self-reflection and considerations of others. The second inquiry aims to demonstrate, through the production of digital storytelling, how instructors might address diversity in foreign language classrooms by 1) allowing students to connect universal themes (e.g. technology, friendship, immigration) with their personal stories, and 2) by giving them the opportunities to display their uniqueness by using their own voices and positioning themselves as participative agents for social change. Findings demonstrated that digital storytelling fosters classroom diversity by allowing the exploration of individual differences and enhancing the understanding of the distinctiveness of every individual. The third inquiry, a case study explores how Digital StoryTelling (DST) 1) contributes to students' understanding of the way semiotic resource choice and orchestration construct layers of meaning and satisfy the purposes of the message conveyed to the audience, and 2) supports students' agency through the process of design. Findings showed the potential of using multimodality projects as they allow students' emerging literacies to take center stage in the foreign language classroom and increase students’ agency and ‘semiotic agility’ (Prior, 2010; Thorne, 2013).

Critical media literacy (Kellner & Share, 2005) may better equip children to interpret videogame content and to create games that are nonviolent and socially just. Videogames are growing in popularity in classrooms. Yet educators and parents have concerns about the violent and stereotypical content they include. An earlier study based on the curriculum Beyond Blame: Challenging Violence in the Media (Webb, Martin, Afifi, & Kraus, 2009) examined the value of a media awareness curriculum. In this mixed-method study, I explored the effectiveness of a critical media literacy program that incorporated collaboratively creating nonviolent or sociallyjust games in teaching fourth-grade students the factors of awareness of violence, marketing, and critical media literacy. Qualitative data collected from teacher reflection notes, student journals, Scratch projects, and interviews revealed the positive effects of the program. Quantitative data supported these conclusions. This highlights the need for schools to engage students in computer programming as a means to learn academics, while educating students in critical media literacy to better enable them to navigate wisely the media saturated world in which they live. In learning programming, students engage in collaborative work, their interactions helping them to collectively create meaning for the symbols they create. Set in a framework of critical media literacy and symbolic interactionism (Blumer, 1969; Mead, 1934), this study provides an innovative model for teaching computer programming and critical media literacy skills to students.