Abstract
This paper discusses digital storytelling through photographing with cellphones as an arts-based, culturally-responsive pedagogical approach. It aims to cultivate young people’s critical and creative thinking skills and foster intercultural understanding through art-making. Culturally-responsive pedagogy is very much needed for the realization of diversity, equity, and inclusion in schools. This study makes practical and theoretical contributions to the humanities. Practically, this research illustrates how to employ the arts, in particular photographing and pursue a photovoice project in the classroom as a culturally-responsive approach, which can inform similar praxis implementation in various school settings. Theoretically, this study advances our understanding of interculturality captured by cellphone cameras. From April to July 2023, a group of twelve university students in Kumamoto, Japan and the researcher collaborated for a photovoice project and explored the migratory movement of people from Kumamoto to Hilo on the Big Island. Starting in 1868, those from Kumamoto moved to the islands of Hawaiʻi, Kauaʻi, Maui, and Oʻahu, and they formed the second largest group of immigrants on the Big Island after those from Hiroshima. Gloria Anzaldúa’s concept of “borderlands” was applied and a combination of open-ended surveys and interviews was conducted to evaluate the impact of digital storytelling on the students’ learning experience. It has become clear that photovoice enables the students to become critical and creative knowledge producers. Moreover, their photographs and stories uncover sustained intercultural connections between Hilo and Kumamoto. Hence, this new pedagogical approach is effective in tackling international migration and promoting intercultural understanding.
Presenters
Hiroko HaraAssociate Professor, Department of English Language & Literature, Prefectural University of Kumamoto, Kumamoto, Japan
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2025 Special Focus—Oceanic Journeys: Multicultural Approaches in the Humanities
KEYWORDS
Art, Culturally-responsive Pedagogy, Higher Education, Photovoice
