Youth as Cultural Guides: Reimagining the Role of Teacher and Examining Learning Opportunities Through Discourse

• In Event: The Pursuit for Responsible Educators Creating Equitable Learning Opportunities: A Cross-Institutional Conversation

Abstract

This case study focused on how underrepresented youth open up opportunities for learning for fellow community members in an after school digital storytelling program. As youth participants collaborated with undergraduate volunteers on-site, they take on the role of the teacher. As the teachers, they are positioned as the more experienced learner who expands the volunteer’s zone of proximal development (Chaiklin, 2003).
In order to investigate the roles and relationships youth and volunteers established while collaborating on common projects, the author conducted a single person case study (Ashley, 2013; Yin, 2006). In preparation for interviews, the author compiled collections of evidence in the form an individual writing portfolio (Lam, 2018). She asked one of the youth participants to lead a task-based interview session (Alonzo & Kim, 2015). As part of the interview protocol, the participants browsed through their graphic design projects in their electronic portfolio (Lam, 2018). Then they selected a project to share with the research team. These sessions were documented with two different cameras. The first camera was positioned across the room from the interview participant and the interviewer to capture the physical environment and proxemics, especially between the interview participant and the interviewer. The second camera was positioned behind the participant and captured the participants’ haptics-interactions with the laptop computer as well as navigation through digital tools and web-based resources.
The interview session was audio recorded, videotaped (Erikson, 2006) The data sources used in this study include: the audio and video records, and the participant’s graphic design project. Then these interview records were prepared for analysis: the audio was transcribed, the video records were event-mapped (Perry-Romeo, 2002), and the digital artifacts were also dissected with text features labeled (Wysocki, 2003) After these data sources were prepared, they were triangulated to yield preliminary findings.
The case study participant, Mark was 11 years and in 5th grade during the interview. He had 3.5 years of experience making graphic design projects with peers in the digital storytelling program. During the interview session Mark took up the role of the cultural guide by disclosing his digital storytelling practices during the interview session. As he took on the role of cultural guide, he selected a project from his portfolio and provided commentary as he displayed each of the slides, verbally elaborating on the hidden meanings of his visual representations. He also exhibited executive functions (Best & Jones, 2009) as he modeled multimodal literacy practices by making revision to his projects online during the session and articulating a revision list throughout the session. Although most educators envisioned an older child or adult in the position of more experienced learner in the classroom, the discourse revealed an alternative configuration, in which the roles are reversed. This study illustrates how youth had the capacity to develop and disseminate expertise. When youth were positioned as cultural guides, they were able to provide windows into their social realities encouraged educators to reimagine the relationships formed between student and teacher.

Author

• Lilly Chung Lew, University of California - Santa Barbara