None But Ourselves Can Free Our Minds: Critical Computational Literacy as a Pedagogy of Resistance

Critical computational literacy (CCL) is a new pedagogical and conceptual framework that combines the strengths of critical literacy and computational thinking. Through CCL, young people conceptualize, create, and disseminate digital projects that break silences, expose important truths, and challen...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Equity & excellence in education 2016-10, Vol.49 (4), p.480-492
Main Authors: Lee, Clifford H., Soep, Elisabeth
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
California (Oakland)
Citizen Participation
Computation
Critical Literacy
Educational Technology
Grounded Theory
Interviews
Political Issues
Social Change
Social Justice
Social Problems
Thinking Skills
Urban Youth
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Summary:Critical computational literacy (CCL) is a new pedagogical and conceptual framework that combines the strengths of critical literacy and computational thinking. Through CCL, young people conceptualize, create, and disseminate digital projects that break silences, expose important truths, and challenge unjust systems, all the while building skills such as coding and design. This empirical study of CCL is based at Youth Radio, a nationally recognized multimedia production company in Oakland, California. Using embedded ethnographic methods, we focus on one collaborative project inside Youth Radio's Interactive department, where young people partnered with adult colleagues to produce a web-based interactive map of gentrification in a West Oakland neighborhood. Findings demonstrate a highly sophisticated knowledge production process where youth are simultaneously contending with content, message, audience, aesthetics, design, functionality, execution, and the long-term ramifications or "digital afterlife" of their work. Through learning environments organized around critical computational literacy, young people emerge as critical problem-solvers unified by the technical know-how and the critical consciousness necessary for them to leverage digital tools for social transformation.
ISSN:1066-5684
1547-3457
DOI:10.1080/10665684.2016.1227157