I'm getting more excited about the session I am organizing for AERA. Of course I'm organizing a ton of sessions as Program Chair, but I'm really looking forward to "my" session. Here's the description I sent to panel members:
Schools have largely ignored the profound shift in everyday communication (literacy) practices (multimodal, multi-authored, digital communication practices, participatory culture) that are happening in society (Ito, et al, 2010; Jenkins, 2006, 2010; Kress, 2010, Lankshear & Knobel, 2010); this ignoring has made schools dangerously irrelevant to children and youth who are participating in these practices in unprecedented ways (Gee, 2004, 2010). Researchers outside of education have begun to discuss the ways in which traditional institutions, such as schools, are experiencing a casual collapse (Bruns, 2008) as formerly passive audiences shift toward a participatory convergence culture (Jenkins, 2006). Critical geographers have challenged social scientists to move beyond the social/historical binary to include the spatial in our research and scholarship (Soja, 2010). Rarely do these diverse intellectual and scholarly communities[1] share what they know about learning, participation, and profound social and cultural changes with each other to deepen our shared knowledge – to take up the ideas of what we might call geographic participatory culture in our own practice. The purpose of this session is to bring together some of these diverse scholarly areas to discuss the meaning of these profound social and cultural changes on education research. Specifically, if we as researchers see a role for schooling in contributing to social justice and the public good, then we need to rethink what is happening in schools. Following Shirky (2010), we need to ask: do we want to be a part of the conversation our children and youth are already having?
Schools have largely ignored the profound shift in everyday communication (literacy) practices (multimodal, multi-authored, digital communication practices, participatory culture) that are happening in society (Ito, et al, 2010; Jenkins, 2006, 2010; Kress, 2010, Lankshear & Knobel, 2010); this ignoring has made schools dangerously irrelevant to children and youth who are participating in these practices in unprecedented ways (Gee, 2004, 2010). Researchers outside of education have begun to discuss the ways in which traditional institutions, such as schools, are experiencing a casual collapse (Bruns, 2008) as formerly passive audiences shift toward a participatory convergence culture (Jenkins, 2006). Critical geographers have challenged social scientists to move beyond the social/historical binary to include the spatial in our research and scholarship (Soja, 2010). Rarely do these diverse intellectual and scholarly communities[1] share what they know about learning, participation, and profound social and cultural changes with each other to deepen our shared knowledge – to take up the ideas of what we might call geographic participatory culture in our own practice. The purpose of this session is to bring together some of these diverse scholarly areas to discuss the meaning of these profound social and cultural changes on education research. Specifically, if we as researchers see a role for schooling in contributing to social justice and the public good, then we need to rethink what is happening in schools. Following Shirky (2010), we need to ask: do we want to be a part of the conversation our children and youth are already having?
Researchers, scholars, educators, policy makers, teachers, administrators need to fundamentally rethink, redefine, reshape the purposes of schooling, their understanding of knowledge production/use (produsage) and learning, and pedagogical practices in order to authentically participate in the conversation/learning/literacy that our children and youth are already having (Shirky, 2010). As Mimi Ito suggests, what youth are doing is not “playing” at something that they will grow out of; these are the language, literacy and communication practices now, and we must recognize this or risk continued irrelevance and casual collapse.
I'm liking the "geographic participatory culture" idea but want to do some more thinking about what to call it; this still sounds kind of awkward. Any ideas?