CRITICAL MULTIMODALITY AT THE MUSEUM: How a Community– University Partnership Supports Transformative Praxis
Book Chapter
Deroo, MR. (2023). CRITICAL MULTIMODALITY AT THE MUSEUM: How a Community– University Partnership Supports Transformative Praxis
. 241-266. 10.1108/979-8-88730-250-820251015
Deroo, MR. (2023). CRITICAL MULTIMODALITY AT THE MUSEUM: How a Community– University Partnership Supports Transformative Praxis
. 241-266. 10.1108/979-8-88730-250-820251015
Whether engaged in speaking, listening, reading, or writing, speakers communicate across multiple modes, a term used to refer to the material resources used to make and convey meaning, such as visuals, gestures, bodily movement, inflection, and tone (Kress, 2011; Serafini, 2014; Van Leeuwen, 2008). This proposed chapter draws upon preservice teacher learning in a disciplinary literacy for secondary education (pseudonym) undergraduate course for students minoring in education and majoring in content areas such as English, psychology, science, or social studies. Specifically, I highlight how a 3-year, ongoing community–university partnership between a local art museum and a department of teaching and learning supports critical multimodal learning for preservice teachers. In this chapter, I would begin with an overview for how course readings about Photo- Voice (Gubrium & Torres, 2013) and critical multilingual language awareness Christensen, 2017; Prasad, 2018) cultivate preservice teacher awareness about critical multimodal approaches to teaching and learning. Next, I will highlight how multiple visits to a local art museum provided space and opportunity for preservice teachers to engage critically with art objects (as multimodal texts) through object-based discussions and visual thinking strategies (Yenawine, 2013). To operationalize critical multimodality as informed by museumbased learning, I will center preservice teacher learning on a task where they remixed and/or hacked (Jocson, 2013; Knobel & Lankshear, 2008) an art object from the museum to address issues of marginalization in their content areas. Across the chapter, I will examine moments where my instruction and students’ criticality fell short of the liberatory aims to disrupt power dynamics across texts, institutions, and society. To support my claims, this chapter will draw upon multiple sources of data collected from 2019–2021 including: field notes, recordings of museum-based interactions, preservice teachers reflective dialog journals, their coursework including lesson plans and text sets, and preservice teacher interviews. The chapter will conclude with implications for how teacher educators might call upon museums as sites of learning to cultivate and develop preservice teachers’ critical multimodal awareness.
