Critical Kaleidoscopic Pedagogy: Kaepernick, Nike, and Critical Media Literacy in the Post-truth Era

Since former NFL player Colin Kaepernick first kneeled during the U.S. national anthem, there has been no shortage of media commentary about the controversial #takeaknee movement which has culminated in Nike endorsing Colin Kaepernick as the face of the 30 ^th anniversary of their “Just Do It” campaign. Social media outlets have erupted with the ad itself, pundit commentary about it, appropriations of the slogan by various groups, and viral videos of people burning Nike sneakers and clothing. Within this discursive moment multiperspectival, critical media literacy lessons abound. In this session participants will engage in a symposium-length theoretical and practical exploration of “critical kaleidoscopic pedagogy,” an orientation toward critical pedagogy designed to respond to the contemporary post-truth, post-Trump U.S. context. Critical kaleidoscopic pedagogy is informed by postformalism (Kincheloe, 1999), critical literacy (Gee, 2015), critical media pedagogy (Duncan-Andrade & Morrell, 2005; Haddix & Sealy-Ruiz, 2012), and critical pedagogy (Freire, 1970). The presenters describe the philosophy and practice of critical kaleidoscopic pedagogy and share hands-on activities that illustrate how the Kaepernick Nike advertising campaign can be used in classrooms with diverse secondary students and graduate students, and as professional development for teachers. Participants will tap multi-modal ways of knowing to critically “read” the unfolding of discursive events as a manifestation of complex and contradictory socio-historical, cultural, political, and economic conditions.