Making Space in Schools: Youth as Cultural Producers

• In Event: Roundtable Session 2
  In Roundtable Session: Media, Culture, and Learning SIG Roundtable: Exploring Media and Learning in School Spaces

Abstract

‘Making to learn’ has recently been embraced by the educational community as a way to resolve youth indifference, “disconnectedness” and lack of engagement with school. Research has shown that shifting teaching and learning to more authentically reflect students’ lifeworlds and affinities can foster more meaningful connections to school for youth who do not feel comfortable or welcome in formal academic contexts. This ethnographic account explores how 9th grade students, at a new urban high school, cultivated their own youth-led affinity spaces that nurtured a range of multimodal making practices. I investigate why these youth-led spaces emerged, the kinds of making (or cultural production) young people participated in and the implications for youth’s participation in these spaces for reimagining school classrooms.

Author

• Veena Vasudevan, University of Pennsylvania