Going Public: Exploring the Possibilities for Publishing Student Interest-Driven Writing beyond the Classroom

This article presents a case drawn from a yearlong ethnographic inquiry with secondary school youth who engaged in publishing student interest-driven writing for audiences beyond the classroom. Informed by connected learning researchers' illustrations of the potential impact of connecting student self-interest with publishing in the academic sphere (Ito et al., 2013), we look deeply at the work of youth and teachers as they negotiated institutional spaces in a connected learning classroom. Specifically we share a case study of a student who went public with a text critical of her school's approach to Physical Education classes and advocating for change, highlighting the tensions that arose as her text circulated among audiences beyond the classroom. In doing so, we discover instructional implications and possibilities that can help teachers anticipate and create moments of learning that occur when texts are published for audiences beyond the classroom.