Abstract
This chapter aims to introduce readers to critical theoretical orientations necessary for online pedagogues, including feminist pedagogies, praxis pedagogy, culturally relevant and sustaining pedagogy, and embodied practices. These critical theoretical orientations undergird a critical digital pedagogy in an online master's course, Diverse College Students. Critical digital pedagogical strategies employed by the authors, such as high context communication, community and relationship building, and visual and audio pedagogies, are discussed. The authors conclude the chapter by engaging in a self-reflexive activity, opening space for insights about the role of current political events, personal student successes, and an engaged community beyond the classroom. Recommendations for faculty wishing to engage a critical digital pedagogy are offered, as are recommendations for future research.
TopBackground
How might faculty, pedagogues, and scholars engage in creating critical, culturally responsive, and culturally sustaining online learning environments? The authors agree with Gloria Ladson-Billings (2014) assertion that “our pedagogical practice has to be buttressed with significant theoretical grounding” (p. 83). Such theoretical grounding follows bell hooks’ (1994) conceptualization of theory as liberatory practice. Online pedagogues cannot simply transfer traditional pedagogical strategies into online environments without thinking about how the medium of educational engagement or delivery shifts possibilities. Nor can online pedagogues emphasize solely skills-based, technological, and technocratic approaches to online teaching and learning. In the digital age, we must also account for technocultures (Luppicini, 2012), hardware and software, and begin critically examining the role of digital technologies in the complicated relationships that undergird social and educational (in)equality (Gin, Martínez-Alemán, Rowan-Kenyon, & Hall, 2017; Nakamura & Chow-White, 2012; Noble, 2018). As the authors have argued previously (Montelongo & Eaton, Under Review), online education, particularly when focused on the multiplicity (Hames-García, 2011) and heterogeneity of people’s identities, cultures, and histories, necessarily needs to account for even more complex pedagogical strategies, critical reflection, and personal commitment. As the authors aim to build an anti-oppressive education (Kumashiro, 2000), the use of a wide range of critical theoretical perspectives humbles us to account for social structures, personal positionality (or standpoint), history, politics, sociopolitical realities, and a willingness to admit that, sometimes we just do not know (Ladson-Billings, 2014).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy: A theoretical and practical pedagogical approach advanced by H. Samy Alim that seeks to advance cultural acknowledgment and affirmation while also lovingly critiquing hegemonic power structures in cultural forms (i.e., racism, homophobia, sexism, Islamophobia).
Point-of-View Action Camera: Small, mobile, and high-resolution video camera recorders that provide viewers wide-angled perspective and high-definition image quality with 140-to-170-degree field of vision.
Low-Context Communication: Communication that emphasizes specific facts and is largely encoded in written text. The use of nonverbal communication is disregarded and emphasis on relations is ignored.
Interface Interaction: In response to the growth of online education, this form of interaction reflects how students and faculty interact with technology and other multi-media components as part of the online course requirements and experience.
High-Context Communication: Communication that emphasizes relational capacity between individuals. These relations are typically assessed by the level of nonverbal communication that is occurring between individuals, places, and events.
Feminist Pedagogy: A wide field of study encompassing a variety of theorists. Feminist pedagogies advance perspectives on embodied practices, the role of gender in approaches to ontology and epistemology, and examination of historic, cultural, political, and sociomaterial influences on teaching and learning.
Critical Digital Pedagogy: A pedagogical approach to online teaching and learning that begins with examination of critical theories (feminist, queer, critical race, poststructural, etc.) and then interrogates digital tools, learning management systems, and other digital practices to ensure relational and humanizing pedagogy is enacted.
Culturally Relevant Pedagogy: A theoretical and practical pedagogical approach advanced by Gloria Ladson-Billings emphasizing student achievement, acknowledgement and affirmation of student’s cultural identities, and critique of sociopolitical dynamics influencing deficit-based perspectives and unequal educational outcomes.