Refugee-Background Youth Repositioning Their Identities Through Reaction Videos

• In Event: Social Media, Identity, and Student Voice

Abstract

This ethnographic, qualitative case-study empirically explores how six refugee-background youth repositioned their identities through design choices in producing reaction videos—a popular YouTube genre—at school in their settlement context. Thematic analysis identified three ways in which youth took ownership of how they were to be perceived by their classmates and teachers, repositioning their identities in the classroom through: (1) knowledge brokering; (2) self-authoring; and (3) playfully disrupting cohesion. Given the need for accepting greater responsibility in preparing educators for diverse classrooms, the study makes a timely contribution to helping educators, teacher-educators, and education systems better understand how the affordances of digitally composing in YouTube genres such as reaction videos can be used to empower refugee-background youth in school settings.

Authors

• Amir Michalovich, The University of British Columbia

• Maureen Kendrick, The University of British Columbia

• Margaret Mary Early, The University of British Columbia