Outside Curriculum of Social Media in Life and School of Chinese Urban Youth

• In Event: Outside Curriculum—Necessary for Public Education: Dreaming Possibilities, Starting With China

Abstract

Presenter 4’s purpose will be to understand outside curricula via social media experiences of Chinese youth. Born and raised in in China, earned her doctorate in the US, and is a faculty member in China. A native of Wuhan, she has grown up using extensive social media and she explores how media technologies such as the Internet to empower contemporary Chinese urban youth. Using Douglas Kellner’s (1995) multiperspectival cultural studies, specifically cultural studies, critical theory, and critical media literacy, as both the theoretical and methodological framework, she explores the cultural identities of contemporary urban Chinese youth through closely reading the artifacts of Chinese Internet subcultures and indigenous and global influences on contemporary Chinese urban youth.

Drawing upon the works of cultural studies theorists (Kellner,1995; Kahn & Kellner, 2004a, 2004b; Gramsci, 1971; Hall, 1977, 1980, 1992, 1993, 2007; Hebdige, 1979, McRobbie, 1991,1999, 2000, 2009; Jenkins, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2013, Dimitriadis, 2009, Kincheloe, 2001; Steinberg, 2006, 2011; Kincheloe & Steinberg, 1997), she retraces the ideas of critical theory (Marcuse, 1964; Kellner, 1989, 2003a; Kincheloe & Mclaren, 1998; Kincheloe, 2008) and critical media literacy (Kellner, 1995; Kellner & Share, 2005, 2007) with a particular focus on three general themes--resistance, power relations, and consumerism. The power of multiperspectival cultural studies lies in its potentials to provide insights into the historical backgrounds of the production and dual meanings of the artifacts and its effects on readers and other artifacts, which provides a panoramic view of contemporary Chinese urban youth culture and creates new ways to explore its complexity from multiple perspectives (Sun, 2014).

The presenter provides insight on the substance of social media, how adeptness with it is learned, and the influence of it on identities and relationships. Her observations of and interactions with youths who use social media will contribute to the discussion of outside curriculum insofar as she will have insights about how children learn to be sophisticated participants in social media without the kind of instruction and tutelage schools, before and after-school classes, or private tutoring offer. In a sense, too, her work will elicit discussion about the similarities of pre-school learnings of children regarding how to walk, talk, and socialize, since it could be contended that similar learning by trial and error, imitation, and informal communication are evident in progressing to different levels of adeptness in social media experiences. The presenter will consider: Will knowledge of what students have learned from social media put educators in better positions to design school curricula appropriate to their needs and interests? How could understanding outside curricula of students be illuminated by portraying it with categories often used to deal with school curriculum such as Tyler’s (1977) re-emphasis on active social learning and non-school learning; Schwab’s (1970; 1971; 1973) curriculum commonplaces of teachers, learners, subject matter, and milieu; Freire’s (1970; 1998) categories of banking and problem-posing pedagogies; Pinar’s (1975; Pinar & Grumet, 1976) currere, which deals with inquiry into regressive, progressive, analytic, and synthetic dimensions of experience; Paraskeva’s (2011; 2015) itinerant curriculum theory?

Author

• Jing Sun, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China