Teaching Media Literacy!
It is time to educate our children for a future in which each individual acts creatively and responsibly, for his own wellbeing and for the wellbeing of society.
Through the program “I Teach Media Literacy – the Media Education and Culture Lab”, we support young people to develop their motivation and critical thinking, to grow and adapt, to expand their horizons, to share and apply knowledge in new situations.
The Media Education and Culture Lab is a strategic program rub by the Center for Independent Journalism, in partnership with the Romanian-American Foundation, whereby media literacy concepts are introduced in the high school courses for humanistic disciplines, following an extensive teacher training process.
The goal of the program is that by 2030 – at least 30% (175,000) of high school students will understand the media’s role in a democratic society, distinguish misinformation, deconstruct media messages and interact responsibly with social networks.
The program “Teaching Media Literacy! – the Media Education and Culture Lab” has two directions of development:
1. know-how and support for the introduction of media literacy in the learning practice for high school students, in collaboration with teachers from humanistic disciplines
92 high school teachers from all over the country are members of the program
– Have benefited from an intensive media literacy training (12 days of face-to-face training – summer school, winter school, follow-up)
– as a result of the training they have already included elements of media education in classroom teaching (approx. 2 activities / month)
– benefit from mentoring and assistance (84 days of class attendance, over 170 activities) – from the 92 – 13 Romanian language and literature teachers have become trainers in media education for future generations of teachers that we will train
Over 16,000 high school students develop at present critical thinking skills and active citizenship during class hours
2. Advocacy for introducing media literacy into the common core of skills that students acquire
– We analyzed the syllabus for 5 humanistic subjects (Romanian language and literature, English, French, history, social sciences)
– We deployed a relevant statistical sociological study that analyzes the interaction of Romanian young people between the ages of 14 and 19 with media
– We trained a group of 7 teachers to work on the new high school curricula for all 5 disciplines
What’s next in 2020-2023?
1. To develop a model of continuous professional development that helps Romanian teachers to include media literacy in class work, reaching 480 teachers and approx. 48,000 students
2. To develop a model for including media literacy in the initial training of Romanian language and literature teachers, together with at least one top university in Romania.
3. Continue the advocacy process for the inclusion in the high school program of media literacy competences
Program duration:
The program has been running since 2017, and is now in its 4th year of implementation.
The program will extend into several stages by 2030.
Romanian-American Foundation is the strategic partner of the program, which provides financial support and content input (2017-2023).
Program partners:
– The program was conducted under the high patronage of the Presidential Administration (2018-2019)
– 79 high schools became our partners, hosting student workshops and facilitating the inclusion of other teachers from their high schools in the program, favoring the creation of clusters of media literacy, currently operating in Iasi, Bistrita, Tecuci, Roman, Tulcea, Timisoara
– The Ministry of National Education (2017 – 2018) facilitated the intensification of the message communication at national level
– The United States Embassy in Bucharest, the Friedrich-Naumann Foundation, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Romania granted financial support to the project for the period 2017-2018.
