Voices of Media Literacy: International Pioneers Speak : Cary Bazalgette Interview Transcript

 

CARY BAZALGETTE 

DATE: OCTOBER 13, 2010

INTERVIEWER: DEE MORGENTHALER           

 

(QUOTE)

 

We have a serious lack of good evidence about teaching and learning and an excess of optimistic assertion about what people have done in classrooms and what effect they think it has had.   Until we gather better, more objective and more sustained evidence about media teaching and learning, we can’t make judgments about what movement is going on or in what direction...

 

I believe, however, that the biggest challenge that faces us is how to establish media education as a normal part of schooling for every child from the very beginning of schooling. I see the way to achieving this as being through the transformation of the literacy curriculum so that all children learn about books, films, broadcasting, photography, computer games, social networking, and whatever other media forms may evolve, as an everyday part of their schooling.

 

 

BIOGRAPHY OF CARY BAZALGETTE

Cary Bazalgette isa freelance writer, researcher and consultant specializing in media education and media education research. She is the Chair of the Media Education Association, a member of the European Commission's Media Literacy Experts Group, a Fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), and a Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Education, University of London. She worked at the British Film Institute from 1979 to 2007, including eight years (1999-2006) as Head of Education. 

 

 

Selected Questions:

 

Can you tell me about the start of your involvement in media education?

 

What inspired the beginning of your journey?

 

Were there specific scholars or texts that you were reading at the time that inspired your work?

 

Did you encounter any obstacles?

 

What are you pleased about having achieved?

 

Do you think we are moving in the right direction? What would you like to see happen?