Super heroes, villains, and politics

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to discuss how the superhero genre, when couched in a space and project that seek to act as a counter-world and is rooted in the life experiences of youth, can allow Latinx elementary school students the opportunity to create counter-stories. Such stories facilitated the process of creating “critical hope” in relation to oppressive political discourses. Design/methodology/approach This is a qualitative study conducted at an afterschool club in the Western USA. Using the superhero genre, elementary school students, grades third-fifth, participated in a project in which they created superhero and villain narratives set in their community. Findings The authors found that the superhero genre supported some Latinx students to develop counter-stories that engaged with and resisted the heightened xenophobic and racist discourse appropriated by then US presidential candidate Donald Trump in the context of the 2016 presidential campaign. These counter-stories allowed youth to engage in critical hope to imagine a better, more just world. Originality/value In a time when young Latinx students are continually subjected to racism and xenophobia promoted by political figures and taken up by popular media and the general public, it is necessary to support students in creating counter-stories and critical hope that push back against oppression. Findings suggest that the superhero genre can support Latinx students to discuss, dismantle and counter hateful discourses while striving for hope.

Down but not out: Using restorying to imagine beyond the constraints of mandated texts for critical thinking, empathy, and identity work

“…Imagination, as the “antithesis of control” (Medina & Wohlwend, 2014, p. 112), allows the work of engaging with, critiquing, and dismantling the systems of power to manifest hope and possibilities for better worlds for all of us. Researchers have used tenets of critical literacy and imagination to explore issues of injustice in the speculative (Low, 2017; Toliver, 2020; Torres & Tayne, 2017), reimagine storytelling (Storm & Jones, 2021; Thomas & Stornaiuolo, 2016), and center the lived experiences/knowledge of others for the amplification of empathy, solidarity, and action (McGinley et al., 2017; Newstreet et al., 2019; Simon et al., 2016).…”

“…Imagination, as the "antithesis of control" (Medina & Wohlwend, 2014, p. 112), allows the work of engaging with, critiquing, and dismantling the systems of power to manifest hope and possibilities for better worlds for all of us. Researchers have used tenets of critical literacy and imagination to explore issues of injustice in the speculative (Low, 2017;Toliver, 2020;Torres & Tayne, 2017), reimagine storytelling (Storm & Jones, 2021;, and center the lived experiences/knowledge of others for the amplification of empathy, solidarity, and action (McGinley et al, 2017;Newstreet et al, 2019;Simon et al, 2016). Luke (2012) reminds us that the ways critical literacy is taken up from context to context "depends upon students' and teachers' everyday relations of power, their lived problems and struggles, and … on educators' professional ingenuity in navigating the enabling and disenabling local contexts of policy" (p. 9).…”

Avengers, assemble the literature! A multi‐study review of consumption, environmental values, and planetary health research

“…Against this backdrop, this article posits that the onus is on consumers to protect and save Mother Earth, and by extension, their future. As superheroes inspire critical hope (Torres & Tayne, 2017), this article uses the terms "superheroes" and "villains" as metaphors to represent consumers whose consumption behavior instills optimism and pessimism regarding ecological sustainability, respectively.…”

“…Against this backdrop, this article posits that the onus is on consumers to protect and save Mother Earth, and by extension, their future. As superheroes inspire critical hope (Torres & Tayne, 2017), this article uses the terms “superheroes” and “villains” as metaphors to represent consumers whose consumption behavior instills optimism and pessimism regarding ecological sustainability, respectively. That is to say, consumers can either become superheroes (sustainable consumption) or villains (unsustainable consumption) in the quest to protect and save Mother Earth, much of which depends on their mindfulness in consumption (Gupta et al, 2021, 2023; Lim, 2017).…”