Hacker education and transformative agency: an empirical study in hacker communities and in the school case of Conexão Escola-Mundo

Abstract

This paper investigates how particular aspects of hacker education are perceived as drivers of transformative agency in hacker communities and a brazilian school by applying a qualitative study of a broader mixed-method research. The analysis revealed a multidimensional understanding of hacker education, pointing to elements of a transformative activist stance based pedagogy in digitalized societies. Six dimensions emerged: inquietude, action-fun, collective, society-community, sharing and the humanistic-technological dimension. The findings indicate that in both contexts, the co-creative process, in addition to strengthening the sense of community, is what drives participants to act as transformative agents through the artifacts they can create.