Shaping Informed Contributors to Participatory Culture: Research-Based Writing Across the Curriculum in an American International School in China

In an era of mass-marketed misinformation, research-based writing across the curriculum (WAC) is needed in secondary education. High school students are able not just to access information easily online but to contribute to what is known as participatory culture: the culture of actively engaging via online platforms. Students can make contributions that are meaningful by learning how to research information in a variety of academic subject areas through the use of critical thinking—the ability to evaluate an issue and form a judgement about it—and then being able to communicate that research. Teaching students how to identify credible sources of information and how to avoid plagiarism, as they apply their research to real-world issues, will prepare them to engage in participatory culture with knowledge and integrity, mitigating the spread of misinformation through online platforms. This report describes a grade-12 interdisciplinary project in which students partook in environmental research through the lens of rhetoric (AP Language and Composition), statistics (AP Statistics), environmental studies (AP Environmental Science), and politics (Accelerated Comparative Government and Politics). The project included an imaginary political scenario, in which students roleplayed as fictional candidates, from various points along the American political spectrum, campaigning on social media and debating, with the goal of being elected Head of the Environmental Protection Agency. This project was undertaken by students at an American international school in Ningbo, China and may be applicable in various ways to courses in Western secondary institutions, especially given that participatory culture is a global phenomenon. The school consists primarily of Chinese students who have an interest in attending Western high schools and/or universities but also includes the children of expatriates from Canada, Brazil, America, Korea, Sudan, and Sweden. The school has an English First policy that requires students to speak English (unless a translation is absolutely needed) and to possess a certain level of English proficiency in order to attend literature and composition courses. Students without the required level of proficiency take an English Language Learner (ELL) course as an elective. The school uses AERO (American Education Reaches Out) standards, also known as Common Core Plus standards, and offers Advanced Placement courses audited through the College Board.