TikTok Counterspaces as Learning Communities for Latine/x LGBTQ+ college students

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Wednesday 2:30 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 2-3
  In Roundtable Session: Leveraging the R in HSRIs: Research for Educational Equity at a Hispanic-Serving Research Institution (Table 1)

Abstract

Objective
This study examines the way learning in communities of resistance on TikTok can serve to create action to counter inequality (Cisneros, 2019; Freire, 1973, 1993; Jemal, 2017). Specifically, this study explores how Latinx LGBTQ+ communities on TikTok are fostering the development of critical consciousness and identity development among Latinx LGBTQ+ college students at a Hispanic Serving Research Institutions (HSRI).
Theoretical Frameworks
Internet-based communities created through social media platforms are counterspaces where Latinx LGBTQ+ individuals have been able to access and establish learning communities (Lopez-Leon & Casanova, 2023). Within these learning communities, Latinx LGBTQ+ individuals foster critical consciousness, or the ability to recognize and resist social conditions responsible for oppression (Jemal, 2017; Freire, 1973, 1993), to deconstruct stereotypical and dehumanizing narratives, and challenge intersectional forms of oppression (Lopez-Leon & Casanova, 2023). Using Intersectionality theory (Cole, 2009; Crenshaw, 1991) and Critical Consciousness (Anzaldúa, 1987; Freire, 1973, 1993; Hurtado & Cervantez, 2009) as theoretical frameworks, this study explores TikTok, a social media video sharing platform, as a digital counterspace where Latinx LGBTQ+ narratives challenge oppressive Latinx and White LGBTQ+ narratives, and contribute to the development of critical consciousness among Latinx LGBTQ+ students.
Data and Methods
An ethnographic observation of TikTok was conducted over eight weeks. A TikTok account was used to create a digital “space” by training TikTok’s algorithm using relevant hashtags like #Latinx #Chicanx #Latine #queerdo #GayLatinoPride #poclgbtq and #queerlatinx to find Latinx LGBTQ+ content creators and relevant videos. Systematic observations were then conducted for two hours three times a day; morning, afternoon, evening, or late night. TikTok videos were selected as data if they featured intersectional experiences (UndocuQueer, ChicanaQueer, etc.), paying particular attention to videos featuring narratives challenging intersectional oppression forms. Inductive and deductive approaches of Thematic Analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2009), were used to organize TikTok videos into overarching themes, while a content analysis (Neuendorf, 2002; Patton, 2002) was used to report on the most prominent and relevant types of counternarratives used to challenge intersectional discrimination.
Results
Inductive and deductive approaches of Thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2009) revealed three themes: (1) Digital Counterspaces, or the way in which TikTok facilitates the creation unique spaces where Latine/x LGBTQ+ students can connect with other Latinx LGBTQ+ individuals to collectively challenge intersectional marginalization; (2) Learning Communities, or the way in which TikTok promotes the creation of learning communities where individuals can engage in formal and informal ways of learning; (3) Counternarratives, or the ways in which narratives featured in TikTok videos actively challenge dehumanizing narratives and offer alternative ways of being.
Significance
The results from this study will have implications for HSRIs to consider better ways to serve Latinx LGBTQ+ students, for intersectionality research to push for critical and interdisciplinary approaches to psychological research, and for institutions of formal education to use knowledge created within marginalized communities to disrupt Eurocentric and heterosexist perspectives in order to transform formal learning spaces.

Author

• Gloriana Lopez-Leon, University of California - Santa Cruz