"You're in This Whole New World": Digital Artifacts Mediating Desired Futures for Trans Teens

• In Event: Centering and Enacting Dynamic Cultural Practices in Learning and Development

Abstract

This paper draws on sociocultural, cultural-historical, and queer theories to examine how digital artifacts (e.g., meme) mediate the narration of desired futures for transgender teenagers who also identify with LGBQ+ sexual identities. The analysis contributes new insights into scholarship that attends to consequential learning in digital activism and everyday, justice-oriented digital activities. By taking the stories of teens as theories of learning and change, this paper also extends critical youth research by examining how researchers might theorize with and alongside youth. Ultimately, the paper underlines the need for educators and educational research to take up the ethical responsibilities to support young people in the everyday work of dreaming and enacting desired futures that refuse dominant forms of normativity.

Author

• Addie Shrodes, Northwestern University