High-achieving teenage students (HATS) take Advanced Placement (AP) courses to fulfill two goals: boost their grade point average (GPA) and maintain or increase their class rank. To assist in accomplishing these goals, HATS access social media (SM) and technology. Smart devices, laptops, and tablets provide easy access for HATS to build social…

While the impact of authentic research experiences in STEM on student engagement and interest in science has been documented, less is known about the role of peer communities in fostering this interest and engagement. This research explores the idea that a strong peer community can catalyze deep learning and engagement in scientific research among…

This article conceptualizes a framework for understanding the discourse and literacy practices generated by players of the video game, Fortnite. As a teacher educator interested in studying how multiliteracies cultivated in social settings can be leveraged toward academic success, my two objectives for this theoretical article are to examine how…

Unlike communities of practice, previous studies on imagined communities of practice are scarce, yet enlightening. The present research was conducted in an English as a foreign language (EFL) context in order to provide more insight into how language learners perceive their imagined communities (ICs). It was based on Norton's (2000; 2001)…

As society becomes increasingly globalized and networked, online participatory cultures provide youth with experiences to foster dispositions and skills required to engage in virtual spaces. This 5-year longitudinal case study explores the role of affect in the composition practices of an adolescent girl in Scratch, an online programming…

Purpose: With the rapid advancement of generative artificial intelligence (AI), it is important to consider how young people are making sense of these tools in their everyday lives. Drawing on critical postdigital approaches to learning and literacy, this study aims to center the experiences and perspectives of young people who encounter and…

This paper explores young people's narratives about BookTok and volitional reading. The data consist of narrative interviews with eight students (all girls) from two different classes in year 1 and year 2 of a preparatory programme for higher education, that is, students aged 17-18 years old. Using the framework of Wenger's notion of communities…

The preparation of bilingual prospective teachers (BPTs) in mathematics encompasses a challenge because many U.S.-born BPTs had limited opportunities to learn mathematics in their native language, in this case, Spanish. Consequently, BPTs feel ill-prepared to teach mathematics bilingually. This study describes the experiences of seven Latinx BPTs…

This four-article dissertation is about fostering learning relationships online during the COVID-19 pandemic with undergraduate teaching fellows and adolescent learners enrolled in a summer enrichment program (SummerSpark). I, along with six undergraduate students (teaching fellows), created a "relational learning community" (RLC) to…

The aim of this study is to investigate children's out-of-school learning in digital gaming communities. This was achieved by exploring girls' participation in Minecraft communities. Data were generated through interviews, video-recorded play sessions and video-stimulated recall. Multimodal interactional analysis was applied in order to analyze…

This dissertation focuses on the everyday life information practices of teens in the Nerdfighter online fan community known as Nerdfighteria. Nerdfighteria is the community of fans of vloggers John and Hank Green. This study examines aspects of everyday life information seeking (ELIS) by (1) focusing on an understudied demographic, teens between…

In this article, we draw on the experiences of two young adults, Beth and Jamie (pseudonyms), who participated in a connectivist Massive Open Online Course (cMOOC) to explore how adolescents can become active members in a community of learners and the digital literacy practices that support this entry. We argue that Beth and Jamie engaged in…

During the COVID-19 outbreak, the imposition of home restriction or quarantine led to the use of emergency remote teaching for education purposes. Adolescent students faced a challenge while trying to maintain a school experience and receive reliable information about the pandemic. This study presents the results for students' perceptions of…

Multi-User Virtual Environments (MUVEs) have gained more prominence in education of late; however, the question of their theoretically sound implementation remains relatively understudied. The current article addresses this gap through the explanation of how a MUVE platform Second Life was used in an undergraduate course for pre-service teachers.…

In education, "dialogue protocols," or "protocols," are structured guidelines that were developed to promote meaningful and efficient communication and learning. They are "vehicles for building the skills--and culture-- necessary for collaborative work. The authors share protocols that were found to transform practices…