Huvudsyftet med studien är att undersöka fem svenskundervisande lärares språk- och talhandlingar avseende pojkars läs- och skriftspråkande. Studiens undersökningsfokus är således riktat mot på vilka sätt pojkars läs- och skriftspråkande uppfattas i lärares språk- och talhandlingar. Ambitionen har även varit att säga något om vilket literacyerfarande pojkar erbjuds inom svenskämnet. Teoretiskt förankras studien i två perspektiv, ett anglosaxiskt forskningsinriktat gällande literacy (Fast 2007) och ett diskursanalytiskt (Winther Jørgensen & Phillips 2000). Studiens ansats är kvalitativ och semistrukturerade intervjuer har genomförts (Kvale & Brinkmann 2009). Empirin har i sin tur analyserats genom ett diskursanalytiskt perspektiv (Winther Jørgensen & Phillips 2000). Utifrån studiens resultat presenteras en konstruktion av svenskämnet samt två konstruktioner som belyser hur pojkar positioneras som läs- och skriftspråkande individer; Konstituering av ämnet, ”Pojkar är pojkar” samt ”Pojkar har inte tid att läsa”.  Intervjustudiens resultat visar att pojkars läs- och skriftspråkande konstitueras som åtskilt från flickors, vilka i sin tur förväntas göra andra literacyerfarenheter. Pojkar uppfattas befinna sig på olika literacyarenor som medskapare av literacies utanför skolan. Att intressera pojkar för literacyaktiviteter inom svenskämnets undervisningspraktik ser de intervjuade lärarna som en pedagogisk utmaning. Till följd av detta tyder studiens resultat på att en stor del av ansvaret för vilka former av literacies och på vilka sätt pojkar blir literacyutövande individer i klassrumspraktiken förläggs till den enskilde skriftspråkande pojken.

Game construction learning approaches have seen increased interest for computational learning and digital literacy in K-12 education, but the paucity of research on game text-based scripting skill development identifies a gap in the literature. This case study investigated text-based scripting skill development and intrinsic motivation with a class of eighth grade students who were engaged in game construction. The study participants were 20 students and their teacher. The case involved the open-ended, project-based game construction class. Data sources included classroom observations, teacher and student interviews, survey responses, and student game scripts. The findings showed that engaging in game construction with peer collaboration and teacher support helped the students develop scripting skills. Game scripting skill development involved the use of language arts and mathematic skills. Challenges in game scripting included student debugging difficulties, as well as technology issues that distracted the students from their work with battery charging problems, Wi-Fi connectivity drops, and broken computers. The students showed moderate intrinsic motivation toward text-based scripting in game construction and appeared to prefer design artwork to scripting. Implications suggest that developing game scripting skills promoted the practice of language arts literacy and mathematics concepts. Game scripting was an engaging self-directed autonomous learning experience. Text-based scripting development is suggested to be a distinct digital literacy.

Digital storytelling as a pedagogical practice has been extensively explored as a means of increasing engagement, developing 21st century skills such as creativity, critical thinking, collaboration and communication, and refining digital literacies in students. However, there is a lack of data on how the use of multimodal digital tools can be used to explore pervasive social issues such as bullying in adolescents. In this study, a group of grade seven students provided their views and self-assessed their levels of empathy and understanding for victims of bullying, bullies and bystanders prior to and after the completion of a digital storytelling project. Using Likert scale data, along with an in-depth content analysis of the stories and presentations the students produced, the study explored whether participation in this digital storytelling project led to a noticeable and measurable impact on their understanding of and empathy for victims of bullying, bullies and bystanders.

This dissertation involves a holistic and interconnected examination of the validity, reliability, and fairness of the Online Research and Comprehension Assessment (ORCA). The ORCA is a large-scale assessment of New Literacies that challenges Grade 7 students to solve research problems (e.g., Does playing video games harm your eyes?) by locating, critically evaluating, and synthesizing online information in order to communicate their results in online genres such as email and wiki. My goal in this study was to understand how ORCA test score data should be used and interpreted, in what context, and for what purposes. A secondary goal was to examine the cognitive and metacognitive processes required to support research writing in online contexts. The study involved three interconnected phases. The first was a systematic, mixed methods literature review of 101 peer-reviewed texts from the last 50 years in order to articulate the construct underlying the ORCA. Finding no construct in the literature that considered the important ways in which the Internet has changed the construct of writing, I opted to conceptualize one of my own. This construct also serves as the theoretical framework for the rest of the dissertation. In the next phase of the study, I again explored the construct underlying the ORCA, but this time via a mixed methods investigation of the response processes—both cognitive and metacognitive—elicited by the ORCA. By observing both expert and novice participants’ response processes, I analyzed the extent to which the tasks and types of responses elicited by the ORCA fit the intended construct. Further, by observing response processes, I was also able to analyze construct underrepresentation and construct-irrelevant variance, which are fundamental to the ORCA’s appraisal. The results suggested that there are complex and sophisticated cognitive and metacognitive processes underlying the ORCA and online research writing more generally, many of which are unique to online contexts. Further, both quantitative and qualitative results suggest significant differences between novice and expert groups. The third phase of this research concludes with an integrated consideration of the ORCA’s validity, reliability, and fairness. Here, I analyzed data collected from the previous two phases; previous validation work done on the ORCA by my colleagues; and new forms of validation evidence collected for this study. I did so in order to build a comprehensive validity argument to demonstrate the ways in which ORCA test scores should be used and interpreted, and the consequences which follow. I used cued retrospective reporting, semi-structured interviews, Venn diagrams, surveys, and writing artefacts to investigate the response processes elicited by the ORCA and to compare and contrast those to the writing practices that participants used in their school, work, and/or personal lives. I also completed an extensive analysis of the sample of observations permitted by the ORCA juxtaposing those with the target domain. Results of this study indicate that the ORCA provides an important form of assessment data regarding 21st century literacies previously neglected on traditional assessments. Limitations of the ORCA such as construct-irrelevant variance and construct underrepresentation are also explored. The results of the study suggest how the ORCA could be re-designed to improve the validity of inferences made.

This research explored Chinese students‟ experiences of acquiring and practising academic literacies as required in their Master‟s programmes. To date, academic literacy studies in common with wider research on higher education students‟ learning have tended to focus on the experiences of undergraduate students, particularly in western universities. The current study addresses this gap in the literature by investigating the learning journeys of students who had gained a first degree in China and were undertaking postgraduate study in the UK. Data were collected from three-phases of semi-structured interview: at the beginning, at the halfway and the end of the teaching component prior to the Master‟s dissertation phrase. Each of the participants was drawn from one of three contrasting Master‟s programmes at the University of Edinburgh (Education, Finance and Investment, and Signal Processing and Communications) and participated in all three phases of interview. All eighteen participants‟ experiences are presented as case studies to bring their voices to the fore and acknowledge the complexity and individuality of their learning journeys. The research shows that five dimensions of transitions are significant and relevant to all the participants – transitions in language, pedagogical culture, subject, level of study, and living and learning abroad. The language barrier is particularly important both in itself as well as through its influence on other transitions, although all five transitions are in various respects interwoven. The extent to which the transitions are challenging differs across participants and programmes. The perspective of transitions does not therefore suffice to capture the richness of the Masters‟ students‟ journeys. Accordingly, the perspective of Masters‟ literacies is introduced as a powerful lens through which to explore the Chinese participants‟ learning experiences and challenges and how these are linked to their confidence in themselves as Master‟s students. Four academic literacy practices are viewed in this study as key components of Masters‟ literacies: autonomy in learning, subject discourses, critical and analytical thinking, and interaction with teachers and students. Finally, the conceptual, methodological and practical implications of these findings are explored.

This study examined the critical digital practices and pedagogies of two professors from two different Canadian provinces – Ontario and British Columbia. Employing a qualitative multi-site case study methodology and a tri-theoretical framework that I refer to as a Critical Intersectional Technological Integration framework (CITI), I investigated the meaning of digital and critical literacy within mandatory educational texts such as provincial curriculum documents and syllabus statements. I engage with how educators mobilized these texts to become critical digital literacy learners, producers, and communicators of knowledge. This study provides a detailed analysis of how two professors understand their pedagogical conceptualizations and enactments of critical digital pedagogies and lessons learned in regard to future pedagogy and practice. Several significant findings emerged from this research study. First, the two professors’ teaching and schooling experiences revealed how intertwined equity and diversity issues were, which influenced their pedagogies and practices as critical digital literacy teacher educators. Second, the critical digital literacy teacher educators modelled expansive definitions of literacy to include the consumption, critique, and creation of digital content. Third, deliberately exploring issues of diversity and equity was a strategy employed by the professors to support teacher candidates to appreciate the complexity of education and arrive at the understanding that schooling, pedagogy, and curriculum are not neutral practices. I argue that this work should not be left solely to teacher educators; rather, teacher preparation programs must play a larger role in preparing and supporting teacher educators with both the technical and pedagogical know-how of meaningfully designing and integrating critical digital practices into their courses.

No description available.

Esse trabalho apresenta investigações sobre um curso de formação docente para professores de Ensino Fundamental da escola pública, levando-se em conta conceitos sobre treinamento e formação continuada. Trata-se de uma pesquisa qualitativa interpretativa de cunho etnográfico, orientada pelas teorias dos letramentos (COPE e KALANTZIS, 2000,2013; LANKSHEAR E KNOBEL, 2008; GEE, 2000), com enfoque nos letramentos críticos (CERVETTI ET Al., 2001; MONTE MÓR, 2010, 2011, 2013; JORDÃO, 2013; MENEZES de SOUZA, 2011). A investigação tomou como base as seguintes perguntas norteadoras: 1. O que um trabalho colaborativo de formação de professores pode revelar sobre o ensino de língua inglesa para uma sociedade digital e globalizada? 2. Que possibilidades podem emergir dentro de um contexto de letramentos que contribuem para um projeto de formação de professores? A investigação de campo foi conduzida através de observações, entrevistas abertas e registros em diários reflexivos orientaram as análises de pesquisa. O plano da pesquisa visou promover um deslocamento de olhares, tanto da professora-formadora/ pesquisadora, quanto do professor-colaborador. Este trabalho colaborativo de formação de professores considerou a co-responsabilidade e agência do professor- colaborador, inserido num mundo globalizado marcado pela efemeridade e velocidade das escolhas colocadas pela conectividade que exige cidadãos cada vez mais participativos, críticos e engajados social e politicamente. Os dados apontam ainda para a relevância de uma formação continuada que considere um repensar da educação reprodutivista e acrítica, a fim de promover uma prática mais contextualizada, informada e crítica. As possibilidades para a formação continuada emergem nos seus contextos de atuação ao experimentar encontros e desencontros de práticas e pensamentos sobre o que se considera ensinar e aprender língua inglesa. / The aim of this study is to present investigations about a teacher education course for Elementary School teachers from public schools, regarding concepts about training and continuous education. It is a qualitative-interpretative research based on ethnographic views, supported by theories of literacies (COPE e KALANTZIS, 2000,2013; LANKSHEAR E KNOBEL, 2008; GEE, 2000), particularly on critical literacies (CERVETTI et Al., 2001; MONTE MÓR, 2010, 2011, 2013; JORDÃO, 2013; MENEZES de SOUZA, 2011). The current research relies on the following guiding questions: I. What may a collaborative work for teacher education reveal about teaching English in a digital and globalized society? II. What possibilities may emerge inside a literacies-based context to contribute with a teacher education project? The field research was conducted through observations, open interviews and registers in reflexive diaries provided the bases of the research analysis. The research plan aimed at promoting a shift in the views of both teacher-educator/ researcher and teacher-collaborator. A teacher education collaborative work considers the co-responsibility and agency of the teacher-collaborator, placed in a globalized world characterized by the ephemerality and the velocity of choices posed by the advent of connectivity. A world that demands more participative, critical and socially and politically engaged citizens. Regarding this discussion, the research data point out to the relevance of continuous education that considers rethinking reproductive and acritical education, in order to promote more contextualized, informed and critical practices. The possibilities for continuous education emerge in practical contexts when experiencing encounters and disencounters of practices and thoughts about what it means to teach and learn the English language.

Submitted by Maike Costa (maiksebas@gmail.com) on 2016-01-14T14:14:59Z No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 2833924 bytes, checksum: dc121736050a486caef3223d0a2697e3 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-01-14T14:14:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 2833924 bytes, checksum: dc121736050a486caef3223d0a2697e3 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-08-31 / Qualitative study with a descriptive and interventionist nature, also classified as an action research developed within the teaching practice. We aimed at developing a literacy project carried out with a group of 24 students from the 9th grade in a public school of Campina Grande. It started from the assumption that the participating students were immature regarding the television media, so we wanted to contribute for the formation of more critical readers, acting with the perspective of the social use of reading and writing. Therefore, we proposed the discussion and the production of two television news programs of different profiles, based on local TV news of greatest interest from the participating students, namely: "JPB", aired by Paraíba TV, an affiliate of Rede Globo; "A Patrulha da Cidade" aired by Borborema TV, SBT affiliate; and "Correio Verdade", aired by Correio TV, Rede Record affiliated. The study was based on authors such as Fischer (2006), Prado (2005), Setton (2011), Tinoco (2008) and Belloni (2012), involving field discussions of media-education and the pedagogy of projects, specifically literacy projects, considering the need of approaching the subject in schools and the range of utilization possibilities that favor the construction of knowledge related to students’ experience inside and outside the school environment. As a result, it is possible to do the following highlights: 1) students involved have shown progress in looking at the television, questioning the content presented by it, understanding the messages conveyed, from a different perspective, questioning the impartiality, the objectives, the target audience and the language used by the programs, paying attention to the interests of each; 2) the teacher is an indispensable professional in the intermediation of the learning process, with the use of media; 3) media-education is a valid choice when one intends to promote learning situations based on the actual use of reading and writing, i.e., with and through the use of literacy projects. The work with media-education is becoming more popular in classrooms, but much remains to be done, if the goal is to make sense of learning beyond the school environment. / Estudo de natureza qualitativa, com caráter descritivo e intervencionista, também classificado como pesquisa-ação que se fez no âmbito da prática docente. Teve por objetivo o desenvolvimento de um projeto de letramento realizado com um grupo de 24 estudantes do 9º ano de uma escola estadual do município de Campina Grande. Partiu do pressuposto de que os alunos participantes eram imaturos frente à mídia televisiva, por isso, pretendia contribuir para a formação de leitores mais críticos, atuando na perspectiva do uso social da leitura e da escrita. Para tanto, propusemos a discussão e a produção de dois telejornais de perfis distintos, baseados em telejornais locais de maior interesse dos alunos participantes, a saber: “JPB”, veiculado pela TV Paraíba, afiliada da Rede Globo; “A Patrulha da Cidade”, veiculado pela TV Borborema, afiliada do SBT; e “Correio Verdade”, veiculado pela TV Correio, afiliada da Rede Record. O estudo se fundamentou em autores como Fischer (2006), Prado (2005), Setton (2011), Tinoco (2008) e Belloni (2012), entre outros, envolvendo discussões do campo da mídia-educação e da pedagogia de projetos, mais especificamente de projetos de letramento, considerando a necessidade de abordagem do tema nas escolas e o leque de possibilidades de aproveitamento que propiciam na construção de conhecimentos relacionados à vivência dos estudantes dentro e fora do espaço escolar. Como resultados, é possível fazer os seguintes destaques: 1) os alunos envolvidos demonstraram progressos no olhar para a televisão, questionando os conteúdos por ela apresentados, entendendo as mensagens veiculadas, sob uma perspectiva diferente, pondo em questão a imparcialidade, os objetivos, o público-alvo e a linguagem utilizada pelos programas, atentando para os interesses de cada um; 2) o professor é um profissional indispensável na intermediação do processo de aprendizagem, a partir do uso de mídias; 3) a mídia-educação é uma escolha válida, quando há pretensão de promover situações de aprendizagem baseadas no uso real da leitura e da escrita, ou seja, com e através de projetos de letramento. O trabalho, a partir da mídia-educação, vem ganhando espaço nas salas de aula, mas ainda há muito a ser feito, se o objetivo for dar sentido a aprendizagens para além do ambiente escolar.

abstract: In the real world outside of schools, contemporary students are routinely reading, writing, communicating, acting, and learning internationally, translingually, and multimodally, thanks to the prevalence of digital online communication; this has taken place across students’ racial, ethnic, and linguistic identities and national affiliations. Today, the global online contexts are considered as one of essential literacy environments, and the globally networked online contexts might become a main stage of future literacy practices. In this sense, this study develops new three theories about literacies studies from the perspective of the New Literacy Studies in an increasingly digitalized and globalized contemporary world. To achieve this, first, I introduced the features of a global online affinity space as a new concept. Second, I developed the theoretical claim of “complexified diversity.” Finally, I developed the theoretical concept of “Border-Crossing Discourses” on the basis of Gee’s (1990/2015) seminal idea of capital “D” Discourses. I expanded the concept of capital “D” Discourses, looking across borders at a variety of languages, nations, and broader cultures under the global view. The concept of Border-Crossing Discourses was established on the basis of the new concepts that I put forth previously of global online affinity spaces and complexified diversity. As an example of possible supplementary empirical studies, I conducted a small piece of discourse analysis. I observed and examined literacy practices in two global online affinity spaces. They are sites devoted to K-pop fanfiction sharing (hereafter, Asianfanfics) and to Japanese anime (hereafter, Crunchyroll). In particular, I explored the aspects of multimodal and translingual practices in these spaces. Both theoretical and empirical future research will contribute to the elaboration of these theories. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Learning, Literacies and Technologies 2018