The power of pivoting
How a students-as-partners approach transformed a microaggression into student empowerment in our podcast production
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15173/ijsap.v10i1.6777Keywords:
journalism, partnership, co-creation, microaggression, podcastAbstract
This case study examines the production of "The call," an episode of We Met U When…, a podcastproduced by journalism students at Toronto Metropolitan University. It illustrates how a curriculum co-creation approach that treats students as colleagues and a willingness to seize opportunities created by unforeseen events facilitated a pivot away from a planned assignment and led to deeper learning. During an interview, a student experienced a microaggression that was captured in the recording. The class collaboratively decided to pivot from the original subject and produce an episode about the impact of microaggressions. The instructor’s approach builds on the concept of radical collegiality, which challenges the idea that students are not colleagues (Lubicz-Nawrocka, 2018). This case study, co-authored by the instructor and a student-producer, demonstrates the power of going off plan, taking risks in teaching, and giving students agency.
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