Indonesian Secondary Students' Agentic Digital Literacies: Expanding the National Narrative Toward Empowering Literacy Education

• In Event: Digital Literacies for Global Meaning-Making: Learning From Four Cases From the Global South

Abstract

Purpose
This collaboration (between a U.S. digital literacies researcher and an Indonesian English as a Foreign Language researcher, both teacher educators) sought insights to support Indonesian teachers facing increasing demands from government mandates requiring them to incorporate technology they feel ill-prepared to use for instruction (Harendita, 2013). We began by learning from students because, as Alvermann (2008) notes, young people generate their own reasons for pursuing literacy and educators would do well to “remain open” to inviting and extending their online literacies in classrooms (p. 16).

Perspectives
Following Tierney’s (2018) recommendations, we frame our research through negotiations that put local cultural practices in conversation with a New Literacies Studies orientation, and position our participants as global meaning makers. As such, we honor Indonesian historical understandings of literacy’s role in connecting with the world (Kartini, 1921). We recognize literacies as social practices of meaning making (Lankshear & Knobel, 2011) and explore how digital spaces support young people’s interest-driven, agentic work (Ito et al., 2013).

Methods
We conducted an exploratory mixed methods study with students in Central Java, Indonesia. Our survey was inspired by digital literacy-related studies conducted in non-Western countries (e.g., Park, Kim, & Na, 2015) and finalized with input from four Indonesian youth. We asked participants from seven schools (three junior high schools, Grades 7 - 9, and four senior high schools, Grades 10 - 12) closed and open-ended questions about how, when, and for what purposes they use technology for their school-based and interest-driven learning. We later conducted one focus group discussion per school, with four to six respondents each, to ask follow-up questions about intriguing survey findings and to learn more individual stories. Analysis follows Erickson’s (1986) analytic induction process. After initial reviews of the corpus revealed evidence of agentic practice, we sought confirming and disconfirming evidence for developing our assertion that Indonesian youth leverage digital literacies for personal growth in ways that push beyond the narrow definition that guides policy and instruction.

Data Sources
The data corpus includes 618 survey responses, seven focus group discussion transcripts, government-issued artifacts that shape digital literacies curriculum and instruction in Indonesian public schools, and researcher memos.

Findings
This paper offers illustrative examples of two agentic global meaning makers: Dixie, a tech-savvy entrepreneur, and Salsa, a creative youth seeking connections and support online. By the time we met her, Dixie had been selling cosmetics and skin care products for five years. She described technology as integral to her business. We pair her experiences with Salsa, who supported her interests in cooking and singing by looking to resources and befriending people she found on Instagram, YouTube, and WhatsApp.

Significance
As Global South educational systems, like Indonesia’s, prepare young people for 21st century literacy lives and work toward goals for contributing to global marketplaces and knowledge communities, providing educational experiences that leverage the agentic potential of digital literacies will be increasingly important. Youth like Dixie and Salsa want teachers to know about their online practices so that classroom activities invite and extend what they already do.

Authors

• Jayne C. Lammers, University of Rochester

• Puji Astuti, State University of Semarang