MEDIA ED FORUM

2024

DR STEVE CONNOLLY,
THE ROLE OF KNOWLEDGE IN ANGLIA RUSKIN UNIVERSITY,
UK.
MEDIA LITERACY EDUCATION
 SHAMELESS SELF
PROMOTION
ALERT!

TO BEGIN WITH, AN
APOLOGY
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 WHY DO WE NEED TO
THINK ABOUT
KNOWLEDGE IN MEDIA
LITERACY EDUCATION ?
ISN’T THAT A STUPID
QUESTION?
- What do learners need to know?
- What do they need to do?
- Are they the same thing?
- Who gets to decide what they know or learn?
- Should they learn in school? Out of school?
Both?
- What about media literacy in National Curricula?
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TWO WAYS OF THINKING ABOUT KNOWLEDGE IN
EDUCATION:

Philosophy
• How do I know what I know?
• How should I learn what I need
to know?
• What is my relationship to that
knowledge?

Sociology
• What knowledge is most
important in society?
• Who gets to decide that?
• How do these decisions affect
curriculum and learning?

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GODZILLA VS EBIRAH!
(Actually, philosophy vs sociology)

SOCIAL REALISM – Sociology. CRITICAL REALISM - Philosophy

Michael Young, Karl Maton, Elizabeth Rata etc Allan Luke, Zongyi Deng etc
Knowledge in school is best learnt via separate, clearly Knowledge in school is best learnt via themes or topics
•defined
Nulla subjects
a erat eget nunc hendrerit ultrices eu • Praesentthat span different
venenatis subjects
quam tortor, viverra nunc
Ultimately,
nec nulla.the teacher
Donec should
viverra determine
leo aliquet, what is taught
auctor rutrum. The learner should determine what they want to learn
through their
quam id, expertise
convallis orci. with the teacher’s guidance
There are some key pieces of knowledge in school that The kinds
• Maecenas of knowledge
malesuada we learn
ultricies sapien in school changes all the
sit amet
never
• Sedchange, and every
in molestie est. Craslearner
ornareneeds
turpis attoligula
know. time according to our needs and society’s needs (e.g.
pharetra.
posuere, sit amet accumsan neque lobortis. • Nunc because of technology)
tempus, risus sodales sodales . hendrerit,
In •a subject
Maecenaslikemattis
English
risusorligula,
Media sedorullamcorper
FIlm, certain books and In a commodo
arcu dolor subject like English
libero, or Media
a sollicitudin quam or Film, we need to
films nunc
are more important
efficitur sed. than others because of the nulla quis accept thatInall
lectus. at texts can contain useful knowledge.
porta mauris.
knowledge they contain.
In school, the teacher is the expert, and they have the In school, there are some areas where the learner may
knowledge that the learner needs. have as much knowledge as the teacher.
Knowledge learnt in school should largely be concerned Knowledge learnt in school should largely be concerned
with “knowing that…..” (Propositional Knowledge) with “knowing how to….” (Practical Knowledge)
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 Media Literacy is a
21st century approach
to education. It
provides a framework
to access, analyze,
evaluate, create and
participate with
messages in a variety
of forms — from print
to video to the Internet.
Media literacy builds
an understanding of
the role of media in

BUT STEVE, WHY IS society as well as

essential skills of

ANY OF THIS inquiry and self-

expression necessary

IMPORTANT?
for citizens of a
democracy (Centre for
Media Literacy)

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 ITS IMPORTANT
BECAUSE……
- A number of countries have national curricula that are
designed to include or promote media literacy education
(Australia, New Zealand, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland
etc)
- When policymakers take decisions about what gets
included in either statutory (in –school) curricula, or
advisory (out of school) curricula, they are already taking
decisions about what people can or can’t know
-Teacher/educator knowledge has a very particular
relationship with learner knowledge in media education. It is
not like other curricular subjects. So….what do
teachers/educators need to know?
- Is media literacy about “knowledge that”? Or “knowledge WOODGROVE
how”? Or is this distinction not relevant? BANK 7
A SHORT HISTORY OF EPISTEMOLOGY WITHIN
MEDIA EDUCATION

• An 80 year old discussion:

• Cross, E. (1940). “Film criticism for children: Some experiences in
English lessons”. Sight and Sound. Spring
• Alvarado, M., & Ferguson, R. (1983). “The curriculum, media
studies and discursivity”, Screen, 24(3), 20–34. doi:
10.1093/screen/24.3.20
• Corner, J. (1995) “Media Studies and the ‘knowledge problem’”,
Screen, Volume 36(2),147–155,
https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/36.2.147

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 Example 1 – Non-statutory curricula: The Online
IMAGE SLIDE
Media Literacy Strategy – England.

• Published 2021
• Sets out 6 challenges or barriers to achieving a
media literate Britain
• Outlines a range of initiatives to meet these
challenges

• (None of which involve schools, coincidentally!)

“those who experience high levels of online abuse

need to be supported and upskilled in aspects of
media literacy that can help to protect them online,
for example to: report unwanted and hateful
content; filter the content they see online; identify
and avoid individuals or groups that may generate
harmful content; access support; and express
themselves online. “(DCMS, 2021,

Great! But….no critical understanding required of

why and how “unwanted and hateful content” gets .
to us. WOODGROVE 9
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PROBLEMS WITH THIS MODEL

• No subject content (Deng, 2020)

• Avoidance of significant encounter with
conceptual knowledge and conceptual
knowledge models of curriculum (Poyntz, 2015)
• Paradox of needing to acknowledge the
importance of media literacy without
acknowledging that the most effective way of
achieving this is through some
recontextualization of Media Studies, either in
curricular English or Media Studies (Gibson &
Connolly, 2023)
• The “recontextualization error” (Hordern, 2021)
- insufficient knowledge of both the discipline
being recontextualised, and the disciplinary
practice associated with it, result in the
pedagogic discourse of the curriculum being
weakened

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 Example 2 – Statutory curricula: Northern
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Ireland
• Published 2020
• “Media Awareness” established as a key theme
of the statutory curriculum
• Statutory orders which indicate topics and skills
which must be covered

“(Understand) the influence of all forms of media in

modern society and how
cable, digital, microchip and satellite technology, as
well as the exponential growth of the internet, have
expanded our access to and use of all types of
media”

“Use literature, drama, poetry or the moving

image to explore others’ needs and rights”

“create and analyse messages in print and digital

forms throughout their lives” and engage with,
“media and multimedia to become critical, creative .
and effective communicators”(CCEA, 2020) WOODGROVE 11
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PROBLEMS WITH THIS MODEL

• Prescriptive curricula tend to reduce

teacher autonomy
• Policymakers decisions about curricular
content often ignore knowledge from
marginalised/global south communities
• Slow to react to changes in the media
landscape and the knowledge/skills
associated with it
• All curriculum is, to some extent, an
exercise in power, and power can be
abused.

Connolly, S. (2021). “‘From curriculum theory to curriculum practice:

Some observations on privilege, power and policy’. In J. Wearmouth, &

K. Lindley, eds. Bringing the Curriculum to Life: Engaging Learners in the

English Education System. London. OUP .

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SO, WHO GETS TO DECIDE?

OFFICIAL RECONTEXTUALISNG FIELD –

government/policymakers

PEDAGOGIC RECONTEXTUALISING FIELD

– teachers and academics.

Basil Bernstein
1924-2000
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FINALLY – TEACHER KNOWLEDGE
• What do media educators know?
• What do they need to know?
• Does it matter if they know less than their
students?
• Is it actually an advantage when they know
less than their students? (Julian McDougall –
“The Pedagogy of the Inexpert”)

• “Some of them (the students) would be very

tech savvy and some of them absolutely
wouldn't. You'd usually be working on some
sort of group basis…and basically the ones
that were tech savvy, taught the ones that
weren't. I mean, I didn't (teach them) because
I'm not particularly tech savvy, but I know
enough to manage a group…. so that the “Knowledge and Knowing in Media and Film
stereotypical guy who's mastered all these Studies” – out Autumn 2024!. Open Access!
great programmes is going to pass on their
knowledge”
• Charlie –Teacher with 30 years classroom WOODGROVE 14
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GROUP DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
1) Do you make a distinction between knowledge and skills in your media
literacy/education work?
2) Is such a distinction helpful or unhelpful?
3) Would you prefer to work with a local, regional or national curricula for media
literacy? Or not?
4) Can policymakers ever be trusted to write media literacy curricula?
5) How do you see your relationship with knowledge as a media educator? Is it
important for you to know more than your students? Or less? Or to just “know”
in a different way?

Please feel free to discuss any or all of these questions. Or to just put your feet up
and have a nice cup of tea!

steve.connolly@aru.ac.uk

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REFERENCES

• Alvarado ,M. and Ferguson, R. (1983). “The curriculum, media studies and discursivity: A reconsideration of educational theory”.
Screen 24 (3): 20–34.
• Andrews, B., and J. McDougall. (2012). “‘Curation Pedagogy: Further toward the Inexpert.” MedijkskeStudije 3 (6): 152–167.
• Bernstein, B. (1996) Pedagogy, Symbolic Control and Identity- Theory, Research and Critique.London: Taylor and Francis Ltd
• Connolly, S. (2020). “Towards an epistemology of media education: Confronting the problems of knowledge presented by social
realism”, Pedagogy, Culture & Society. doi: 10.1080/14681366.2020.1759129
• Hordern. J. (2021). Recontextualisation and the teaching of subjects. The Curriculum Journal, 32, 592–606.
https://doi.org/10.1002/curj.11
• Connolly, (2022) The Changing Role of Media in the English Curriculum: Returning to Nowhere. Routledge.
• Connolly, S. (2024) Knowledge and Knowing in Media and Film Studies. UCL Press (In preparation)
• Corner, J. (1995) “Media Studies and the Knowledge Problem” Screen 36 (2), pp. 147-155
• CCEA (2020a). Area of Learning: Language and Literacy. Available online at:https
://ccea.org.uk/key-stage-3/curriculum/language-and-literacy
• Deng Z. (2020). Knowledge, content, curriculum and didaktik : beyond social realism. Routledge.
• DCMS. (2021). Online media literacy strategy. GOV.UK. Retrieved March 8, 2023, from
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/online-media-literacy-strategy
• Gibson, P. and Connolly, S. (2023) “Fit for Purpose? Taking a closer look at the UK’s Online Media Literacy Strategy”. Journal of
Media Literacy Education. 15 (1).
• Poyntz, S. 2015. “Conceptual Futures: Thinking and the Role of Key Concept Models in Media Literacy Education.” Media Education
Research Journal 6 (2): 63–79.

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