MULTILITERACIES PEDAGOGY IN RAISING GENDER AWARENESS THROUGH SUE MONK KIDD’S THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES

Abstract

Educators should be able to bring literary works as teaching materials that are adapted to the concept of 21st century learning. The purpose of this study is to investigate the implementation of the Multiliteracy Pedagogy approach promoted by the New London Group (1996) in raising gender awareness through The Secret Life of Bees movie, which was adapted from Sue Monk Kidd's novel of the same name (2001). The participants of this research are seventeen fifth semester English Education students and an English lecturer. Using qualitative data from observation and an online questionnaire, the data are analyzed comprehensively using Multiliteracies Pedagogy as a theoretical framework. The findings revealed that through The Secret Life of Bees, the four elements of Multiliteracies Pedagogy are well implemented in the classroom, which in turn could raise the students’ awareness in relation to gender issues. The learning activities in each element of multiliteracies pedagogy provides the students not only  the situation to experience the issue  but also the discussion and other learning activities which invite them to critically explore their ideas about gender issues. These activities indicate the practice of multiliteracies pedagogy which is meaningful in raising gender awareness. In Addition, students give positive responses toward the use of multiliteracies pedagogy to raise gender awareness as seen from the result of the questionnaire that the students are excited, comfortable, confident in sharing their critical ideas regarding gender issues after watching the movie.

Keywords: Multiliteracy Pedagogy; Gender Awareness; The Secret Life of Bees