The Engaging Library

Building Participatory Culture (Module C)

We live in a society based upon participation. Tech-savvy citizens like to contribute to online platforms to share their ideas, construct arguments and connect with like-minded individuals. It has actually become increasingly common to go online to see what other people think about something (a film, a restaurant, even another person) before committing to it. This might be something which shocks members of older generations, but today’s teenagers have only ever lived in this online world. The Participatory Culture Handbook draws attention to this growing practise and points out the need to rethink education (Delwiche & Henderson, 2013) in order to keep up with these developments.

Consider this: when did you last access a blog or another independent site? Have you recently watched someone on YouTube, whether they were promoting a place, an item, or even their own image? Has there been a television show that you loved and had to read more about once you had finished watching it? If so, then you too are engaging in participatory culture.

This term does not just refer to people who are finding their tribe online or who are trying to become Insta-famous, however. There are many advantages to both civic and political attitudes and behaviours, according to Kahne (2012). We don’t want to disadvantage our own students, so we must find ways to make our learning environments contain the level of participation that is found online outside of the classroom.

Participation With Texts

According to How Harry Potter Shaped Modern Internet Fandom, online fandoms as we know them were birthed due to the three-year wait between Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (). The Harry Potter fandom is still amongst the most active and most vocal, but it is by no means the only one out there.

Teacher-librarians are uniquely placed in a school to promote fandoms and bring that version of participatory culture to the library. Stuck for ideas on where to look? Here are a few places where you might like to start:

• Divergent by Veronica Roth
• Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
• The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
• The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

Of course, you can do more than just tell students about these sites. Here are some ideas that you might like to incorporate.

Participatory Culture in the Library

The article Jenkins on Participatory Culture discusses the numerous advantages behind using participatory culture in the library. It builds:

• 21st century literacy skills
• Social skills
• Research skills
• Abilities to analyse media representations (Jenkins, 2006)

Jenkins goes on to say that teachers “must integrate these new knowledge cultures into our schools, not only through group work but also through long-distance collaborations across different learning communities”. Of course, engaging in experiences such as these can be difficult when teachers must stick closely to the curriculum, but a teacher-librarian has more flexibility here. Why not find a counterpart in another part of town (or another part of the country, or another part of the world) and organise a collaboration across digital platforms? It can be on a topic related to study, or anything else that you think appropriate – as long as it promotes affiliation, expression, collaboration or circulation, the students will take ownership and (hopefully) engage.

Consider how you can help teachers bring participatory culture into their own classrooms. Perhaps some assessment tasks need to become more authentic to stay in line with QCAA’s definition of what makes an assessment valid (Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority, 2018)? In this case, you could suggest assessment task that contribute to participatory culture.

• YouTube videos (or other vlogs)
• Blogs
• Online photo collages

Engage with Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy for more ideas on how you can incorporate participation in your own areas, or how you can support participation in other teachers’ classes.

Image: Dartmouth, n.d.