This resource introduces Dilemmas + Decisions (D+D), an educational process developed at the National Center for the Preservation of Democracy in Los Angeles.
Dilemmas + Decisions (D+D) is a Youth Media project that presents real-life issues related to democracy and freedom as experienced and conceived by high school-aged media groups from across the nation. Together, these young people reflect American’s rich geographic, ethnic, cultural, and political diversity as they exercise their first amendment right to freedom of expression.
Sometimes young people don’t think that their ideas count. Dilemmas + Decisions (D+D) was created to show that youth can and do participate and contribute meaningfully to the conversations, debates, and discussions necessary for democratic processes and institutions.
As a transformative pedagogy, Dilemmas + Decisions (D+D) uses a problem-posing approach that begins with a genuine problem of student interest and unfolds, ideally, to encompass four underlying objectives:
– Initial analysis stimulates critical inquiry and leads to investigating aspects of an issue that may involve social injustice and/or the breakdown of democracy.
– Students intellectually engage with socially relevant subject matter and act upon it by creating their own alternative media production expressing their point of view.
– Creating a media product gives students practice in the art of public dialogue and shaping a message to motivate others to act.
– Presenting their production to a real-world audience increases the capacity to see themselves as responsible members of society capable of shaping democracy.
Through their website you can access the videos and the questions from the Viewer’s Guide to engage others in discussion.