This teacher-action research project explores using critical contemplative pedagogy in an upper elementary classroom setting to determine how youth media practices can be informed with combined critical media literacy instruction and contemplative exercises. Analysis of students' media production and deconstructions reveal promising outcomes for enhancing students' media literacy as well as relationships to self and others as formed through media use. A teacher-researcher curriculum provides a structured yet flexible critical contemplative experience for students, and research outcomes are analyzed through students' responses along the Center for Medial Literacy's Five Key Questions, Tatum's Seven Categories of Otherness, and Kaufman's Five Dimensions of Critical Contemplative Pedagogy. The efficacy of a critical contemplative approach to media literacy education and the implications for educators hoping to adopt such practices, as well as potential impacts on those inside and outside of the classroom, are addressed through this year-long snapshot of a classroom. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]