Turning the Lens toward Community

This article on a student photography project in Ghana discusses incorporating the values that govern the social environment in which students live into processes of teaching and learning youth media. According to the author, media from the western world has brought a "'Western cultural tsunami,' a powerful wave that not only drowns indigenous perspectives in Ghana, but also shapes the way youth value their own culture." To counteract its effects, he and a local Ghanaian photographer "decided that the first step in reinstating an indigenous approach to media making was for youth to own and understand cameras - "foreign" instruments that had historically been used by visitors or researchers to document “cultural” phenomenon. Understanding the process of creating permanent images - the choices and consequences of capturing and reproducing information - could help students develop a sense of subjectivity in the midst of the great “wave.” Our hope was that an opportunity to redirect the lens would encourage them to seek out and emulate the values of their own communities."

The two started a project called the Zongo Junction Youth Photo Program, a series of after-school photography workshops at the Gina International School. According to this document, the process of learning and teaching included instruction in culturally respectful aspects of taking photographs, along with physical care of the cameras. Peer-to-peer instruction was used following the training of the first student group. The students were encouraged to consider what they found desirable and undesirable in the photos they took and what their intentions were in their choice of subjects.

The author compares the process of learning photography to the process of learning a second language. "Bringing the photographs into our English classroom enhanced our students’ skills in both media, while enabling them to express a more holistic perspective of their environment." They were also asked to examine values and media manipulation through their analysis of their photos: "It was here that we asked the students to consider the question of truth telling and encouraged them to seek out examples of media that might convey a false truth..." Students were also asked to do written and photo essays about proverbs from their elders. "As a class, it enabled them to represent the rules of their culture, the values they shared as Ghanaians... As individuals, it allowed them to honor and respect their families by displaying in a more public way the extent to which they had been raised well."

The author concludes with best practices on teaching youth media globally and locally, including:

• Gain the trust within your community and include them throughout
• Incorporate cultural customs into the classroom
• Incorporate peer-to-peer training

The author concludes that: "Our most important challenge is to alter our existing pedagogical approaches to meet the needs of the communities in which we work. As educators, we need to encourage youth to own and represent their cultural identity rather than passively embracing western conceptions of identity, which affect youth around the globe. Our success as facilitators is dependent on our ability to provide young people with the tools they need to explore and our willingness to follow their lead. This will allow youth media makers to work within the value system of their own communities to produce media that they and their families can be proud of."