Digital Literacy Instruction and Youth in the African American Community Digital Kinship: A Corridor to the Digital Society

This is a single subject qualitative study that sought to discover the results of combining two theoretical frameworks: African-Centered Pedagogy and 21st Century Information, Media and Technology Skills in creating a technology program to promote digital literacy among African American young people. The research questions included: (1) How would a technology-enriched Afrocentric program designed for transitional young adults enhance their ability to participate in the digital society? (2) In what ways could such a program improve the perceptions of readiness for the skills required for the 21st Century Digital Literacy Information, Media and Technology? (3) What are the factors that contribute to a perception of empowerment for participants? (4) How does an Afrocentric curriculum-based framework impact learners? (5) This study gathered data over the course of a year. African American youth participated in a varying degree of digital literacy instruction, with the intention of promoting digital citizenship in the youth. (6) Four forms of data were collected: researcher observations, participant reflection postings, participant interviews, and participant artifacts. (7) This study found that the combination of African-Centered Pedagogy and 21st Century IMT Skills did have an impact on the digital literacy of study participants.