Metaphors We Tweet By: Designing for Sociotechnical Awareness and Disciplinary Relevance in a Secondary English Classroom (Poster 19)

• In Event: Excellence in Education Research: Early Career Scholars and Their Work

Abstract

This poster reports on data from a larger project that uses social design-based research methodology (Gutiérrez, 2016) to explore how non-STEM, widely accessed classes such as English language arts can become generative sites for learning about computing education that does not center around coding/programming languages. The project aims to design learning in ways that support students’ development of sociotechnical awareness (which I define as a critical lens that interrogates intersections of computing technologies, power, ethics, and social hierarchies such as race and class) within valued disciplinary practices. The qualitative retrospective analysis (Cobb et al., 2003) shared in this session focuses on the design and implementation of a unit taught in a culturally and linguistically diverse English 11 course. The objective of the unit was to support students’ learning of the literary concept of metaphor through small-group inquiry work and school community presentations about popular social media platforms’ functions and social impacts. Qualitative data included field notes; recordings of design and reflection sessions with the collaborating teacher and university researcher; recordings of class instruction, discussions, and presentations; print and digital student-created artifacts; print and digital teacher-created artifacts; semi-structured teacher interviews; analytic memos; and a student survey (n = 38). Design cycles were documented with an eye toward expanding our localized focus to identify principles that can help English teachers in other contexts design for sociotechnical awareness.

Author

• Jennifer Higgs, University of California - Davis
  Presenting Author