🗓️ Wednesday 21 May 2025  🕚 11:00-12:00

• 🔵Theme: Evaluating the integration of learning spaces and digital technologies to support equitable and effective learning experiences

Exploring the affordances of socio-technical spaces for learners of endangered and minority languages in relation to the principles of critical pedagogy

Leonie Mühlbauer

Recording

Abstract

Socio-technical spaces offer new opportunities for speakers and learners of endangered and minority languages to exchange and co-create knowledge, thereby embedding these languages in a meaningful context, authentic practice and community. At the same time, critical pedagogy, defined by Freire (1970) as a philosophy of education that prioritises learner agency and views education as a political act, provides a valuable framework for endangered language learning. However, its application in informal online spaces remains underexplored.

To address this gap, my research investigates how the affordances of socio-technical spaces align with the principles of critical pedagogy in the context of endangered language learning. Using TikTok and Reddit as case studies, and Low German as an example of an endangered language, I examine whether user engagement with language-related content reflects the principles of critical pedagogy, such as dialogue, critical consciousness and praxis. Employing a netnographic approach, I analyse posts, videos and comment threads to assess how user behaviours intersect with platform affordances.

My findings indicate that while both platforms afford knowledge co-creation and dialogue in theory, their affordances alone do not lead to critical pedagogy occurring organically. Engagement is primarily driven by entertainment or the sharing of information, with limited evidence of users participating in praxis, i.e. informed action following knowledge acquisition (Freire, 1970).

Based on these insights, I argue that socio-technical spaces offer promising affordances, but their mere existence is insufficient to enable transformative learning, particularly for endangered language learning. Building on Freire (1970) and McCarty et al. (2008), I propose that academic research in the field must move beyond observation to informed action if it is to contribute meaningfully to language revitalisation.

The presentation will provide contextual information, present examples from the dataset and outline how user engagement with the platforms’ affordances aligned with, or fell short of, critical pedagogy.

References

Freire, P. 2005. Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 30th Anniversary Edition. New York, The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc

McCarty, T., Skutnabb-Kangas, T. & Magga, O. 2008. Education for Speakers of Endangered Languages. In: SPOLSKY, B. & M. HULT, F. (eds.) The Handbook of Educational Linguistics. Available: https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470694138.ch21