Cultural Modeling of Digital Practices in the Household:
Shifting Schemas of Parenting and Proper Technology & Digital Tool Use
Arturo Cortez, José Ramón Lizárraga, Sepehr Vakil, Krista Cortes, Kris Gutiérrez
Background: This poster presents case studies that examine the role of cultural modeling in the mediation of technology and digital media use in everyday practices of families in the home context. We aim to surface ideal and material representations of schemas that inform how family members enact and shape each other’s multiple, layered, and context specific roles and identities. In the cases presented, we highlight how notions of proper technology/digital tool use at home are constructed between parents and children.
Theoretical Framework:
Human beings are produced by culture and are producers of culture. In addition, learning is a deeply social process involving the appropriation of cultural tools. Humans organize life for new generations to rediscover and appropriate mediating artifacts. Culture is the “social inheritance” (Cole, 1998, p. 291) of humankind, the accumulated experiences of previous generations embodied in both material and ideal artifacts (Cole, 1996); as such, schemas are represented as mental structures when they are ideal and as practices when they are material. Cultural scripts develop over time as people participate in the everyday practices of the their community. Our focus is to center culture in these explorations of context and ensemble interactions (Cole, 1996; Gutiérrez & Rogoff, 2003), in order to identify how cultural repertoires of practice enacted within the family context mediate notions of and practices with technology and digital media use in the home.
Theoretical Framework:
Human beings are produced by culture and are producers of culture. In addition, learning is a deeply social process involving the appropriation of cultural tools. Humans organize life for new generations to rediscover and appropriate mediating artifacts. Culture is the “social inheritance” (Cole, 1998, p. 291) of humankind, the accumulated experiences of previous generations embodied in both material and ideal artifacts (Cole, 1996); as such, schemas are represented as mental structures when they are ideal and as practices when they are material. Cultural scripts develop over time as people participate in the everyday practices of the their community. Our focus is to center culture in these explorations of context and ensemble interactions (Cole, 1996; Gutiérrez & Rogoff, 2003), in order to identify how cultural repertoires of practice enacted within the family context mediate notions of and practices with technology and digital media use in the home.
Methods:
Our analysis stems from a larger multi-sited ethnography (Marcus, 1995) that included home video recordings, interviews with participating family members, and surveys about family members’ perceptions of issues related to health, education, energy, and social media. The data supporting this particular analysis stems from case studies of three families within the larger set of fourteen families.
Findings:
•Parents’ cultural models are used to guide and inform children’s practices and ideas related to technology use
•Parents modeled technology use through embodied practices that were driven toward joint-family activities (e.g., using Pinterest for recipes for family dinner, watching TV). In one family, the mother initiated a conversation around a recipe found on Pinterest and jointly modified it with the family.
•Digital media activities that were perceived as encouraging family time, or that allowed families to learn together around a set of tools (labeled joint media engagement by Takeuchi & Stevens, 2011), were often privileged over solitary types of technology use.
•On occasion, parents’ and children’s cultural models were seen to be in conflict over digital media and technology use. In one family, parents negotiated with their child over his desire to have a cell phone; he had seen many of his peers having a cell phone at school and parents did not believe young children should have one.
Our analysis stems from a larger multi-sited ethnography (Marcus, 1995) that included home video recordings, interviews with participating family members, and surveys about family members’ perceptions of issues related to health, education, energy, and social media. The data supporting this particular analysis stems from case studies of three families within the larger set of fourteen families.
Findings:
•Parents’ cultural models are used to guide and inform children’s practices and ideas related to technology use
•Parents modeled technology use through embodied practices that were driven toward joint-family activities (e.g., using Pinterest for recipes for family dinner, watching TV). In one family, the mother initiated a conversation around a recipe found on Pinterest and jointly modified it with the family.
•Digital media activities that were perceived as encouraging family time, or that allowed families to learn together around a set of tools (labeled joint media engagement by Takeuchi & Stevens, 2011), were often privileged over solitary types of technology use.
•On occasion, parents’ and children’s cultural models were seen to be in conflict over digital media and technology use. In one family, parents negotiated with their child over his desire to have a cell phone; he had seen many of his peers having a cell phone at school and parents did not believe young children should have one.
Significance:
•Our study extends multi-sited ethnographic orientations (Vossoughi & Gutiérrez, 2014) that call for in-depth exploration of the learning that occurs for youth across contexts.
•Technology and digital media use is frequently actualized as an individual activity within schools. Our study has implications for how school learning can leverage the practices around joint engagement that children are learning at home.
•The social inheritance that children engage with can be both material and ideal; this study reveals that both forms of cultural modeling can shed light on how children become accustomed to technology use
Emergent Questions:
•What other cultural models do parents enact to teach children how to use technology and digital media at home?
•How can parental negotiations and practices around appropriate use of technology at home be leveraged for classroom learning?
•How do children’s conceptions of technology use learned at school mediate technology use at home?
References:
Cole, M. (1996). Putting culture in the middle. In Cultural psychology: A once and future discipline
(pp.116145). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Cole, M. (1998). Cultural psychology: A once and future discipline. Cambridge: Harvard University
Press
Gutiérrez, K. D., & Rogoff, B. (2003). Cultural ways of learning: Individual traits or repertoires of
practice. Educational Researcher,32(5), 1925.
Marcus, G. E. (1995). Ethnography in/of the world system: The emergence of multi-sited
ethnography. Annual Review of Anthropology, 24, 95–117.
Takeuchi, L., & Stevens, R. (2011). The new coviewing: Designing for learning through joint media
engagement. New York, NY: The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop.
Vossoughi, S. & Gutiérrez, K. (2014). Toward a multi-sited ethnographic sensibility. In
J.Vadeboncoeur (Ed.), Learning in and across contexts: Reimagining education NSEE Yearbook
Volume 113 (2). New York:Teachers College.
•Our study extends multi-sited ethnographic orientations (Vossoughi & Gutiérrez, 2014) that call for in-depth exploration of the learning that occurs for youth across contexts.
•Technology and digital media use is frequently actualized as an individual activity within schools. Our study has implications for how school learning can leverage the practices around joint engagement that children are learning at home.
•The social inheritance that children engage with can be both material and ideal; this study reveals that both forms of cultural modeling can shed light on how children become accustomed to technology use
Emergent Questions:
•What other cultural models do parents enact to teach children how to use technology and digital media at home?
•How can parental negotiations and practices around appropriate use of technology at home be leveraged for classroom learning?
•How do children’s conceptions of technology use learned at school mediate technology use at home?
References:
Cole, M. (1996). Putting culture in the middle. In Cultural psychology: A once and future discipline
(pp.116145). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Cole, M. (1998). Cultural psychology: A once and future discipline. Cambridge: Harvard University
Press
Gutiérrez, K. D., & Rogoff, B. (2003). Cultural ways of learning: Individual traits or repertoires of
practice. Educational Researcher,32(5), 1925.
Marcus, G. E. (1995). Ethnography in/of the world system: The emergence of multi-sited
ethnography. Annual Review of Anthropology, 24, 95–117.
Takeuchi, L., & Stevens, R. (2011). The new coviewing: Designing for learning through joint media
engagement. New York, NY: The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop.
Vossoughi, S. & Gutiérrez, K. (2014). Toward a multi-sited ethnographic sensibility. In
J.Vadeboncoeur (Ed.), Learning in and across contexts: Reimagining education NSEE Yearbook
Volume 113 (2). New York:Teachers College.