Youths' relationship with culture: Tracing sixth graders' learning through designing culturally centred multimedia projects

Abstract

Although education is framed as a future‐oriented enterprise, we often fail to serve the diverse futurities of youth, particularly in formal learning environments. The cultural norms of formal learning environments are rooted in dominant ways of being and knowing and this shapes how learning environments and learning technologies can be designed. As a result, the futures youth can envision for themselves in these spaces are often static and limited by the dominant culture. As a move toward supporting youths' diverse cultural backgrounds and experiences, we ask how youth develop relationship with culture through creating culturally centred multimedia projects. Guided by a case study approach, we collected thirty‐six remixing multimedia projects from twelve sixth graders, who created these projects for three culturally centred learning activities over a school year. Findings share one case from each learning activity to demonstrate how students represent their relationships with culture through three forms of symbolising. Implications from this work reject the settled expectations of dominant culture in formal learning environments and, instead, invite youths' knowledges and experiences through remixing with multimedia.Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic Formal learning environments are shaped by norms rooted in the dominant culture but are often assumed to be acultural spaces. Multimedia technologies have been leveraged to engage youth with culture in the classroom. Remixing is a sociocultural learning process that allows youth to reimagine their lived experiences. What this paper adds Sixth graders' relationships with culture were mediated by remixing with multimedia resources in a series of culturally centred multimedia projects. Forms of symbolising in students' remixing works reveal diverse relationships with their own culture and other cultures. Culturally centred multimedia projects afford the development of intertwined and reciprocal relationships with one's own culture and other cultures. Implications for practice Formal learning environments and embedded learning activities often operate on static or limited relationships between youth and their diverse range of cultural experiences. Engaging with multimedia projects can develop students' relationships with their own culture and other cultures in a reciprocal way. Supporting the development of diverse relationships with culture is crucial to designing a culturally centred learning environment.