<b>Toward a Critical Media Epistemology:</b><b>A Practitioner Inquiry-Informed, Nested Case Study of Three english language arts Classrooms</b>

<p dir="ltr">Among educators, several approaches have emerged as promising responses to the “post-truth” phenomenon. One emphasizes increased attention to <i>media literacy</i>; a second emphasizes students’ <i>epistemic cognition</i>. In this dissertation, I discuss the results of a six-month, practitioner inquiry-informed nested case study exploring ways in which educators and researchers can respond to mis- and disinformation and other aspects of “post-truth” by incorporating <i>critical media epistemology</i>, an innovative framework I developed that integrates critical media literacy and epistemic cognition into existing curricula. The findings suggest that collaborative efforts to integrate CME into curricula can enrich teachers’ and students’ understanding of and ability to respond to post-truth through critical engagement with digital media texts throughout a curriculum. The findings also point to teacher dispositions—an expansive view of “texts,” critical self-reflection, and epistemic humility—that may be conducive to efforts to address post-truth, as well as political and instructional challenges teachers may face. Finally, they offer key insights into aspects of the post-truth phenomenon and efforts to integrate CME, including several significant tensions: between information and entertainment, media analysis and media creation, and criticality and hyper-skepticism. The findings and the theoretical framework they support have important implications for teachers, teacher educators, and scholars.</p>