THE CEA FORUM - Summer/Fall 2011 - Inviting “Millennials” to be Voices for Social Justice in Their Creative Writings

Oct 15, 2026

Inviting “Millennials” to be voices for social justice through creative writing argues for a transformational pedagogy that develops students’ reflective, critical, and ethical civic agency rather than treating them as merely techno-literate. The discussion examines how generational attributes alone do not guarantee change and highlights the challenge of moving learners beyond emotionally vacant, dehumanized violent narratives in mass media. It also contrasts rhetorical, message- and audience-driven writing with skill-set vocational training in higher education, emphasizing active engagement in democratic civic life.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages23

Reading Time35 min

AccessFree to download

Inviting “Millennials” to be Voices for Social Justice in Their Creative Writings

Transformational pedagogy and change agency

Creative writing workshops and rhetorical purpose

Activism, polemics, and moral statements in poetry

Rhetorical vs. purely creative process in composition

THE CEA FORUM Summer/Fall 2011 Inviting “Millennials” to be Voices for Social Justice in Their Creative Writings Christyne Berzsenyi Penn State University, Wilkes-Barre The historical transition from the 20th Century to the 21st has sparked a boom in identifying names and classifying characteristics of the young American adults and teens coming of age at that time. Though there is much discrepancy about the starting birth year and the life span parameters of “Generation Y”, generalizing descriptions abound in an effort to capture their influential “historical location”—context, opportunities, and experiences that members of this group share, particularly in their formative years. Defining qualities that are largely agreed upon among researchers include an inclination for “digital media, their confidence and optimism, and their orientation towards collaboration”(Donnison) . Most pertinent here are Donnison’s ideas about what could be a truly transformational pedagogy: empowering students to be reflective, critical, and ethical community activists and advocates of social justice. Though applied particularly to teacher education, this point has relevance to all educators ofthe Millennials: While the generation may be techno-literate, this does not necessarily translate into change agency. If change agency is also having a vision for and willingness to embrace change and engage in new challenges [Day] then the generation’s THE CEA FORUM Summer/Fall 2011 propensity towards conservatism, conservation, and institutional continuity [Donnison] poses a challenge to teacher educators. (9) Donnison presents educators with the task of looking beyond students’ generational attributes to encourage greater critical, productive, and creative application of their technological proficiency. The aim is to achieve a genuine empowerment and self-determination that is absent from the writings of Millennial authors. The challenges are to disrupt students’ absorption in emotionallyvacant, dehumanized violent narratives, permeating their mass media culture, and invite them to creatively re-vision their “real” worlds. If successful, M. Greene asserts that students can share with audiences their experiences of “darkness and light”, despair and hope, and cruelty and gentleness. Utilizing their abilities and skills with technology and writing, students can be inspired “to make us see, to make us indignant, to inspire us to take action against the horrific” as well as the beautiful. Their acts of creative polemics could effect positive change in our futures, but only if they become involved. Such ambition in teaching suggests a transformational pedagogy, which contrasts with a vocational training type education of “skill sets”. Reproducing the status quo of values and ingrained practices, skills training reinforces conservative acts of research, language use, employment, political participation, and so forth. As Iverson and James argue, a primary goal of higher education has consistently been regarded as the preparation of graduates for “effective citizenship”: “active engagement in the civic life of their communities”(19) . I join Iverson and James, Hillygus, Galston,(Dionne et. al.), and others in the challenge of educating millennial students in the importance of greater awareness of social surroundings with responsive charitable volunteerism to meet community needs, playing positive roles in democratic civic efficacy. THE CEA FORUM Summer/Fall 2011 In American college composition courses, writing faculty conventionally assign exposition and argumentative essays, integrating forms of evidence to support their positions. However, in creative writing workshops, experienced and published poetry, fiction, and dramatic writers teach classes typically to novice writers , facilitating their expression imagination within these genres. The development of purposeful, message-driven, and audience-oriented writing—in other words, a rh

FAQs

What does the paper identify as a key gap in millennial writing education?

It argues that creative writing teaching often omits a purposeful, message-driven, audience-oriented rhetorical approach to political and social topics.

Why does the author question relying on generational attributes alone?

The text states that being techno-literate does not automatically translate into change agency, which requires a vision for and willingness to embrace change and new challenges.

How does the article contrast transformational pedagogy with vocational skill-set training?

It says skill-set training tends to reinforce conservative status quo values and practices, while transformational pedagogy aims to empower students to act as ethical community activists and advocates for social justice.

Oct 15, 2026

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