Activism, Race, and Online Informal Learning

Lineage-based reparations for Black Americans who are the descendants of formerly enslaved people have been an emerging national debate on social justice in the United States. Researchers collected and analyzed secondary source data. Adults have been engaged in online non-formal learning using Twitter Spaces to discuss the emotionally and politically charged topic of national reparations. This ethnographic study emerged from a class assignment where graduate students used weekly discussion boards to grapple with contemporary social issues philosophically and theoretically. The national reparations movement was the topic selected for this article. The students in the course observed and documented discussions occurring in the Twitter Spaces voice capture rooms and connected them to course content. The experiences resulted in transformational learning moments for the Black American and Latino graduate students relative to their views about the merits of reparations for the descendants of U.S. Freedmen.