Online Multicultural Learning Through an Affinity for Korean Dramas

• In Event: Blurring the Boundaries Between Formal and Informal Learning Spaces Through Technology

Abstract

Purpose
Although multicultural education has become an established responsibility of schools in order to educate diverse democracies, multicultural learning in out-of-school, online spaces has been understudied. As new technologies have expanded the opportunities for students to interact with diverse cultures through their online activities, this study’s purpose was to investigate the benefits and challenges of the multicultural learning that youth take up in an online space. The study focused on an online discussion forum devoted to Korea-produced media and populated by youth who live outside of Korea.

Theoretical framework
This study was grounded in theories on social networks that have proposed the enhanced learning opportunities available to youth in a networked culture, such as participatory learning (Jenkins, 2006) and connected learning (Ito et al., 2010). The online discussion forum was analyzed as an affinity group, which Gee (2003) defined as “a group that is bonded primarily through shared endeavors, goals, and practices and not shared race, gender, nation, ethnicity, or culture” (p. 212).

Methods
The method involved qualitative content analysis (Cho & Lee, 2014). Eight discussion threads were selected through conceptually driven sequential sampling (Miles et al., 2014). Data collection spanned two months of almost daily visits to the site.

Data sources
The source for data collection was Dramacrazy, a free website on which people post, watch, and discuss Asian dramas. The forum’s users under 18 years old comprised the greatest portion of its audience. Geographic locations of the forum’s participants included but were not limited to the United States, Malaysia, Indonesia, Norway, The Ukraine, Israel, England, Iceland, The Philippines, and Bahrain. Qualitative data totaled over two hundred screen shots and included the writing, visual images, and interactions created within the forum.

Results
As an affinity space, the discussion forum supported an affinity for Korean dramas, but this study found user-generated discussion threads that included inquiries and comments about Korean language, history, and contemporary culture. Through extensive discussions and exchanges, young people from geographically diverse places generated knowledge about Korea as well as their own local cultures. This study found the dramas were a context through which the forum’s members engaged in cultural information seeking and sharing. This learning mediated differences as members converged around their shared affinity for Korean dramas regardless of their nationality, gender, race, ethnicity, and religion. Findings included problematic discourses as well, such as questions and generalizations circulated in discussion threads about Korean traditions and contemporary cultural etiquette.

Significance
The development of new technologies provides more choices and opportunities for youth to engage with diverse places and peoples through online interactions. Online networks mediate differences in positive ways, such as connecting diverse youth in geographically diverse places, but practices within such spaces can also reconstruct differences in problematic ways. This study argues that young people’s multicultural interactions and learning through digital media make online spaces increasingly important sites of research.

Author

• Grace MyHyun Kim, University of California - Berkeley