No Names: High School Students Explore Social Justice through Photography

This study discusses strategies and benefits of issues-based curriculum that engage students with conceptual and technical aspects of photography while examining problems that face them in a rapidly changing global environment. The phrase issues-based refers to a process of student research, the selection of a topic and then the creation of artwork focused on visual communication about the topic. The primary goal of this type of curriculum is to facilitate students’ understanding of contemporary sociocultural and political problems and to develop students’ visual literacy skills. In addition, utilizing a curriculum model oriented to social justice provides opportunities for both transformative and transferrable teaching and learning, preparing students for skills needed in the 21st century. (Leonard 30) Students, who, for a variety of reasons, are struggling to achieve the current educational standards, benefit from the application of Paulo Freire’s methods of instruction. Freire’s methods focus learning on having a human experience rather than about raising test scores, which better suits the needs of diverse learners. In a Frieirian classroom, the teacher invites students to “think critically about subject matter, doctrines, the learning process itself, and their society” (Leonard 30). Curriculum activities in the projects described in the next sections incorporate student research of photography, verbal news sources, and traditional photo practices along with varied presentation components. In this way, students may expand upon their abilities to make clear, concise statements and to share the research material that they have discovered to inform and/or advocate for particular solutions. Through this process, students may become agents of positive change in the world. Detailed justification, curriculum methodology, students’ visual and written work are presented and analyzed in the following sections.