Cultivating Elementary Student Identity Inquiry and Civic World Building through Animated Poetry Projects

• In Event: Speculative Civics Learning Through Artistic Creation and Performance

Abstract

This paper examines civic world building in the Stop Motion Identity Project (SMIP), a poetry writing and video production project spanning 5 months where 5th grade students explored individual identity through written poetry, then brought to life through collaborative storyboarding, set and character creation, and animation. SMIP provides one example of transdisciplinary learning through co-design across an English Language Arts/Social Studies class and a STEAM enrichment space.
We draw upon critical transdisciplinary (Takeuchi et al., 2020) theory to argue that in order for students to transcend disciplinary boundaries, they must go beyond canonical integration of two or more disciplines and question infrastructure based in EuroAmericancentrism to position themselves as agents of change.
Entrenched disciplinarity is perpetuated when learning is forced into confines of a particular classroom context, facilitated by one teacher bound by rigid timeframes. In contrast, SMIP was designed to support iterative student learning through collaboration between two teachers to provide students with space and time for creative content and civic integration. To research the affordances of this design, we asked, How does creative identity exploration work to reinvision traditional school spaces?
Students began work in ELA class by mapping aspects of their identities and to iterate a written poem. Then, they took their work to STEAM class and begun collaboratively storyboarding stanzas and designing sets using makerspaces. Groups worked to make connections between possible settings then built elements reflecting individual needs. Students assisted each other to record films, working to actualize each group member's poem. Data collected included student work products, lesson plans, field notes and teacher reflections compiled from January - May 2023. This analysis principally examined student poems and videos to deductively identify practices (Miles et al., 2020) in which students portrayed elements of kid culture in context of their school based literary works along with unconventional means to communicate, challenge, or bring awareness to relevant issues in their worlds.
Findings revealed themes aligned with civic world building through critical transdisciplinarity: 1) Learners critiqued traditional classroom and school spaces, and 2) Learners expanded the scope and possibilities for inclusive, libratory, and connected learning opportunities. In relation to theme 1, students often aligned written aspects of negative self-image in their poetry with visual depictions of traditional classroom spaces in their movies. In contrast, students expressed passion for art (drawing, music, rapping, singing), associated with hobbies/out of school settings. Aligned with theme 2, student work consistently included references to kid culture interests such as anime, roblox, pokemon, etc. In making these connections, learners demonstrated the potential for meaningful interactions between school and kid culture; a form of advocacy for a different type of schooling. Students used poetry as an opportunity for using two languages, the integration of home based speech and culture, outdoor play, and the delivery of affective sentiments.
Facilitating a space for students to comfortably and flexibly work with their identity using nontraditional means of expression through poetry and movie making iterations, this paper helps shed light on new possibilities for critical transdisciplinary learning.

Authors

• Scarlett Lea Calvin, University of Texas at Austin

• Kameron Koeffler, University of Texas Elementary School