Crossing Contexts: A Dual-location Study

By Author: Adela
Total Articles: 74
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The first location is a U.S. suburban town in central New Jersey, called Border town (pseudonym). The social context of the school largely reflects the characteristics of the town. First of all, most students live in the nearby town center. There is a deep, longstanding schism in the demographics, dividing the rural and long-time suburbanites and the relatively new middle to upper class residents. There has been a rapid growth and a lack of businesses in the town center, which has made taxes skyrocket over the past few years. Parents in the community increasingly demand more from the high school in the face of rising taxes. There is a strong Chanel Jewelry parent community that uses standardized test scores as a basis to compare neighboring towns. As a result, increasing demands tend to be placed on students in the school.

The second location is a Canadian city on the east coast. Not unlike other small cities, Oceanside's (pseudonym) schools are challenged by a lack of regular funding and a population influx from rural and international communities to the urban center, ...
... putting extra pressure on both the education system and its educators. This school is known for its use of technology in the teaching process and there is a full-time technology teacher on the staff. The zoning area for this school draws from both private and public housing. It has an active parent community, which has successfully implemented many different school programs among its diverse community, including recycling, sports programs, reading programs, and arts education initiatives.

The first participant, Peter, is 14, white, brown haired, and tends to be more independent than his classmates. Peter is a special education student who receives supplementary writing and reading help. Peter's teacher describes Peter's morning routine: "Every morning he approaches me to talk, mostly about Lego Star Wars videogames, Naruto, and Yu-Gi-Oh game cards." According to his teacher, Peter is content to be on his own "with the artifacts that he brings to school: Yu-Gi-Oh cards and Star Wars Lego figures." Peter is the oldest child in his family.

Jennifer (Rowsell, first author) spoke with Peter at length about his love of Naruto and noted the incredible depth of understanding he had about the topic. Jennifer was impressed with his advanced vocabulary and in-depth appreciation of content in the series and found it difficult to reconcile his poor reading scores with Peter's knowledge and understanding of Naruto's storyline and plot.

Although Peter was particularly talkative Chanel Replica Jewelry about Naruto, he tended to be a loner in the class. He was classified as having special needs, although the teacher admitted that his advanced knowledge and vocabulary of specific topics, such as those pertaining to Naruto, calls this designation into question. The one answer the teacher gave when questioned about Peter's situation pertained to challenges taking place at home at the time of the research study. At that point, he showed little motivation or interest in school, but a keen interest and motivation in digital worlds.