UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Re-mastering the Master’s Tools: Recognizing and affirming the life experiences and cultural practices of urban youth in critical computational literacy through a video game project A thesis submitted in satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Education by Clifford H. Lee 2012 Copyright by Clifford H. Lee 2012 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Re-mastering the Master’s Tools: Recognizing and affirming the life experiences and cultural practices of urban youth in critical computational literacy through a video game project by Clifford H. Lee Doctor of Philosophy in Education University of California, Los Angeles, 2012 Professor Marjorie Faulstich Orellana, Co-Chair Professor Ernest Morrell, Co-Chair This study examines how a video game project that focuses on students’ lived experiences and cultural practices teach critical literacies and computational thinking. Specifically, this research looked at how the pedagogy, processes, and student products demonstrated culturally relevant pedagogy practices, critical literacy, and computational thinking. This design-based research study utilizes critical literacy, sociocultural learning theory, and culturally relevant pedagogy in the framing, structure, design, and instruction of the class. This study took place in a 10 th grade Computer Science elective course in a Los Angeles public high school. Data were collected with: field notes, audio and video recordings, small group interviews, and student-produced artifacts. Data were analyzed using grounded theory and a multimodal social semiotics approach. Findings suggest that locally based, historicized content relevant to students’ lives and their communities ii resonated with them through critical literacy development. Similarly, culturally relevant pedagogies that fostered and nurtured students’ choice in the selection of personally meaningful topics while producing a multimodal composition to an authentic audience supported development of voice and agency in their work. Findings also showed the affordances of combining critical literacy and computational thinking in producing a critical computational literacy framework. The research showed students’ seamlessly use their computational thinking to design and produce a multimodal serious video game with personally meaningful messages that explicitly pushed against dominant narratives of marginalized populations and their communities. iii The dissertation of Clifford H. Lee is approved. Tyrone Howard K. Wayne Yang Jane Margolis Marjorie Faulstich Orellana, Committee Co-Chair Ernest Morrell, Committee Co-Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2012 iv DEDICATIONS To the loves of my life: Maria Isabel Ramirez & João Tenzin 樂 然 Lee Ramirez Since I first began teaching, I had a feeling there may be a time when I might bury a student, but I never imagined the East Oakland life clock would come calling so soon. This is dedicated to all the youth that died before their natural time. Rest in power to Nancy Nguyen, Marco Antonio Casillas, Jose Rocha, and Luis Garibay. Your spirit continues to drive the work I do. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION ................................................................................... ii DEDICATIONS ............................................................................................................................ v TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................ vi CHAPTER 1 .................................................................................................................................. 1 Statement of the Problem .............................................................................................................................. 1 Explanation of the Study ................................................................................................................................ 4 Rationale for the study ................................................................................................................................... 7 Research Qs ...................................................................................................................................................... 12 CHAPTER 2 ................................................................................................................................ 13 Literature Review .......................................................................................................................................... 13 Literacy ............................................................................................................................................................................ 13 New Literacy Studies ................................................................................................................................................. 16 The New Literacies Studies ..................................................................................................................................... 17 Media Literacy and New Media Literacy Studies ........................................................................................... 18 Digital Storytelling ...................................................................................................................................................... 20 Conceptual Frameworks ............................................................................................................................. 21 Critical Literacy ............................................................................................................................................................ 21 Computational Literacy to Computational Thinking .................................................................................... 24 Culturally Responsive Pedagogy (CRP) ............................................................................................................. 27 Sociocultural Learning Theory .............................................................................................................................. 30 CHAPTER 3 ................................................................................................................................ 33 Research Design ............................................................................................................................................. 33 Background into the site. ......................................................................................................................................... 37 Rationale for Methodology. ..................................................................................................................................... 38 Description of the Sites and Selection Rationale............................................................................................ 39 Selection and Description of the Focal Site. ..................................................................................................... 40 Description of Participants. .................................................................................................................................... 43 Data Collection: Participant Observation ............................................................................................. 44 Focal Students. ............................................................................................................................................................. 46 Privacy and Respect of Participants. ................................................................................................................................... 47 Pre-Project Survey. ..................................................................................................................................................... 48 Student-Produced Artifacts: Student Background handouts. ................................................................... 49 Digital Video and Audio Recordings. ................................................................................................................... 50 Field notes. ..................................................................................................................................................................... 51 Student-Produced Artifacts: Journals, Project Handouts, and Video Game Projects. ..................... 53 Student-Produced Artifacts: Project Handouts. ............................................................................................. 56 Student-Produced Artifacts: Video Game Project and Final Reflections.............................................. 57 Audio-taped “Think Alouds”. .................................................................................................................................. 58 Small Group Interviews. ........................................................................................................................................... 59 Data Analysis ................................................................................................................................................... 59 Phase I: Data Reduction. ........................................................................................................................................... 60 Phase II: Data Reduction & Analysis: Privileging Student Voice. ...........................................................