What immigrant students can teach us about new media literacy

Author(s): Wan Shun Eva Lam

Source: The Phi Delta Kappan, Vol. 94, No. 4 (December 2012/January 2013), pp. 62-65
Published by: Phi Delta Kappa International
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41763739
Accessed: 08-06-2015 19:51 UTC
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R&D

Wan

What

students

immigrant

teach

us

new

about

media

Shun

Eva

Lam

can

literacy

Understanding how immigrantstudents use digital media outside of school could help
develop digitally connected forms of pedagogy in schools.
In recentyears,therehasbeen
interest
in understandincreasing
inghowyoungpeopleareincorporatingdigitalmediaintotheir
livesandthekindsof
everyday
literacy
learningandsocialization
thatoccurwhenusingnewmedia.
Atthesametime,thereis growing
momentum
to improvestudents'
digitallearningand2 lst-century
skillsin diverseeducational
setin
the
United
However,
tings.
littleeducational
States,relatively
researchandinnovation
in new
medialiteracy
has dealtwiththe

culturalpractices
ofyoungpeople Digitally connected learning
whocomefromimmigrant
fami- and culturally responsive
lies.This is despitethefactthat
pedagogy
childrenandthose
foreign-born
Researchhasdemonstrated
bornin theUnitedStatesto imhowinnovative
andproductive
parentsarea largeand
migrant
forms
of
of
the
student
learningcanoccuras
growing
segment
and
meyouthengagein friendshippopulation.
Althoughdigital
interest-driven
with
dia andtheInternet
areseenas
practices
thatprovide
digitalmedia(Ito et al.,2010).
globaltechnologies
use socialmesocialandinformation
Manyadolescents
linkages
dia
tools
to
maintain
andextend
acrossgeographical
we've
space,
and
oftenoverlooked
thefactthat
particular
peerrelationships
socialnetworks
thattheyvaluein
moyouthwhohaveexperienced
theiroffline
lives.Adolescents
are
bilityacrosscountries
maybe
mostinclinedto use newmediato also engagingin interest-driven
suchas onlinegaming,
createsuchsocialandinformation practices,
andfanart,by
music,fanfiction,
linkages.
with
research
and
that
of
others
connecting peersandadults
My
in different
offerevidencethatmanyadolesplaceswhosharetheir
centsofimmigrant
backgrounds passionandmentoreachother
This reL aredeveloping
language,literacy, in onlinecommunities.
andsocialskillsacrossnational searchhasled somescholarsto
bordersas theyuse socialme- advocate"connectedlearning"
tv/
i dia andonlinetoolsto inter- (http://connectedlearning.
to
actwithpeopleandinforwhat-is-connected-learning)
strucmationsourcesin different harnessdifferent
support
turesacrossonlineandoffline
communities
acrosstheir
countries
oforiginand
spacesandto do so acrossinstitutionalboundaries
to promote
settlement.
These transmorerobustandpersonalized
nationaldigitalpractices
The idea is to drawfrom
havethepotentialto serve
learning.
thepowerofdigitalnetworks
to
students
wellin schoolsif
connectmultiplesetsofresources
they'rerecognizedandlevacrossschool,home,andcomeragedto promotenewmedia literacy
fora globalage.
munity.
Indeed,scholarswhoembrace
sociocultural
in
perspectives
WANSHUNEVALAM(evalam@northlearninghaveencouraged
recogis an associateprofessor nizinghowthehome-basedand
western.edu)
ofimintheSchoolofEducation
andSocial community
experiences
students
atNorthwestern
Evan- migrant
Policy
University,
provideunique
culturalknowledge
andlinguistic
ston,III.

62 Kappan December
2012/January
2013

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Comments?
Like
PDKatwww.
I facebook.com/pdkintl
resources.
Studieshaveshown
thatwhenschoollearningconnectsto students'
native
cultures,
andcommue gainsin bothacarement
andachieveirrez,
Morales,&
309).Hence,under: roleofdigitalmedia
Ltstudents'
learning
outsideofschoolmay
conlop digitally
s ofpedagogythatare
lyresponsive.

whentheywereundertheage of
forty|ttadybecauseofmyfamil6 reported
oncommunicating
iarij^^Ma numberoflanguages
linewithpeoplein theircountry ^I^^^H^poken
in thispopuoforigin.Our studentinterviews J^^^^HHkely studying
seven
revealedthattheyusedmultiple
withdigitalmeandcommunity
languagesin theironlineactivi- j
tiesas theyaccessedinformation^
howtheyouth
^Ks,HW
andmanageddiversesetsofintheironline
^^^MM^JH^wrage
terpersonal
relationships
acrog^H ^ng.
boundaries.
articles
geographical
^H|Hl^P^H^Bseveral
foundthatmoststudents
Lam,
newsfrombothU.S. web^H^^|
youthin the
andwebsitesbasedin
oflanI^^^Krity
tivecountries
or otherpanS9H9 H^HH^^^^Hcommunicated
theworld.SuchexposuretflBHH H||^^^^^^Hpips
ofpeoplein
ictices of
ofnewsandinfonHHH^ |PP8BW|^BwM^a. For example,
plurality
tyouth
sourcesseemedto havebrcsHHH
a 16-yearanddiversified
theyouths'MmM
HviintheU.S. for
archwithimmigrant
on current
eventsaHHR
e triedto understand spectives
sues.For example,some
e digitalmediato
described
howreadingnew^p^i^
ersesetsofsocial,
othercountries
expandedtSa^^H
Ldinformation
reandchoiceofinform|HHH
scope
study,
myresearch
somealso describedtheconHHHB
d 262 students
and
reflected
ifiHHH
perspectives
ing
36 students
at an
different
sourcesofnewstnHHH
verseMidwestern
accessedonline.
MM
identities, whereover50 difI've extencflHHj
Subsequently,
spokenby
researchbyconducting
aiuflE9H|
:s(Lam &
nographic
. Focusing
in-depth
ratedto the
derstandiifiow
JL
j
ydHHHjHUk
dhoodto
socialandiformationfl[HHB||^H
oundthata
acrosscosines. I fooaHHHHn
isedtheInChineseiimigrantcqJHHH|H|
withpeoirticularly
intheU.S.
untriesof
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r childhood
s digital
ipeople
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^ ^
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This content downloaded from 152.13.249.96 on Mon, 08 Jun 2015 19:51:49 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

R&D
twoyears,usedinstant
messaging
with
andblogsto communicate
threemainnetworks:
a) a local
network
ofpeersfromschooland
youthgroupsin theChinesecomof
thatuseda combination
munity
MandarinandCantonese,along
and
withEnglish,to interact
shareinformation;
b) an online
ofAsian-American
network
youth
whocommunicated
byusingboth
standard
Englishandhip-hop
EnglishandwithwhomKaiyee
wasacquiringa vernacular
style
withher
ofEnglishto interact
American
peers;andc) a transnationalnetwork
ofherchildhood
andonlinefriends
relatives,
peers,
in China.In thistransnational
network,
KaiyeeandhercontactsusedbothMandarinandthe
Shanghaidialect.The contentof
includeddiscustheirexchanges
sionsoftheirschoolingandwork
ecoandShanghai's
situations
In theseand
nomicdevelopment.
otheronlinepractices,
Kaiyeewas
ties
andmaintaining
developing
communiwithquitedifferent
tiesas sheacquiredanddisplayed
andsocialremultiple
linguistic
sources.
SomeoftheyouthalsonavigatedwebsitesandonlinenetworksacrosstheU.S. andChina
in a domainofinto participate
whichrangedfrom
terest,
Japaneseanimeandmanga(graphic
novels),to digitalartdesignand
forums.
For example,
philosophy
whoemione 1lth-gradestudent
to
the
U.S.
at
age nineacgrated
cessedvariousliteracy
genresof
anime(e.g.,synopses,
reviews,
art,and
discussions,
fan-produced
web
sites
seron
videos) multiple
vicedin theU.S. andChina.Becauseoftheglobalnatureofthe
and
animefandomandindustry
acrossgeoculturaldifferences
regions,theuse ofmulgraphical
tiplelanguagesallowedtheyouth
and
to accessbothan overlapping
of
distinct
information,
range
andmediacontent
perspectives,
exacrosscountries
and,thereby,
pandedthewaysin whichhe parin thispopularculture.
ticipated
whoconOtherresearchers
ductedcasestudieswithimyouthofColombian,
migrant

Indian,Korean,Mexican,and
Trinidadian
heritagehavesimilarlyshowntheiruse ofinstant
onlinejournals,and
messaging,
sites.These
socialnetworking
youthcomposedpersonalprofiles
textsthattarget
andnarrative
audiencesandcontain
different
social
to thestudents'
references
in both
andexperiences
relations
theU.S. andtheirnativecountries
(McGinnis,Goodstein-Stolzenberg,& Saliani,2007;McLean,
2010; Snchez& Salazar,2012;
Y,2009).Throughthesedigital
theyouthcommunipractices,
catedusingmultiple
language
formsandmediawhilenegotiatsocialandcultural
ingvarying
andcommunities.
contexts
Multiple affiliations and
digital cultural capital
These studiesshowthatwe
needa broadenedunderstanding
ofhowimmigrant
youthmaytap
andcultural
intodiverselinguistic
acrossnationalborcommunities
dersforlearning.
Understanding
howtheseyoungpeopleaccess
couldleadus to reconresources
siderhowoureducational
practicescouldenhancetheirlanguage
How
andliteracy
development.
education
couldwe re-envision
thatrecognizestheiraffiliations
and
withdiversecommunities
promotestheirabilityto draw
fromthesocialanddigitalrefor
sourcesin thesecommunities
This questionis
theirlearning?
pertinent
amongyouth
especially
andperspecwhoseexperiences
identificativeincludemultiple
tionsacrosscountries,
although
andperspectheseexperiences
tivesoftengo unacknowledged
educain ourschools.Australian
tionalscholarLo Bianco(2000,
p. 101)notedthat,"Likespoken
in theplural
language,diversity
chilof
practices minority
literacy
drenis oftenrelegatedto themarginsoftheirlives.Yet,theyhave
withinthemthepowerto openup
worldswhichare,
newintellectual
and
at themoment,
linguistically
closedto us."
intellectually
demThe students'
experiences
can
onstrate
thatmultilingualism

be usedproductively
through
human
digitalmediato facilitate
socialties
construct
interactions,
boundaries
acrossgeographical
andseekideasandinformation
fromvarioussources.In many
socialand
cases,thestudents'
haveexnetworks
informational
forthem
tendedopportunities
to developtheirlanguageskills
andenabledthemto participate
comin socialandinterest-based
munities
thatstretch
beyondtheir
In
educational
locality.
physical
thenotionofcultural
research,
capitalhasbeenusedto referto
ofchiltheskillsanddispositions
drenofmiddle-andupper-class
whichhelpsthemgain
families,
in schoolsandother
advantages
institutions
thaprivilege
particularverbalskillsandsocialdispositions(Lareau,2003).However,
youthhavedigital
immigrant
culturalcapitalthatschoolsoften
overlookbutcouldbe well-suited
fora globalsocietyandinformationage.The linguistic
skills,
socialties,informational
sources,
thattheyouth
andperspectives
theirdigitalnetdevelopthrough
workswithdiversegeographical
areformsofcultural
communities
capitalthatcouldhelpthemnaviandfastgatean interdependent
world.Byrecognizing
changing
of
theseresources
andleveraging
in
our
educaimmigrant
youth
we maynotonly
tionalpractices,
buildon theirpriorexperiences
anddigitalskillsbutalso expand
theresourcesforlearningin the
classroomas a whole.
Incorporating digital assets
of immigrantstudents
We obviously
needmoreresearchto helpus betterunderofimstandthedigitalpractices
youth- howmuchthey
migrant
in cross-border
digital
participate
social
and
practices howdifferent
variablesaffect
anddemographic
levelsandtypesofengagement.
We coulddesignwaysto leverage
andmultheirsocialnetworks
reas
intellectual
skills
tilingual
sourcesforapproaching
problems
orvanfrommultiple
perspectives
One
approachmight
tagepoints.

2013
2012/January
64 Kappan December

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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

of
involvea transnational
framing
curriculum
relevant
topics(e.g.,
theglobaleconomy,
immigration,
environmental
health)thatwould
to use theirskillsin
allowstudents
multiple
languagesto learnabout
theseissuesfromvariouslocal,
national,andtransnational
points
ofview.We couldaskstudents
on how
to gatherperspectives
thediverselocal
theseissuesaffect
withwhichthey're
communities
howtheseissuesare
affiliated;
in U.S. media;and
represented
in thenews
howthey'reportrayed
andonlinemediain thestudents'
oforiginandperceived
countries
oftheir
theexperience
through
in
those
counrelatives
or
peers
tries.In so doing,we mayfoster
students'
abilityto moveacross
social
mediaplatforms,
different
andlanguagesin the
networks,
processoflearning.
In a projectfundedbytheMcCormickFoundationofChiwithhigh
cago,I'm working
schoolteachersandcolleagues
at theSchoolofEducationand
SocialPolicyandMediliSchool
atNorthwestern
ofJournalism
to designandstudya
University
that
curriculum
mediaproduction
orientedandfocuses
is civically
The
communities.
on immigrant
is to teach
goalofthecurriculum
andtheir
students
immigrant
multimehighschoolclassmates
civic
foreffective
dia storytelling
The 10-weeksocial
participation.
focuseson how
studiescurriculum
young
immigration
policyaffects
as theprojpeople,particularly
ectoccursduringthepresidential
A majoraselectioncampaign.
undertake
thatstudents
signment
is to createa videodocumentary
thatanalyzesimmigration
policy
theexperiences
andhowitaffects
ofpeoplein theircommunity.
sharetheirpolicy
The students
interviews
withcommuanalyses,
narranitymembers,
in-progress
tives,andthefinaldocumentary
onlinewithpeersto disseminate
on
theirideasandgatherfeedback
oftheirpresentatheeffectiveness
is aligned
tion.The curriculum
on
to stateandnationalstandards
socialstudiesresearchandwriting,civics,languagearts,andnew

mediaandtechnological
literacy.
It also aimsto leveragestudents'
languageskills,digitalnetworks,
in the
resources
andinformation
processoflearning.
For example,sincemoststuof
dentsin theclassarechildren
whospeakanother
immigrants
languagein theirhomes,we ento use theirnacouragestudents
tiveor heritagelanguageto interviewpeoplein theircommunity
We
whoarerecentimmigrants.
to themthatmulcommunicate
skillsarean important
tilingual
assetto reporters,
researchers,
Students
andmediaproducers.
to
alsouse theironlinenetworks
If
interviews.
for
recruit
people
who
theyhavepeersor relatives
livein or havemovedbackto an
stucountry,
immigrant-sending
to
dentscan do onlineinterviews
gathertheirideasandexperiences
aboutthestorythey're
working
researchforthe
on. In conducting
policyissuethey'reinvestigating,
students
gatherandanalyzedocumentsfrompolicythinktanks,
bureaus,anddiverse
government
mediasources.Studentsareexpectedto analyzepolicyargumentsfromvariousmainstream
andnonmainstream
sources,
broadcastandonline
including
and
mediathatserveimmigrant
ethniccommunities.
Byusing
sites,
blogsandsocialnetworking
andcristudents
gatherfeedback
tiquesfrompeerson storiesthat
is
theydevelop.This curriculum
how
we
to
envision
one
just
way
coulddrawfromthedigitalassets
in teaching
students
ofimmigrant
k
andlearning.
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