Exploring Collaborative Culture Sharing Dynamics in Immigrant Families through Digital Crafting and Storytelling

Abstract

Families strengthen bonds by collectively constructing social identity through sharing stories, language, and culture. For immigrant families, language and culture barriers disrupt the mechanisms for maintaining intergenerational connection. Immigrant grandparents and grandchildren are particularly at risk of disconnect. In this paper, we investigate existing design guidelines using a tool (StoryTapestry) to explore the storytelling and crafting process of South-Asian immigrant grandparents and grandchildren. In this exploration, pairs used culturally-relevant images to create digital visual artifacts that tell their stories. Grandparent-grandchild pairs from 10 South-Asian immigrant families participated in this exploration of how the digital process fosters positive social connection, culture sharing, and co-construction. A thematic analysis revealed how collaborative digital crafting encourages the crossing of language and culture barriers, knowledge sharing, and creativity. We contribute an understanding of interaction dynamics and socio-technical implications of intergenerational and cross-cultural collaboration by demonstrating (1) that collaborative digital crafting can reverse traditional educator and learner roles to create culture sharing opportunities, (2) that grandparents play a central role in maintaining social interaction, (3) that structure can guide grandparent-grandchild pairs to a shared goal, and (4) that flexibility encourages engagement from children. We synthesize ideas from migration and collaboration research, and we discuss how the culture, language, and generational dynamics in our study extend what is known about each of these spaces. Together, our design implications offer insight into building digital tools that promote engagement, knowledge sharing, and collaboration between immigrant grandparents and grandchildren navigating social disconnect post-migration.