Rebecca Dickerson
Literacy Through Photography: Celebrating Diversity in Durham’s Classrooms
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA—
As Durham continues to become a more racially diverse community, one teaching
methodology brings the discussion of race into the county’s classrooms.
Literacy Through Photography (LTP), a program that raises critical awareness of the
racial stereotypes that exist in daily life, teaches students to look at and make photographs more
consciously, said Katie Hyde, director and instructor of the program.
Lisa Lord, a teacher at Durham’s Club Boulevard Elementary, a school that uses LTP in
its curricula, says the racial composition of her classroom has changed dramatically since she
began teaching in 1974. Today her classroom comprises one-third white, one-third black and
one-third Hispanic.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the black or African American, Asian,
American Indian, Pacific Islander and Hispanic populations are increasing at a higher rate
compared to a 9.3% increase in the white population. Hispanics are the fastest growing racial
demographic in the study area with a growth of 111.73% in the past decade.
The Literacy Through Photography (LTP) methodology does not specifically address
race but taps into kids’ experiences, said Katie Hyde. By giving students a sense that their
individual stories matter and stressing the importance of understanding one’s classmates, LTP
creates an environment to tackle race head on.
“Framed around universal themes such as self-portrait, community, family and
dreams,…LTP provides a valuable opportunity for students to bring their home and community
lives into the classroom. Photographs can give teachers a glimpse into their students’ lives and
give students a way to understand each other’s diverse experiences,” according to the website of
Duke University’s Center for Documentary Studies (CDS) that runs the LTP program.
Lord said school administrators realize the importance of celebrating diversity. There has
been a big push to include literature featuring racially diverse characters in the curriculum and to
hold school-wide multicultural celebrations.
But students and teachers are uncomfortable discussing race. “You have to force people
to talk about things or else they won’t talk about it, and if there is a way to avoid talking about
race they will,” said Hyde.
Christine Delp, a Duke student who worked with Durham elementary school students on
LTP projects, said issues surrounding race often arise in the classroom. One child, for example,
asked a Latino classmate, “Why are you speaking Spanish? We speak English here.” There is
this idea of “you are a foreigner” towards Hispanic students, and LTP is a medium that can
address these sorts of problems. Teachers should encourage their students to talk about race
rather than shy away from it.
When a classroom is diverse, the issue of race is there whether the students openly
address it or not. “It can be very direct or it can be subtle, but it is there,” said Hyde.
Some LTP projects deal explicitly with race, such as the
Stories from Stagville project for which students visited the
Stagville Plantation in Durham and learned stories of slaves who
lived there. They created and performed their own narratives, based
on assigned slaves, written from multiple angles and compiled
these narratives into a video. Delp said this project allowed students
to see a story from various perspectives and to empathize with
someone of a different race.
The Black Self / White Self Portrait project brings up the
ways race is a social construction, said Hyde. Students write and
photograph two separate self-portraits, one of their white selves
and one of their black selves, highlighting differences and
similarities associated with race and how society constructs it.
One example from “Literacy and Justice Through
Photography,” the official LTP guidebook, shows one student’s
pair of photos: her white self depicted as playful and carefree and
her black self as a slave. This student’s interpretation
paints two completely opposite portraits; whereas some students have almost identical photos for
both selves.
The structure of an assignment offers students a space in which they can explore their
own racial identities and talk openly about a sensitive topic, said Hyde.
In talking about difficult issues, the class community and spirit is stronger, said Lord.
Students learn more about each other when they share personal experiences, creating a feeling of
camaraderie in a diverse classroom.
Michelle Stackman, a Duke student who worked with Lord’s class on LTP projects, said
in general the students respected one another regardless of background. The atmosphere in the
classroom was open and tolerant.
Hyde said she hopes students feel comfortable sharing their opinions and validate each
other’s ideas, but this is not always easy to do. One problem with working in a diverse school is
that students have different views. This is especially challenging when white teachers lead the
discussion on discrimination against people of color.
Delp recalled an incident with the Stories from Stagville project that exemplified the
difficulty she faced as a white woman teaching slavery to black students. The only black student
in her group composed of whites and Latinos refused to do the assignment.
When asked what was wrong, Delp said, “He mumbled something then ‘your kind.’ I
knew that he was referring to the fact that here we are a bunch of white and Latino students
taking on a black role in order to try and understand it better. He saw it as an inappropriate
activity, that there was no way we could understand slavery and the effects of slavery, racism
that still exists in this country today.”
Lord said one of her students classified a group of a certain race as “you people.” But
LTP introduces a pattern of thinking that can prevent against these sorts of categorizations.
“When you read a photo, you can’t just spout out generalizations, you are backing it up.”
Hyde said the conversation on race should not be limited to students of color. This year
CDS held an exhibit called “My White Friends,” in which Myra Greene, a black female
photographer, explores the idea of whiteness, capturing individual’s characteristics that make
them feel white. Greene said her white friends have very different notions of racial identity than
her own. One exchange in particular inspired this exhibition, a friend’s remark that he did not
think about his whiteness.
“I left that night wondering about how one could lack consciousness about one’s racial
identity. I had never considered this was possible,” said Greene. “But in the end his position
made absolute sense. As the dominant part of popular culture, whiteness is fed back to us as the
definition of ‘normal’; it’s marketed as the everyday.”
Hyde said that she has been thinking about the absence of whiteness from the racial
dialogue since graduate school. The entire seventh grade of the School for the Creative Studies in
Durham came to see the exhibit, which hopefully sparks continued discussion on the subject.
In schools with limited resources and mandatory tests that have high consequences for
both the students and teachers, administrators say that LTP cannot always fit into the curricula.
But Hyde said it is important for educators to embrace the philosophy of LTP and realize
students can reach the same outcomes while not taking the most direct path.
LTP focuses on the process. Delp said each project has multiple steps which employ an
array of skills. There are multiple opportunities for students to shine within an entire project,
allowing various types of learners to connect with the topic and have their voices heard.
According to “Literacy and Justice Through Photography,” students see the LTP project
through from start to finish. The first step is technique: framing, detail, vantage point and timing.
Next, students would develop their own prints in a school darkroom built specifically for LTP
projects.
However, with the advent of digital photography, darkrooms are becoming obsolete, so
most students don’t learn this part of the process, said Lord. At one point, 14 Durham public
schools had dark rooms, but today that number is much lower.
Although technology has changed, the concepts behind LTP have not. Lord said LTP can
have a lasting impact beyond the classroom. “My hope is that these projects give [the students]
experience empathizing with other people. Hopefully they will be more likely to get to know
people in a work place and put themselves in someone else’s shoes.”
LTP began in 1990 when CDS invited photographer Wendy Ewald to offer a two-week
workshop for schoolchildren in Durham. With the support of Durham school administrators and
CDS, Ewald started the LTP program within Durham public schools. Since the program’s
inception, numerous elementary, middle and high school teachers, more than 1,000
schoolchildren and more than 100 students from Duke University have taken part in the LTP
program, according to the CDS website.
To find out more about Literacy Through Photography, visit the Center for Documentary Studies
website.
“My White Friends” Exhibition Dates: March 10 - May 17, 2014.