Teachers as transformative intellectuals at the service of media literacy. A theoretical approach to their main roles and tasks

Abstract

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have brought important social and cultural transformations in the recent decades and media literacy is an unavoidable necessity now. The new media have opened up new possibilities and opportunities in access to information and as channel of expression. However, ICTs have also generated gaps in social, cultural and economic contexts characterized by constant struggles, uncertainties and growing inequalities. The role of teachers is essential to educate critical citizens in the use, consumption and appropriation of media, to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the new media, and to promote just and egalitarian societies from the formal and non-formal education. For this reason, in this paper we analyze and reflect about their main roles and tasks in media literacy processes from the perspective of a critical and transformative pedagogy. This critical approach allows progress in the new literacy processes and contributes to create more democratic and participatory models of societies. This paper presents a qualitative methodology. To define the roles and tasks of teachers a theoretical analysis was carried out from the intersection of communication and education, -Educommunication-, and the fundamental contribution of critical pedagogy. It allows the theoretical characterization of the praxis of a critical educator. Results allow identified main roles of the educators: as a creative co-producer, guide of reflective processes, dialogue facilitator, and transformative intellectual. To exemplify and illustrate the roles and tasks, we incorporate two practical cases: the experience of school audiovisual production carried out in a rural school and an educational film festival.