Keywords
Social Media
Discourse
Backchanneling
Popular Culture
TikTok
Discourse
Backchanneling
Popular Culture
TikTok
How to Cite
Wright, W. T. (2021). Reality check: How adolescents use TikTok as a digital backchanneling medium to speak back against institutional discourses of school(ing). Radical Teacher, 119, 61–67. https://doi.org/10.5195/rt.2021.777
Abstract
This article centers on how TikTok’s adolescent users “speak back” to discourses of school(ing) in the US. Through a discussion of four viral, school-related trends that have proliferated on TikTok over the past two years, the author calls attention to the ways school(ing), as a largescale, democratic project and socially constructed phenomenon, is being shaped by young people, for young people on a digital platform that backchannels a largely resistant attitude toward the institutional framing of school(ing) upheld by many adult educators today. The hope is that educators might engage these moments of rupture and feelings of dissonance in considerate ways that do not combat or cheapen the experiences of the young people in classrooms but instead open up opportunities for understanding and dialogue.
References
REFERENCES
Alvermann, D. E. (2012). Is there a place for popular culture in curriculum and classroom instruction? [The point position]. In A. J. Eakle (Ed.), Curriculum and Instruction (Volume 2, pp. 214-220, 227-228). https://doi.org/10.4135/9781452218465.n13
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Brough, M. M., & Shresthova, S. (2012). Fandom meets activism: Rethinking civic and political participation. Transformative Works and Cultures, 10, 1-27. https://doi.org/10.3983/twc.2012.0303
Butler, J. (1990). Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity. Routledge.
Butler, J. (2010). Frames of war: When is life grievable?. Verso Books.
Butler, J. (2013). Contingent foundations: feminism and the question of" postmodernism". In Feminists Theorize the Political (pp. 21-39). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511570940.011
Davies, B., & Bansel, P. (2007). Neoliberalism and education. International journal of qualitative studies in education, 20(3), 247-259. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518390701281751
Döveling, K., Harju, A. A., & Sommer, D. (2018). From Mediatized Emotion to Digital Affect Cultures: New Technologies and Global Flows of Emotion. Social Media + Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305117743141
Fassbender, W. J. (2017). Incorporating students’ digital identities in analog spaces: The educator’s conundrum. In D. Loveless, P. Sullivan, K. Dredger, & J. Burns (Eds.), Deconstructing the education-industrial complex in the digital age (pp. 257–268). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-2101-3.ch015
Foucault, M. (1979). Discipline and punish (A. Sheridan, Trans.). Harper.
Freire, P., & Macedo, D. (2005). Literacy: Reading the word and the world. Routledge.
Gambell, T. J., Sumara, D. J. (1996). Private readings in public: Schooling the literary imagination. Peter Lang. https://doi.org/10.2307/1494903
Gee, J. P. (2015). Discourse, small d, big D. The international encyclopedia of language and social interaction, 1-5. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118611463.wbielsi016
Jenkins, H. (2016). Youth voice, media, and political engagement. In Jenkins, H., Shresthova, S., Gamber-Thompson, L., Kliger-Vilenchik., & Zimmerman, A. (Eds.) By any media necessary: The new youth activism, 1-60. New York University Press.
Lorenz, T. (2019, October 20). High schools to TikTok: We're catching feelings. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/
Newton, C. (2019, August 7). How TikTok could fail. The Verge. Retrieved from https://www.theverge.com
Pham, S. (2019, June 20) The company that owns TikTok now has one billion users and many are outside China. CNN Business. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com
Scott, J. (1988). Deconstructing equality-versus-difference: Or, the uses of poststructuralist theory for feminism. Feminist Studies, 14 (1), 33–50. https://doi.org/10.2307/3177997
Seglem, R., & Haling, L. (2018). “I got confused reading it”: Using backchannels to collaboratively build meaning with texts. Journal of Teaching and Learning with Technology, 7(1), 43-58. https://doi.org/10.14434//jotlt.v7n1.23346
Sellnow, D. D. (2018). The rhetorical power of popular culture: Considering mediated texts (3rd ed.). Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781071800638
Shukaitis, S. (2009). Imaginal machines: Autonomy & self-organization in the revolutions of everyday life. Autonomedia.
St.Pierre, Elizabeth Adams. (2000). Poststructural feminism in education: An overview. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 13(5), 477-515. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518390050156422
Trier, J. (2006). Teaching with media and popular culture. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 49(5), 434-438. https://doi.org/10.1598/jaal.49.5.7
Vygotsky, L. S. (1980). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Harvard University Press.
Alvermann, D. E. (2012). Is there a place for popular culture in curriculum and classroom instruction? [The point position]. In A. J. Eakle (Ed.), Curriculum and Instruction (Volume 2, pp. 214-220, 227-228). https://doi.org/10.4135/9781452218465.n13
Author (2020).
Brough, M. M., & Shresthova, S. (2012). Fandom meets activism: Rethinking civic and political participation. Transformative Works and Cultures, 10, 1-27. https://doi.org/10.3983/twc.2012.0303
Butler, J. (1990). Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity. Routledge.
Butler, J. (2010). Frames of war: When is life grievable?. Verso Books.
Butler, J. (2013). Contingent foundations: feminism and the question of" postmodernism". In Feminists Theorize the Political (pp. 21-39). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511570940.011
Davies, B., & Bansel, P. (2007). Neoliberalism and education. International journal of qualitative studies in education, 20(3), 247-259. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518390701281751
Döveling, K., Harju, A. A., & Sommer, D. (2018). From Mediatized Emotion to Digital Affect Cultures: New Technologies and Global Flows of Emotion. Social Media + Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305117743141
Fassbender, W. J. (2017). Incorporating students’ digital identities in analog spaces: The educator’s conundrum. In D. Loveless, P. Sullivan, K. Dredger, & J. Burns (Eds.), Deconstructing the education-industrial complex in the digital age (pp. 257–268). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-2101-3.ch015
Foucault, M. (1979). Discipline and punish (A. Sheridan, Trans.). Harper.
Freire, P., & Macedo, D. (2005). Literacy: Reading the word and the world. Routledge.
Gambell, T. J., Sumara, D. J. (1996). Private readings in public: Schooling the literary imagination. Peter Lang. https://doi.org/10.2307/1494903
Gee, J. P. (2015). Discourse, small d, big D. The international encyclopedia of language and social interaction, 1-5. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118611463.wbielsi016
Jenkins, H. (2016). Youth voice, media, and political engagement. In Jenkins, H., Shresthova, S., Gamber-Thompson, L., Kliger-Vilenchik., & Zimmerman, A. (Eds.) By any media necessary: The new youth activism, 1-60. New York University Press.
Lorenz, T. (2019, October 20). High schools to TikTok: We're catching feelings. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/
Newton, C. (2019, August 7). How TikTok could fail. The Verge. Retrieved from https://www.theverge.com
Pham, S. (2019, June 20) The company that owns TikTok now has one billion users and many are outside China. CNN Business. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com
Scott, J. (1988). Deconstructing equality-versus-difference: Or, the uses of poststructuralist theory for feminism. Feminist Studies, 14 (1), 33–50. https://doi.org/10.2307/3177997
Seglem, R., & Haling, L. (2018). “I got confused reading it”: Using backchannels to collaboratively build meaning with texts. Journal of Teaching and Learning with Technology, 7(1), 43-58. https://doi.org/10.14434//jotlt.v7n1.23346
Sellnow, D. D. (2018). The rhetorical power of popular culture: Considering mediated texts (3rd ed.). Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781071800638
Shukaitis, S. (2009). Imaginal machines: Autonomy & self-organization in the revolutions of everyday life. Autonomedia.
St.Pierre, Elizabeth Adams. (2000). Poststructural feminism in education: An overview. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 13(5), 477-515. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518390050156422
Trier, J. (2006). Teaching with media and popular culture. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 49(5), 434-438. https://doi.org/10.1598/jaal.49.5.7
Vygotsky, L. S. (1980). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Harvard University Press.