Coming to voice: Community radio production as critical pedagogy

This article argues for the pedagogical possibilities of collective community radio show production for transnational students; in particular, identifying the capacities for self-representation for students from otherwise marginalised and under-represented communities. Students are tasked in this elective module to collectively produce a community-facing show for a multilingual Leicester community radio station; in emphasising collective production alongside critical unpacking of the diverse deployments of ‘community’, the module encourages reflective approaches to community and identity. Through analysing assessment parameters and examples from student-produced shows, I suggest that the theory into practice approach of teaching the value of community cultural production alongside training in production practice by community practitioners encourages student agency, within key approaches drawn on cultural studies and media studies. At the same time, I argue the module’s assemblage of informing theories and production practice comprises a worthwhile research focus for cultural studies itself, retrieving pedagogy as a critical practice historically central to cultural studies’ disciplinary preoccupations with everyday practice, identity formation and popular culture.