The theme of “future” was frequent in student’s digital stories. Students wrote both about their aspirations, and the kinds of things they would like to see educators and administrators doing to make school more meaningful for them. As a way to frame our discussion of the students’ digital stories, we use Smyth’s (2006) learner-centred policy constellation.
Smyth’s (2006) work is concerned with the growing numbers of disengaged students who are at risk of dropping out, because they have concluded schooling “is not for them” and posits a major shift in policy to better account for all learners, including those currently marginalised by the system. Smyth (2006) presents his learning constellation as a way forward for re-envisioning education that unshackles itself from the accountability-reform movements of the past. See Fig. 1.
We have used Smyth’s (2006) constellation framework and applied it to this project, demonstrating how educators can implement learner-centred pedagogies with digital storytelling. Using this framework, and the students’ stories, we describe how technologies provide differentiated learning opportunities, so that students could pursue personally relevant topics, which in turn created a meaningful curricular opportunity.
Voice and identity
In the last 20 to 30 years, the construct of “identity” has emerged as a prominent factor that influences patterns of engagement, academic success and failure among marginalised students (Cummins et al., 2015). Accordingly, schools and educators could strive to provide pedagogical opportunities that recognise student’s culture, language and identity (e.g. Kinloch, 2012; Lee, 2007; Morrell, 2008). Despite the substantial literature on the topic, the constructs of identity and engagement have been virtually absent from “mainstream” research literature and policy discussions concerning educational reform and school achievement (Cummins, Hu, Markus, & Montero, 2015).
Cummins et al. (2015) describe how the creation of multimodal narrative texts enabled Aboriginal students in Canada to begin to unravel the colonising processes at play in their lives. While this project was undertaken with white rural youth from the USA, as seen with Karen’s digital story, this project provided the students with an opportunity to reflect on their position within the education system, their futures and the power dynamics at play. In doing so, the findings revealed that students expressed a strong sense of disconnection and disaffection with the current state of their education. In various ways, we seen them railing against inequity and demanding to be involved in decision making about their lives and learning.
This project privileged their voices by providing them with an opportunity to be heard by the teacher and ultimately by the administration. The high completion rate of digital stories by students previously identified as “disengaged” indicates that they valued the opportunity to express their reflections through the creative student-centred medium of digital storytelling.
Ownership of meaningful curriculum
A global educational focus on standards and assessment, literacy and numeracy, has led to a narrowing of school curriculums and has seen an increase in the proportion of teenagers classified as “disengaged”. Cothran and Ennis (2000) report that “the number of disengaged students may exceed two thirds of the high school population” (p. 106). Smyth (2006) states,
the reasons students withdraw from school emotionally, educationally, psychologically, and, eventually, physically are multi-faceted and complex, but in the end they boil down to ‘political’ reasons - that is to say, students refuse to make the emotional and relational investment necessary to become engaged with the social institution of schooling in a manner necessary for the learning to occur (p. 288–289).
Erickson’s work (1987) also suggests that these students are not just disengaged but actually developing and pursuing an oppositional identity, at odds with the identities being proffered by the school. This stance is an active refusal to accept the negative identity assigned by the school, and is formed in protest, due to a disconnection between academic material and student’s lives. That is, students protest by refusing to learn (Erickson, 1987).
Cummins (1986, 2001, 2015) argues that marginalised students will succeed educationally to the extent that the patterns of interaction in school reverse those that prevail in the (dominant) society at large. It therefore follows that unless students are presented with an education that’s relevant and affirming of their current and future identities, these students will refuse to invest the energy and commitment necessary for learning to occur.
If students’ educational success is dependent on the school creating an environment which mitigates the marginalising forces of the dominant society, then creating an empowering education for students is dependent “upon the extent to which educators, both collectively and individually, redefine their roles with respect to minority students and communities” (Cummins, 1986, p. 19).
Educators might reflect on how their students’ identities are negotiated in the classroom and community, and attempt to provide learning experiences that simultaneously affirm students’ beliefs and values, while challenging uncontested stereotypes and narrow world views. Without active discussion centring student identity and local issues of importance, wide segments of the high school student community may continue to disengage, choosing to pursue an oppositional identity, rather than one assigned by teachers and school administrators.
Even though the students described here are white, and in the racial majority of their community, they are disenfranchised as students by the school’s firm and fixed focused on university preparation. The students themselves reveal that high school is viewed as a stepping stone or bridge to higher education (a place they are not going) and thus renders their education “worthless” and irrelevant (Staley, 2017).
Education research has demonstrated that young people engage in their schooling in productive and meaningful ways when they can see the connection between their learning and their lives (Delpit, 2002; Lee, 2007; Mitchie, 2009; Kinloch, 2010). If we want students to view high school as a meaningful, relevant educational site that can positively capitalise on their interests, educators might reflect on how meaning is assigned to activities by re-evaluating the goals and purposes of education for non-university-bound students like Claire and her peers.
There is virtually universal agreement among reading and learning theorists that effective instruction involves activating student’s prior knowledge, and it is widely accepted that a learner’s knowledge of the world provides a basis for understanding, learning and remembering facts and ideas (Echevarria, Vogt, & Short., 2016). Therefore, the more educators can contextualise their teaching programs to create locally distinctive learning for marginalised students, the higher their language and literacy outcomes are likely to be, and the more likely they are to see their schooling as relatable and relevant.
For the students in this study, the relevance of high school and the materials being taught there were popular topics for discussion. Overall, the students agreed that school could be more useful to them, as it was hard to see how high school was applicable to their future aspirations. Hardre, Sullivan, & Crowson., (2009) reported that rural students who could see the “usefulness and value” of school learning, had a greater tendency to “exhibit an interest in school, put forth effort, and exhibit intentions to graduate and go on to postsecondary opportunities” (p. 13). That is, if students perceive school and curricular content as “useful” towards their future career pathways, then they are also much more likely to do the very thing school personnel want from them (e.g. study). The significance of these findings is that perceptions of “usefulness” are malleable in comparison to other facets of the education system (see also Irvin, Meece, Byun, Farmer, & Hutchins., 2011).
The digital storytelling project was not seen as useful per se, but students did appreciate the opportunity to share their opinions and stories and choose the topic for exploration. There were some surprisingly personal stories that talked about meaningful experiences, tight family bonds and hope for the future.
Respectful relationships
Woven into students’ stories was a desire for supportive teacher relationships. Students make clear that they want to like their educators and they want to be liked by them. For example, Sam thought, “the teachers need to have a positive attitude towards teaching the students and not be mean and make students not want to be at school.” Claire felt deeply conflicted when her career plans were not supported by educators and the school guidance counsellors. Ben wanted teachers to ask students “what is it you are wanting to do?” and act on the answers that students provided. Other students simply wanted their educators to be nice, interested and involved in their lives. The digital storytelling project gave Ms. Lane a way into the students’ lives and enabled her to learn much more about her students than she had previously. In many ways, these digital stories became conversation starters for larger discussions about education and life beyond high school. Students were choosing to reveal themselves in various ways.
Student engagement
The interpersonal power relationships between marginalised students and their educators often reinforce the broader societal patterns of exclusion and discrimination (Cummins, 2001). Smyth’s (2006) framework asserts that effective student engagement develops in classrooms with inclusive, compassionate and democratic cultures (and educators). The implementation of the digital storytelling approach aligned with Smyth’s (2006) prescriptions for engagement because it privileged students’ voices and perspectives. The students responded by engaging in critical conversations and completing set tasks on time, behaviours that were reportedly uncharacteristic for this student cohort. These observations are consistent with the findings of Sleeter’s (2011) review of the outcomes of culturally responsive education programs in the USA. Sleeter’s (2011) synthesis reported that literacy approaches that challenge the operation of coercive relations of power in the wider society produce positive outcomes for students from socially marginalised communities.
Engagement not only improves students’ perceptions of schooling and themselves as a learner, but also there is persuasive international evidence that literacy attainment is enhanced when students engage actively in literacy activities, both in school and in out-of-school contexts. Although much of this research has focused on reading, Cummins (2015) broadens the focus from reading engagement to literacy engagement, which seems appropriate given the considerable research documenting how developing writing expertise plays in improving reading comprehension (Graham & Herbert, 2010).
Here we seek to broaden the focus of engagement further from literacy to language and digital literacies through the creation of digital stories. This broader stance recognises there is now sufficient evidence to support the inclusion of oral language as a genuine contributor to reading comprehension, the ultimate goal of reading (Konza, 2014), and further, that much of the text that twenty-first century students communicate in and through involves digital modes of reading and writing (or literacies).
Assessment of digital literacies
The digital stories themselves and the reflections the students produced about the digital storytelling process provided Ms. Lane the opportunity for assessment of the students’ abilities to engage with digital literacies. Students generally reported enjoying the project and displayed some pride in their finished product.
The process of creating digital stories provided students with multiple opportunities to succeed. They first wrote their texts, which were read and collaboratively reviewed and often co-edited for grammar, spelling and content as needed. No tension was noted around editorial comment or suggested changes.Footnote 9
There were multiple chances for students to read their texts for recording onto their digital storyboard. The researcher sat with many of the students as they recorded their stories, and there were certainly students who struggled to decode their own written texts. However, because there was no live audience, students had the chance to practice until they were satisfied with their recorded narrative. Utilising multi-modal literacy skills was a natural by-product of this task, because of the nature of the assignment. What is more, there is procedural knowledge and terminology, including discipline-specific vocabulary that students had to engage with in order to complete their projects.
In the production of their digital stories, students had varied opportunities for edits, and the teacher had many opportunities for input, including extending the student’s thinking and improving literacy practices. Among the tasks completed, students had to storyboard a text against images, often overlaid with selected soundtracks in addition to their narration. This was a complex time-bound technological task which would be valued in many contemporary workspaces.Footnote 10 This is exactly the type of meaningful assignment students reported they would like to see in their classes and gave them a chance to practice the kinds of skills that might be an asset in the future.
Implications for educators
The students in this project did not see high school as relevant. They did not see value in it, it did not affirm their identity and it was not extending their learning. As we have illustrated using Smyth’s (2006) constellation, a digital storytelling project can be an effective approach to engaging students, providing a fertile space to develop teacher-student relationships and invite student input into the design of relevant learning materials and their future education pathways.
The intent of this paper is to encourage educators to expand their pedagogies to include digital storytelling. Digital storytelling demands students use literacy skills inherent in the curriculum, and it taps into the rich potential of story, which provides students a forum for expressing themes and topics close to their hearts. This in turn gives educators an opportunity to get to know their students (and students indicated that they want to be known). The creation, production and sharing of stories can provide a way to link the curriculum, what students think they do in school, with their visions for their future. Digital storytelling thus has the opportunity to be a “living text” (Morrell, 2008, p. 170) and provide what Harwood et al. (2015) call “windows of aspiration.”
There are two salient issues we have identified with this project. The first is that this work would have much better served the students, teacher and school administration if it happened in the first year of high school rather than the last. It was a bit late to identify and meet the needs of students when they only had 4 months of high school remaining.
The second issue is related to technological access and support. To complete this project in the 6-week time frame, there were two relatively tech savvy adults working regularly with a class of 25 students, and both the teacher and researcher were adept at utilising the technologies necessary to create a digital storytelling project. Further, each of the students had school-issued laptops with internet access, so they were able to work independently on their projects both during class time and at home (if necessary). Digital storytelling projects are time intensive and would certainly be harder to manage using shared computing facilities.