Many Versions of Masculine An Exploration of Boys’ Identity Formation through Digital Storytelling in an Afterschool Program Glynda A. Hull, Nora L. Kenney, Stacy Marple, & Ali Forsman-Schneider Executive Summary Both scholarly literature and popular media often depict predominantly negative and one-dimensional images of boys, especially African-American boys. Predictions of these boys’ anticipated difficulties in school and adulthood are equally prevalent. This paper reports qualitative research that features case studies of nine urban boys of color, aged nine to eleven, who participated in an afterschool program where they learned to create digital multimedia texts. Drawing on an analysis of the children’s patterns of participation, their multimodal products, and their social and intellectual growth over time, the study revealed that these chil- dren demonstrated many versions of male selves, and that their digital stories narrated these identities in ways that often chal- lenged hegemonic versions of masculinity. These enactments of identity were made possible by the ways that their afterschool social space structured their activities, as well as by the symbolic means and subject matters privileged in that space, principally digital multimodal narratives and popular culture. At a time when afterschool programs are under pressure to become extensions of the school day, this research argues for recognition of and support for the different functions such programs can serve when structured as alternative spaces for learning and identity formation. he past decade has seen an explosion of Lankshear, 2002; Sommers, 2000). Black masculinity scholarly and popular literature on boys has had a significant literature of its own, which tries and masculinity. The bulk of this litera- to characterize and explore the origins of enacting Tture has called attention to the difficulties that sur- Black manhood, as well as to bring into focus the round growing up male, while the remainder has related ways in which African-American boys, by debated and refined those analyses or offered ways to virtue simply of being Black, are at extreme risk of address what are thought to be the special difficulties being poorly served in school (hooks, 2004a, 2004b; that boys face in terms of identity formation (Connell, Ferguson, 2001; Murtadha-Watts, 2000; Noguera, 1995, 1996; Lesko, 2000; Pollack, 1998). Interest in 2003; Reese, 2004). masculinity began in earnest with attempts to theorize This paper also reports research about boys who, the social construction of gender and to question its by most indicators, could not look forward to promis- merely biological base (Whitehead, 2002).1 ing educational or economic futures. Our qualitative Inspired in part by feminist movements, study features nine boys, aged nine to eleven, six of researchers had earlier offered evidence that girls were whom were African American, one East Indian and being short-changed in schooling by low expectations African American, one Mexican American, and anoth- and unequal opportunities (Millard, 1997). Similarly, er Cambodian. This ethnic and racial mix reflected and partly in reaction, researchers from many disci- the demographics of the urban center in which the plines would go on to claim that boys, too, face a boys lived. We came to know these boys through variety of gendered challenges: a feminine bias in their participation in an afterschool program where schooling, curricular mismatches with their predilec- they came to learn to create digital multimodal, multi- tions, poor literacy performance, and in general the media texts—brief movies that included their narrated pressure to adopt “hegemonic” versions of masculinity voice recordings, photographs and images, and back- (Newkirk, 2002; Rowan, Knobel, Bigum, & ground music. Our study of these boys’ participation Hull, Kenney, Marple, & Forsman-Schneider Many Versions of Masculine 1 been written about the possible—usually negative— No one would argue that children should not master effects on children and youth of overexposure to new traditional symbol systems of reading and writing. But technologies and related media (Buckingham, 2000; Postman, 1985, 1992). This literature includes sensible increasingly, many claim that these systems might worries about inappropriate subjects and characters, reduced social contact, and even a dearth of physical best be learned in connection with other modalities— activity. However, relying on sociocultural theories of learning, literacy, and use of symbolic tools (Bakhtin, especially in digital environments—and that the 1981; Vygotsky, 1934/1986; 1978), we recognize that different semiotic systems provide different affordances3 relative importance of modalities is shifting, as images for meaning-making, and that varied historical moments produce different culturally valued means for and icons push words from the page and the screen. communication, knowledge production, and creative expression. Right now, in the West and indeed in many and their digital products benefited from previous parts of the world, those means increasingly privilege scholarship on masculinity and its intersection with digital and non-print media. No one would argue that literacy and schooling (Dutro, 2003; Millard, 1997; children should not master traditional symbol systems Newkirk, 2002; Smith & Wilhelm, 2002; Young & of reading and writing. But increasingly, many claim Brozo, 2001). We were alerted, for example, to what that these systems might best be learned in connection are viewed as boys’ typical preferences in story topics with other modalities—especially in digital environ- in comparison to girls, and our field notes regularly ments—and that the relative importance of modalities is recognized gendered patterns of social interaction. shifting, as images and icons push words from the page “Today was a day when all you can say is ‘boys will be and the screen (Kress, 2003; Mitchell, 1995, 2005). boys,’” noted one of the afterschool tutors. However, Our paper analyzes what children do when they are there were other ways, ones we think are important to asked to compose, not just in words, but with images, describe, in which the boys’ participation and creative sound, and music. work ran counter to expected patterns and perceived Scholars of early literacy have long taken into norms. A primary purpose of this article, then, is to account children’s uses of oral language and drawings delineate those differences: to demonstrate, for exam- as they learn the conventions and social uses of writ- ple, the many versions of a masculine self that were ten language (Dyson, 1989, 1997, 2003; Kress, 1997). enacted by the boys in their digital stories and through Yet relatively few scholars have examined how chil- their social interactions, in contrast to the more one- dren compose and create by means of digital multi- dimensional portraits that occur in some research and modality. This is especially true for children from poor popular literature. To that end our principal case study socioeconomic backgrounds, who are less likely to will introduce a boy named Taj,2 who defined himself have the chance to use such tools at home or in school not in the stereotypical masculine sense of being (Daiute, 1992; Lenhart, Madden, & Hitlin, 2005). The impervious to hurt or physically strong, but as a vul- context for our study was a set of educational community- nerable superhero whose special power was the ability based programs called DUSTY, Digital Underground to fall apart. Storytelling for You(th).4 Operated as a nonprofit A second purpose of this paper is to explore the organization and working in collaboration with a uni- boys’ uses of multimodal tools. We are interested in versity, schools, churches, and other community how digital technologies make it possible to create new organizations, DUSTY’s purpose was to make digital kinds of multimodal texts that combine semiotic sys- multimodal technologies available in urban neighbor- tems—written language, oral language, music, images, hoods where access to them was rare to nonexistent. and video. We have argued that such combinations can Offering afterschool and summer programs, DUSTY result in new types of texts and of meaning-making provided an alternative environment for learning, an encounters (Hull & Nelson, 2005). This potential out-of-school space where activities, participant struc- underscores the importance of giving children (and tures, and literacies could differ from those usually adults) access to these new technical tools and to social characterizing the school day. As Leon, a DUSTY par- practices that offer meaningful uses of them. Much has ticipant featured in this paper, aptly put it, “DUSTY is 2 Afterschool Matters Occasional Paper Series Spring 2006 between school and fun.” A third purpose for our arti- a primary genre for identity construction. To be sure, cle, then, is to characterize this hybrid space and to children’s narratives serve many functions: a form of locate it within the current expanding landscape of play, a means to impress, a way to be social, a vehicle afterschool programs. With considerable pressure on for problem solving. However, more important for us, afterschool programs to serve the academic achieve- and for the DUSTY program, is the function that sto- ment purposes of the school day—principally through ries can serve in helping children and adults fashion a federal policies such as No Child Left Behind (Meier, self, especially a self that