Critical pedagogy and multimodality in the Philippines: Engaging learners in a post-truth era

While language classrooms are interesting sites for cultural learning, the influence of multilingualism in communities creates meaningful opportunities for student engagement. This is greatly amplified with the range of communication technologies available to educators, making language classes go beyond the confines of the four walls of the classroom. However, the emergence of the post-truth era in politics has created unsafe spaces for communities to be marginalized. This paper reports insights from a wider project in using critical pedagogy and multimodality in the English language classroom in the Philippines. It initially describes the challenges in implementing critical pedagogy in the Philippines and then proceeds with an examination of multimodality as a tool for allowing students to have greater participation in discussions. Drawing on Luke and Freebody’s (1990) four resources model, the paper then reports insights drawn from student projects regarding relevant socio-political issues in the Philippines. Data analysis revealed that engaging students in multimodal projects allows them to develop their voice and identity as learners, allows them to recontextualize issues relevant in society, and promotes counterdiscourses which are all necessary for bilingual/multilingual classrooms. Keywords: counterdiscourses, critical pedagogy, multimodalit