Listening Literacy
Preparing Teachers and Students for Democracy
We have been listening to students and teachers for decades – from K-12 kids in Virginia to future teachers in Cleveland to first-generation college attendees in Haiti.
“Listening literacy” is a theoretical framework for democratic teacher education, responding to increasing political polarization and declining civic discourse in American society. Drawing from Indigenous pedagogies, Deweyan philosophy, critical pedagogy, and culturally sustaining practices, listening literacy positions active listening as both pedagogical skill and democratic value. The framework emphasizes centering student voice, building classroom community, and positioning learners as experts and civic actors.
Teaching teachers to listen...
This beautiful stack of bowls is orderly and organized, however, there is a chip on one of the bowls. This chip can represent the hardships of teaching since every day...Students are humans who experience many hiccups and chips in their personal lives, ones others don’t know much about. Even with the chips occupying their minds, the teachers are the ones who have to accommodate accordingly and work around the chip to still get the students to feel heard while learning the content or the shape of the bowl
Purpose
Often relying on photovoice methods, exploring youths’ perspectives on pressing topics can allow young people to articulate and illustrate their ideas via what we characterize as “listening pedagogies." Given today’s political contexts and the national tendency toward not listening to anyone outside of our circles – a trend flourishing during the second Trump administration – we worried that secondary students would adopt these more divisive norms.
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If you don't have a lot coming into school, it puts you on the path to having more…I see the institution of school as a doorway to greater knowledge that can't be obtained outside the building. School… offers extracurricular opportunities that give students a community outside of their home identity.
School teaches you resilience and how to cope with the world. Teaches you who you are as a person...School is also a form of authority, and if you feel powerless, then you’ll fight school.
Our community struggles to buy groceries, pay rent, or just buy basic necessities. In today’s day I know we can vote to have the laws and perspectives of the eyes who make the major impacts change. In today’s day I know we can strive to make these matters happen for the benefits of our kids.