Designing From Their Own Social Worlds: The Digital Story of Three African American Young Women

• In Event: Roundtable Session 111
  In Roundtable Session: Science, Engineering, and Technology: Changing the Way We Teach and Learn in the Classroom

Abstract

n this paper, I examine the literacy work of three African American students, particularly their ways of knowing, such as double consciousness (Du Bois, 1989), and the multiple subject positions they occupy as they write themselves into a digitally created story. My analysis is guided by the following question: How are the contemporary digital literacy practices of African American youth informed by their historical and cultural legacies (Gadsden, 2002)? I take as a point of departure, Janks’ (2000) idea that mere access to dominant forms of literacy is not enough. We must also create opportunities for students to enact culturally specific forms of agency. The paper hopes to contribute to the fields of multicultural education, digital literacy, and critical pedagogy.

Author

• Darryl Hall, Indiana University - Bloomington