Digital Storytelling for Transformative Global Citizenship Education Hoa Truong-White University of Ottawa Lorna McLean University of Ottawa Abstract This article explores how digital storytelling offers the potential to support transforma- tive global citizenship education (TGCE) through a case study of the Bridges to Unders- tanding program that connected middle and high school students globally using digital storytelling. Drawing on a TGCE framework, this research project probed the curriculum and digital stories using a multimodal critical discourse analysis. The findings of this study showed that digital storytelling, as integrated into the curriculum, enhanced student engagement with non-mainstream perspectives and self-reflection. However, the core elements of discussing controversial issues, analyzing systemic causes/impacts of global problems, and determining collective action responses required critical pedagogical prac- tices beyond those embedded within the digital storytelling curriculum. Keywords: global citizenship education, digital storytelling, curriculum, critical pedagogy Canadian Journal of Education / Revue canadienne de l’éducation 38:2 (2015) ©2015 Canadian Society for the Study of Education/ Société canadienne pour l’étude de l’éducation www.cje-rce.ca Digital Storytelling for Transformative Global Citizenship Education 2 Résumé Cet article explore le potentiel de la narration numérique en tant que soutient à l’éduca- tion transformative de la citoyenneté mondiale (ÉTCM) par moyen d’une étude de cas du programme « Bridges to Understanding » (ponts pour la compréhension), qui a été conçu pour relier mondialement des étudiants aux niveaux intermédiaires et secondaires à travers la narration numérique. Dans le cadre de l’ÉTCM, nous avons employé une ana- lyse critique multimodale du discours afin d’analyser le curriculum et les histoires numé- riques. Nos résultats ont démontré que la narration électronique, tel qu’elle est intégrée au programme, a soutenu l’engagement des perspectives introspectives et non-tradition- nelles. Cependant, les éléments essentiels requises pour aborder des questions controver- sées, l’analyse critique des causes / effets systémiques des problèmes mondiaux, ainsi que l’action collective ont demandé l’apport de pratiques pédagogiques critiques au-delà de celles intégrées au curriculum de la narration numérique. Mots-clés : l’éducation à la citoyenneté mondiale, la narration numérique, le curriculum, les pratiques pédagogiques critiques Canadian Journal of Education / Revue canadienne de l’éducation 38:2 (2015) www.cje-rce.ca Digital Storytelling for Transformative Global Citizenship Education 3 Introduction The educational agenda to prepare students to navigate a rapidly changing, complex, and interconnected world within an increasingly digital landscape has resulted in curricular mandates that integrate both global citizenship education and digital technology in Kin- dergarten to Grade 12 classrooms. Recent studies indicate that youth are using online technologies to engage in citizenship activities such as discussing global problems, plan- ning community service activities, seeking volunteer opportunities, writing blogs about a political issue, and forwarding political videos to their social networks (Cohen, Kahne, Bowyer, Middaugh, & Rogowski, 2012; Sunal, 2008; Van Hamel, 2011). Although a growing body of research points to ways that non-profit organizations and individual schools and teachers are using digital technologies for civics and citizenship learning (Banaji & Buckingham, 2010; Bennet, 2008; Bers, 2008; Merryfield, 2007; Rheingold, 2008), integration of technology and global citizenship is not yet common practice in most schools (VanFossen & Berson, 2008). This research is an exploratory case study of the Bridges to Understanding (Bridg- es) digital storytelling program. By analyzing a long-running program that used digital storytelling to connect middle and high school classes for global citizenship learning, this study probed the extent to which such technology-based initiatives could support a trans- formative approach to global citizenship education. The following research questions framed our project: 1. What is the Bridges digital storytelling curriculum’s conception of global citizenship education? 2. In the Bridges program, to what extent does the process of digital storytelling (from conception to creation to dissemination) support transformative global citizenship education practices? 3. Based on our analysis of the Bridges program, what are the challenges and implica- tions for the application of digital storytelling for transformative global citizenship education? Since 2000 there has been substantial growth in scholarly literature on global citizenship education (Parmenter, 2011). Conceptions of global citizenship education, however, remain varied and contested (Davies, 2006; Davies, Evans, & Reid, 2005; Mar- shall, 2011; Myers, 2010; Pike, 2008; Reimer & McLean, 2009; Shultz, 2007). There is a Canadian Journal of Education / Revue canadienne de l’éducation 38:2 (2015) www.cje-rce.ca Digital Storytelling for Transformative Global Citizenship Education 4 general consensus among these authors that global citizenship education equips learners with the knowledge, skills, and values to navigate and live together in an increasingly interdependent world and to work collectively toward solutions to the planet’s pressing problems such as human rights violations, global poverty, and environmental degradation (Abdi & Shultz, 2008; Davies, 2006; Hicks & Holden, 2007; Marshall, 2011; Schattle, 2008). In their review of the literature, Mundy, Manion, Masemann, and Haggerty (2007) identified six main dispositions common to most definitions of global citizenship edu- cation: (1) a view of human life as shaped by a history of global interdependence; (2) a commitment to the idea of basic human rights and global social justice; (3) a commitment to the value of cultural diversity and intercultural understanding; (4) a belief in the ef- ficacy of individual action; (5) a commitment to child-centred pedagogy; and, (6) envi- ronmental awareness and commitment to ecological sustainability (p. 9). While these six tenets provide a starting point for defining global citizenship education, recent research on classroom practices of global citizenship education point to the need for a more criti- cal framework. An emerging body of literature has raised concerns that global education practices tend to emphasize an awareness of “distant others,” thus reinforcing a “them/us” mental- ity at the expense of linking local and global challenges and engaging students in critical analysis of social justice issues (Andreotti, 2006; Jefferess, 2012; Mundy et al., 2007; Taylor, 2012). As Mundy et al. (2007) noted in their study, the lack of actionable dimen- sions of global problems (beyond fundraising), stemming from a banal treatment of con- troversial issues, was evident in both the formal curricula and classroom practices across Canada. Similarly, a study in the United Kingdom that investigated primary and middle school students’ views of global citizenship reported that student perceptions might, in fact, perpetuate cultural stereotypes unless issues of controversy, identity, and interdepen- dence are critically examined (Niens & Reilly, 2012). In a similar vein, Rapoport’s (2013) study with teachers in the United States observed that teachers’ underlying classroom practices and curricular materials revealed that “[Americans] should cherish our democ- racy and promote it elsewhere so that the rest of the world can follow our example” (p. 418). Finally, Taylor’s (2012) research with pre-service teachers in a social justice course noted that teacher candidates tend to view global problems as belonging to “others” and resist examining their own implication in perpetuating injustices. Canadian Journal of Education / Revue canadienne de l’éducation 38:2 (2015) www.cje-rce.ca Digital Storytelling for Transformative Global Citizenship Education 5 Towards a Framework for Transformative Global Citizenship Education Studies in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom have demonstrated that teachers’ practices reflect a strong blend of transmission and transactional tendencies that highlight knowledge acquisition and inquiry skills, while transformative practices that emphasize understandings of identity, diversity, and skills of social critique and improve- ment are less evident (Banks, 2008; Evans, 2006; Osler, 2011; Rapoport, 2013). Andreotti (2006) criticizes current practices that promote global problems as “third world” pro- blems for which those in the “first world” have the power to create change. Instead, she advocates for critical and reflexive practices that challenge students to critique relations of power (e.g., who is intervening on whose behalf?), analyze the relationship among multiple viewpoints to understand the origins of their assumptions, and consider how we are all implicated in creating and solving global problems. This study is informed by research that argues for critical or transformative global citizenship education to promote vigorous and critical analysis of conflict, social injus- tice, multiple perspectives, and alternative outcomes for teaching complicated global issues (Banks, 2008; Hébert & Abdi, 2013; Richardson & Abbott, 2009; Shultz, 2007). Drawing on critical pedagogy (Freire, 1972; Giroux, 1980, 2003), a social justice orientation to citizenship (Westheimer & Kahne, 2004), and a critical literacies approach to global citizenship (Andreotti, 2006), Johnson and Morris (2010) offer a useful frame- work for critical citizenship education. In particular, Johnson and Morris’s model empha- sizes citizenship knowledge, skills, and values along four dimensions: politics/ideology, social/collective, self/subjective, and praxis/engagement (see Table 1 for a description of the dimensions). For this study, we adapted Johnson and Morris’s (2010) model for global citizenship education by adding Mundy et al.’s (2007) dispositions for global education to produce a working framework for transformative global citizenship education (TGCE) as shown in Table 1. We use the term “transformative” rather than “critical” to highlight the transformative and actionable dimensions of critical pedagogy. Central to transformative pedagogy is Freire’s (1972) concept of praxis. That is, critical analysis and reflection are tied to personal transformation and collective action to challenge the status quo. Canadian Journal of Education / Revue canadienne de l’éducation 38:2 (2015) www.cje-rce.ca Digital Storytelling for Transformative Global Citizenship Education 6 Table 1. Framework for Transformative Global Citizenship Education Sources: Johnson and Morris’ (2010) framework for critical citizenship education (p. 88) and, text in italics, Mundy et al.’s (2007) main dispositions of global education (p. 9). Digital Storytelling in Education Although there is emerging scholarship on the innovative ways teachers are using digital technologies to advance the goals of global citizenship education (Barnatt, Winter, Nor- man, Baker, & Wieczorek, 2014; Gaudelli, 2006; Kirkwood, Shulsky, & Willis, 2014; Lee & Friedman, 2009; Merryfield, 2007), such practices have yet to become mainstream in K–12 classrooms (Evans, 2006; VanFossen & Berson, 2008). Digital storytelling is evolving as a potentially powerful innovation to support the aims of global citizenship education while meeting the demands of a digitally immersed student population. Crea- ting digital narratives offers an opportunity for students to learn through technology (Buc- kingham, 2007) by producing digital media that can be shared both locally and globally. Canadian Journal of Education / Revue canadienne de l’éducation 38:2 (2015) www.cje-rce.ca Digital Storytelling for Transformative Global Citizenship Education 7 Digital storytelling leads participants through a process of sharing lived experiences in a story circle that results in a two- to five-minute digital story blending personal narratives with multimedia content, including voice-overs, digital photos, video clips, music, and computer-generated text (Lambert, 2013). The multimodal affordances of digital storytel- ling can allow students to express lived experiences in poignant and dynamic ways by juxtaposing layers of multimedia content to convey meanings that may not surface within a traditional linear print-based text (Brushwood Rose, 2009). As an educational tool, digital storytelling has been used widely across the cur- riculum (Di Blas & Paolini, 2013; Ohler 2013; Robin, 2008; Sadik, 2008). While digi- tal storytelling has its roots in social justice work (Lambert, 2013) there is a paucity of literature explicitly connecting digital storytelling with classroom practices of global citizenship. Recent studies, however, indicate that digital storytelling can support envi- ronmental education (Kordaki & Agelidou, 2010) and teaching from a human rights and social justice perspective (Gubrium & Scott, 2010)— core tenets of global citizenship education (Mundy et al., 2007). Moreover, research with youth around the world has shown that the process of creating and sharing digital stories facilitates critical reflection, promotes personal transformation, and serves as a tool for political organizing and social activism (Brushwood Rose, 2009; Gubrium & Scott, 2010; Hull & Katz, 2006; Lambert, 2013; Reed & Hill, 2010). For example, studies with youth of “visible minority” report that creating digital stories supports them in critiquing and rewriting dominant narratives about themselves and their communities and connects them with broad social issues of power, privilege, and identity (Alrutz, 2013; Rolón-Dow, 2011; Weber & Mitchell, 2008). This growing body of research suggests that the participatory, artistic, and reflexive pro- cess of digital storytelling has the potential to support teaching from a global perspective. Our study contributes to this growing area of research. The Case Study: Bridges to Understanding Digital Storytelling Program This article is a case study of the Bridges to Understanding digital storytelling program using a document analysis. Founded in 2000, the Seattle-based non-profit organization connected middle and high school students worldwide through online collaboration and Canadian Journal of Education / Revue canadienne de l’éducation 38:2 (2015) www.cje-rce.ca Digital Storytelling for Transformative Global Citizenship Education 8 digital storytelling. The organization recently dissolved, but the program is being adopted by Teachers Without Borders, another non-profit organization, for use in peace educa- tion initiatives (Teachers Without Borders, 2012). As one of a limited number of digital storytelling programs that claim to promote cross-cultural understandings and global citizenship, an in-depth and detailed analysis of this case provides important understan- dings (Creswell, 2013) about digital storytelling for global citizenship. At the time of the study, the Bridges website and Wikispace were active and provided a range of documents for analysis (both sites are now inactive). To investigate the extent to which the process of digital storytelling supports transformative global citizenship education, we analyzed the Climate Change Curricu- lum (Bridges to Understanding [Bridges]. 2007) and two student-created digital stories. Because we were interested in understanding how students interpreted the processes described in the curriculum document, we purposely selected digital stories that reflected themes of environmental awareness. To compare different perspectives on a similar issue, we chose two digital stories from different countries: Garbages (Bridges, 2010a) by students in India, and Your Carbon Footprint (Bridges, 2010b) by students in the United States. The Climate Change Curriculum (Bridges, 2007) was published one year after the release of Al Gore’s documentary An Inconvenient Truth, which is one of the main resources referred to in the curriculum for learning about climate change. The Bridges curriculum followed on the footsteps of Seattle’s launch of their Climate Action Plan (Office of Sustainability and Environment, 2006). Around the same time, Washington State released its Environmental and Sustainability Education Learning Standards (Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, 2009). In alignment with the goals of the state’s Department of Education, the first aim of the Bridges curriculum, as reported in an online newsletter, was to “engage students in timely curricular issues while teaching academic skills” (Tuke, 2007). To gain an understanding of the dimensions of TGCE promoted by the Bridg- es (2007) Climate Change Curriculum, we located the curriculum document within the framework for TGCE (see Table 1). Moving iteratively between the Bridges curriculum and the framework, we recorded all salient references to TGCE and sorted them into the four dimensions of the model: politics (ideology), social (collective), self (subjectivity), and praxis (engagement). We then calculated the percentage of references in each of the four dimensions relative to the total number of references extracted from the Bridges Canadian Journal of Education / Revue canadienne de l’éducation 38:2 (2015) www.cje-rce.ca Digital Storytelling for Transformative Global Citizenship Education 9 curriculum. We further sorted the references to TGCE into subcategories of content and process for each of the four dimensions of the framework (see Figure 1). By calculating the percentage of references for each of the subcategories, we were able to compare the level of “criticality” between the content (e.g., stated objectives and background infor- mation) and the process (e.g., activities and discussion questions intended for students). Our analysis of the Bridges curriculum indicated a lack of attention to the dimension of politics/ideology. When we sorted the data across the four dimensions into subcatego- ries of content and process, the results profiled almost equal priority to each of the four dimensions of the framework, whereas the process references showed greater variance among the four dimensions. Figure 1. Percentage of references to TGCE in the Bridges (2007) Climate Change Cur- riculum across the four dimensions of the TGCE framework. A second component of the study analyzed the Climate Change Curriculum and the two digital stories using a multimodal critical discourse analysis (MCDA) framework drawn from a toolkit developed by Machin and Mayr (2012). Based on this toolkit, we formulated a list of questions to guide our analysis of the curriculum and videos. Sample questions included, “What ideas and values do the text/images connote?” “What terms are included/excluded and what difference does this make?” “What words are used to represent people as acting or passive?” “To what extent are people depicted as having Canadian Journal of Education / Revue canadienne de l’éducation 38:2 (2015) www.cje-rce.ca Digital Storytelling for Transformative Global Citizenship Education 10 agency?” “To what extent are visual representations of agency the same as or different from the linguistic representations?” Central to MCDA is the understanding of how words and images intersect to create meaning and whether those meanings serve to main- tain ideologies and power relations or challenge them. We were particularly interested in knowing whether the videos and the process of digital storytelling, as described in the Bridges curriculum document, perpetuated, or countered the “them” versus “us” view of global citizenship; the degree to which students were invited to engage in critical analysis of global issues within the curriculum; and the extent to which this perspective was ex- pressed in their stories. The student narratives in the digital stories were transcribed and analyzed in relation to the accompanying images in the video. Bridges’ Climate Change Curriculum The Climate Change Curriculum (Bridges, 2007) guides students through a three-phase collaborative, inquiry-based learning experience with a partner class in a different coun- try. Each phase of the project consists of three lesson plans, journal reflection prompts, and activities for shared learning with a partner class through blogs and online discus- sions. The digital storytelling process is embedded into each phase of the curriculum. Students work in groups to research and create a collaborative digital story about a local issue related to climate change that matters to them. An important part of the project was to develop a class action plan and to include the action plan in the video. Figure 2 shows a breakdown of the percentage of content and process references for each of the four dimensions of the TGCE framework. The most striking discrepancy between content and process is found within the dimension of politics (ideology). Canadian Journal of Education / Revue canadienne de l’éducation 38:2 (2015) www.cje-rce.ca