being human today: transcontental border crossing in the times of facebook and youtube
TRANSCRIPT
Kristian Stewart, University of Michigan- Dearborn,
USA ([email protected])
Daniela Gachago, Cape Peninsula University of
Technology, SA ([email protected])
Being Human Today:
Transcontental Border
Crossing in the Times of
Facebook and YouTube
Introduction
University of
Michigan-Dearborn
• Satellite campus of the University of
Michigan
• Located in the Metro Detroit Area
• Largely a commuter campus
• 24% students of color from 108
countries
• 48% first-generation college students
• Cross- cultural writing course; n=25,
IRB approved.
*Merged institution
* Range of campuses across Western Cape
* Faculty of Education and Social Sciences
* Fourth year pre-service teacher
education students
* Professional Studies course
Research Questions
Question 1:
To what extent can technology become a bridge to
understanding ‘Otherness’ on a global scale?
Question 2:
How might student-driven cross-cultural dialogue and
digital storywork reveal our students’ perception of
what it means to be human today?
Methodology, Data Collection,
& Analysis* Qualitative
* Case study format (Stake, 1995)
* Coded and triangulated data (Saldaña, 2013)
* Engagement on Facebook
Written essays (US students)
Online survey (SA students)
Participant observation
The Single Story
SA perspective USA perspective
American interference Poverty
Obesity Corrupt everything
Materialistic, celebrity culture AIDS
Only care about themselves No White People
Sports culture Hunger
Wealthy Genocide, War, Separate
The Tree of Life: Connecting in Class
Theoretical Frame
* DS as a genre, mode, and social pedagogy
for engaging differently positioned learners (Benmayor, 2008; Lambert, 2010; Vasudevan, 2006).
* Border Pedagogy - decenters as it remaps
hegemonic discourses with diverse learners (Giroux,
1988, 1992, 1996).
* Critical Media Literacy (Kellner & Share, 2007)
Student Feedback* “I’m starting to change my single story - the U S of A has
beautiful, wise and compassionate humans - OMW, what truly inspirational stories!”
* “Down to the bone, we are essentially the same.”
* “We all bleed red.”
* “Just being a part of this course has opened my eyes. It has
softened my heart also.”
* “I learned that I am not the only one with challenges. I felt
that I was on top of a hill, alone, left to figure out the world.
I was completely wrong.”
Findings
* The other is the self
* Co-teaching
* The Power of Global Media
* On Being Human
* Overcoming obstacles and rising
* Being vulnerable
* Being connected--both in local and global
contexts. Isolation was a key theme.
Analysis* The other was demystified and is not
longer ‘distant’ (Truong-White & McLean, 2015).
* Sharing stories across continents
connected our students across the lines
of race and language.
* Start of an understanding of ‘shared
responsibility’ (Young, 2011).
* Equity of Access?
* “We are all the same” mentality can be
dangerous (Zembylas, 2013).
Conclusions
*Questions?
Kristi:
http://umdearborn.edu/writ_prog/
Daniela:
Twitter: @dgachago17
http://www.youtube.com/user/cputstories
www.cput.ac.za/blogs/edutech
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*References
Saldaña, J. (2013). The coding manual for qualitative researchers (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
TEDtalksDirector. (2009, July). Chimamanda Adichie: The danger of the single story [Video file].
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