Getting it together: Relational habitus in the emergence of digital literacies

Abstract

Digital literacies have fast become indispensable for productive engagement, competency, and citizenship in a rapidly changing world. After-school programs represent an important venue where many young people can develop a mastery of digital literacies, encompassing both the creative and responsible use of a broad range of new media. This paper discusses relational habitus (the configuration of self, tools, tasks, and others in a specific activity) in the development of digital literacies among youth in a network of after-school programs called University-Community Links (UC Links). A collaborative effort among university and local community partners throughout California, UC Links provides informal learning activities that enable underserved K-12 youth to develop their digital literacies. After presenting UC Links' approach to informal learning after school, we offer a cognitive ethnography, describing how a distinctive relational habitus configures the links among self, tools, tasks, and others in informal digital activities at one UC Links site in Sacramento, CA. We suggest how this relational habitus informs collaborative activities among university and K-12 students to provide a cognitive platform for an agentive engagement with various new media tools. © 2013 Taylor & Francis.