The Development of Cultural and Social Capital in Connected Learning Settings

• In Event: Connected Learning: Evidence in Support of an Emerging Model for Learning Across Settings Among Nondominant Youth

Abstract

Objectives
This paper presents the results of a qualitative analysis of peer interviews in five different settings designed to promote connected learning.

Theoretical Framework
Our work draws on concepts of social capital that encourage investigation into how social networks influence access to valued resources, including cultural capital relevant to success in school and the workplace (Dika & Singh, 2002; Lin, 1999; Stanton-Salazar & Dornbusch, 1995). We hypothesize that the potential for positive long-term outcomes for youth in interest-powered learning environments is shaped by the degree to which programs form connections across settings that value youth expertise in interest domains. Social capital includes forming pathways of access that might help young people cultivate networks that recognize their skills and identities as experts in particular domains. To investigate this hypothesis, we look for evidence related to opportunities to build cultural and social capital in connected learning.

Methods
Our qualitative research into youth’s experience of connected learning presents a thematic analysis (Boyatzis, 1998) from multiple peer interviews in five different connected learning settings.

Data Sources, Evidence, Objects, or Materials
The primary source of data is a set of 82 semi-structured peer interviews conducted as part of a youth participatory research component of a larger longitudinal study of connected learning. Youth interviewers selected peers for the study, and they adapted a protocol for eliciting details about long-term, interest-driven projects, the development of expertise in an area of interest to them, and the formation of new social ties through participation in connected learning.

We used a mixture of inductive and theoretically driven coding techniques to identify themes, which resulted in three broad groupings: one pertaining to the lead activity, another pertaining to the building of cultural capital (interest, expertise, and identity development), and a third pertaining to the building of social capital (connections with others). We achieved an inter-coder agreement of at least 80% for all codes.

Results
Among the different interest-powered activities youth described, they reported more building of cultural capital within traditional school activities and sports activities, both of which are more institutionally sanctioned activities. Additionally, youth engaged in traditional creative arts activities were more likely to say that they gained skills or expertise they could use elsewhere. Youth reported the greatest learning within traditional creative arts activities and new media arts activities. With respect to social capital, the formation of new, external social ties was most common among youth who shared jointly created products from connected learning settings with others and also reported getting help from others..

Significance
This study presents a method for analyzing the growth of cultural and social capital as potential outcomes of connected learning. The findings add to the emerging knowledge regarding what practices in these environments might best support young people in leveraging opportunities in interest-driven learning spaces to improve access to networks that might lead to other valued outcomes, such as civic engagement and academic success.

Authors

• Adam J. York, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Ashley Cartun, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Emily Claire Price, University of Colorado - Boulder