Nurturing Culturally Responsive Pedagogy through Podcasting and Inclusive Dialogue

Abstract

<p>This paper presents a research study examining a culturally responsive pedagogical approach utilising podcasting technology for storytelling on a community partnership initiative. The project brought undergraduate students of diverse disciplinary programmes from the University of Hong Kong (HKU) to Mae Sot, Thailand, to collaborate with stateless and displaced Kayin Myanmar refugee youths to co-produce podcast episodes for public broadcast online and on local radio. Kayin Myanmar refugees are an ethnic minority group forced from their homes, primarily in Kayin State, due to persecution and the ongoing conflict since the military coup in 2021. Many seek refuge and reside in refugee camps along the porous Thai-Myanmar border. The podcasts draw on the Myanmar students’ lifeworlds and lived experiences of pursuing education in various Non-Governmental Organisational (NGO) schools and the reflections of the Hong Kong students via their interchanges. The study explored the potential of podcasting as an oral communications technology and learning tool and how it serves as a conduit that gives voice to underrepresented populations to advocate their ontological and epistemological conditions.</p><p>Conceptually, the research is grounded in the theoretical frameworks of culturally-situated design principles anchored in de Sousa Santos’ (2014) notion of Southern Epistemologies. The methodology emphasises the need for intercultural translation and dialogue that interrogates the sociology of absences to give rise to the sociology of emergences. Hence the project aimed to cultivate Hong Kong students’ capacities to reconceptualise global dynamics from a ground-level vantage point while scrutinising universal tenets through the context of the Global South. The action research method emphasised discovery, inquiry, collaboration, reflection, and iteration in the co-production process and minimised power dynamics of contrasting cultural actors by reinforcing the valuable epistemologies of the marginalised students. Hong Kong students conducted interviews with administrators and teachers from NGOs and NGO-supported schools, while both Myanmar and Hong Kong students engaged in a reciprocal learning process, acquiring and sharing skills in using the equipment and digital technologies required for podcast production. The adopted approaches enabled students from both sides to assume dual roles as auto(ethnographic) researchers and participants as they attempted to understand the complex relationalities constituted by (geo)political, sociocultural, economic, and historical considerations that shape educational subjectivities.</p><p>The study highlights the ethical considerations and importance of adopting participatory research approaches that engage underrepresented populations as active collaborators in the knowledge production process in <em>mestizaje</em> for creative synthesis. The study’s outcomes illustrate the transposability of podcasting as a bridging oral analogue and digital information technology medium for movements across culture, learning, and technology. This work provides valuable insights for educators, policymakers, and practitioners in designing inclusive community partnerships that facilitate South-North intercultural exchanges while addressing digital literacy and equity issues with emancipatory potentials.</p>