GenAI-Integrated Digital Storytelling with Teachers of Refugee-Background Youth: Toward Transformative Digital Multimodal Composing

• In Event: Reimagining Youth Learning and New Spaces for Digital Action

Abstract

Guided by a sociomaterial and multimodal approach to literacies and an identity investment lens, this empirical qualitative case study examines teachers' perceptions of GenAI-integrated digital storytelling for the education of refugee-background youth, through engaging teachers in their own GenAI-integrated digital storytelling. Our reflexive thematic analysis resulted in four key themes: (1) A reimagined, transformative composing process; (2) constraints in communication, access, privacy, time, and representation; (3) concerns about ownership, skill development, and (re)traumatization; and (4) modelling and scaffolding for authenticity and critical, mindful awareness. This study highlights how educators must model not just GenAI use but a critical stance toward it, helping refugee-background students assert their voices—lest their histories be forgotten and their identities and futures imagined by algorithms.

Authors

• Amir Michalovich, University of Manitoba

• Shawn Porteous, River East Transcona School Division