Abstract The general aim of this research was to explicate what kind of a process ‘doing things differently’ in the context of literacy practices is from the teacher agency perspective. The research was based on development work on literacy practices, which I as a teacher-researcher conducted in a Finnish first grade classroom during one school year. I based the new literacy practices on the concepts of a broad conception of text and the communicative view of language presented in the Finnish national core curriculum 2004. The new practices mirrored the affordances of ‘new literacies’ involving use of technology, diversified texts and collaborative learning. They deviated from the traditional Finnish ones, which are based on the use of text- and workbooks and teacher-directed interaction, and therefore their implementation brought forth a change process. The meaning was not only to challenge the prevailing practices content and mode wise, but also to transform the social structures of the classroom community towards being more pupil-centred. It became evident that my agency involved the change in organising the possibilities for new kinds ways of working. The change also influenced my subjective level of being a teacher. The act of ‘doing things differently’ became a reflective learning process for me involving a struggle against traditional practices. The social structures changed in connection with literacy practices towards increased pupil participation and emancipation. The teacher agency transformed from instructor to guide, offering the pupils opportunities for learning. The findings showed that the change in the literacy practices was based on the choices I as a teacher made during the process, creating in this way a style for it. The style was characterized by relativity and ‘becoming’, as well as by the need for both professional and personal support. The experiences of these kinds of change processes are currently topical in Finland. This is especially because there is a new curriculum coming out in 2016 and the principles and contents in it will emphasize the use of new technologies and their benefits towards practices and collaborative learning in even more extensive scale than the current one. Educators need knowledge of what kind of process the implementation of these principles and contents will be and what kinds of professional learning it involves. / Tiivistelmä Tämän väitöstutkimuksen tarkoituksena oli tarkentaa tekstitaitojen käytänteiden muutosprosessi opettajan toimijuuden näkökulmasta. Tutkimus perustuu kehittämistyölle, jonka minä opettaja-tutkijan roolissa toteutin suomalaisella ensiluokalla lukuvuoden ajan. Tekstitaitojen käytänteiden kehittämistyö perustui Suomen perusopetuksen opetussuunnitelman perusteiden 2004 laajaan tekstikäsitykseen ja yhteisölliseen näkemykseen kielestä. Tältä perustalta luodut käytänteet sisälsivät monilukutaidollisia ulottuvuuksia rakentuessaan erilaisten tekstien ympärille ja sisältäessään teknologian käyttöä ja yhteistoiminnallisia työskentelytapoja. Nämä käytänteet poikkesivat perinteisistä suomalaisista käytännöistä, jotka enimmäkseen perustuvat opettajajohtoiseen työ- ja oppikirjojen käyttöön. Tarkoituksena oli siis sekä muuttaa tekstitaitojen käytänteiden sisältöä ja välineitä, että myös vaikuttaa luokkahuoneyhteisön sosiaalisiin rakenteisiin oppilaskeskeisyyttä lisäämällä. Tutkimusprosessin aikana kävi selväksi, että toimijuuteni oli tärkeä osa työskentelytapojen mahdollisuuksien järjestelyissä, mutta muutos vaikutti myös subjektiiviseen käsitykseeni itsestäni opettajana. Muutostyöstä tuli minulle reflektiivinen oppimisprosessi, jossa pyrin pois perinteisistä käytännöistä. Prosessin aikana luokkayhteisön sosiaaliset rakenteet muuttuivat tekstitaitojen käytänteiden mukana kohti kasvavaa oppilaiden osallisuutta ja emansipatorista vuorovaikutusta. Opettajan toimijuus muuttui ohjaavaksi, tarjoten oppilaille mahdollisuuksia oppimiseensa. Tulokset antavat ymmärtää, että muutos muotoutui prosessin aikana tekemistäni valinnoista, jotka loivat muutokselle omaleimaisen toteutuksen. Tätä omaleimaista toteutusta karakterisoi monitasoisesti suhteellisuus ja ’joksikin tulemisen’ käsite sekä opettajan ammatillisen ja henkilökohtaisen tuen tarve muutostyössä. Kokemukset tekstitaitojen käytänteiden muutosprosessista ovat tällä hetkellä erittäin ajankohtaisia Suomessa, sillä uusi opetussuunnitelma tullessaan voimaan 2016 painottaa monilukutaitoa. Kasvatuksen ja koulutuksen ammattilaiset tarvitsevat tietoa siitä, millainen prosessi uusien käytänteiden toteuttaminen on luokkahuoneyhteisön tasolla ja millaista ammatillista oppimista prosessi opettajalta vaatii.

This study investigates Chinese online users’ adoptions of various languages and other meaning making signs in their online literacy practices in two popular Chinese CMC sites, Weibo (micro-blogging) and bilibili.com (video-sharing). Adopting the theoretical framework of heteroglossia (Bakhtin, 1981), I explore how various meaning making resources are creatively and playfully utilized by Chinese users in their online communication. After two-month data collection, I sampled the non-standard literacy practices (e.g., foreign language transliteration) identified from micro-blogging postings and comments in Weibo, as well as spontaneous (known as “bullet curtain” comments) and traditional text-box comments from featured videos in bilibili.com. The findings resulted in 30,005 non-standard literacy practice types which contain meaning making features from languages (e.g., stylized Chinese Mandarin) and other meaning making signs (e.g., emojis) from both sites. The analysis suggests that Chinese online communication are noticeably hybrid with plurillingual and non-linguistic semiotic resources. These practices reflect the Bakhtinian notion of heteroglossic communication in which people stylize their language use with various meaning making resources. In addition, many practices are also “carnivalesque” (Bakhtin, 1984) which is characterized with creativity and playfulness. The study further deconstructs the notion of multilingualism and extends the discussion of how online communication opens up space for non-conventional and creative literacy practices, which potentially challenge the authoritative policies and voices.

This thesis addresses academic writing using two practice-led disciplines, academic literacies and ethnomethodology. It is first concerned to evaluate the possibilities of cooperation between these cognate endeavours, and concludes that where academic literacies provides a locus and set of topics for academic writing studies, ethnomethodology can contribute a sharpening of focus and of analytic tools. Ethnomethodology provides a reassuring message in that it confirms the value of detailed local studies, in this case of literacy. However, it is also the source of critique for those literacy scholars who have tried to site their studies in dualisms. This is seen as a rejection of situated studies. There is therefore a prominent methodological focus in this thesis. These methodological issues are then discussed in regard to how they translate into agendas and technologies for the study of social literacies. It is shown that ethnographic-type methods are necessary for such studies, even where they do not qualify as ‘full’ ethnographies by traditional standards. This study itself took on a quasi-ethnographic or ethnographic-type approach, using a longitudinal method to track the academic writing practices of eight undergraduate students with the aim of ascertaining the social and collaborative ways in which their work is accorded plausibility. Material from the study is presented in the form of interview analysis, and in a series of ethnographic case studies that use a variety of material, including interviews with students and staff, student essays, and various other materials that were accrued throughout the administrative life of the essays. Various methods for achieving or according plausibility, on the part of both students and staff, are discussed and analysed. Although all protagonists involved in essay writing and marking looked for and dealt in conventions wherever possible, the material presented here demonstrates that participants were generally aware of the limits to the possibilities of phenomena, and that there may be cause to locate, challenge, change, and adapt to the things that can acceptably be said and done in essay writing.

Submitted by Fabio Sobreira Campos da Costa (fabio.sobreira@ufpe.br) on 2016-04-19T13:20:56Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) Luciano França de Lima_DISSERTAÇÃO.pdf: 4237415 bytes, checksum: 8d2b9c611b7bd5c862287647bf7d5231 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-19T13:20:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) Luciano França de Lima_DISSERTAÇÃO.pdf: 4237415 bytes, checksum: 8d2b9c611b7bd5c862287647bf7d5231 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-07-16 / Esta pesquisa tem como tela de fundo uma política pública voltada para a inserção de Tecnologias da Informação e da Comunicação, TIC, na educação formal, a saber, o Programa Aluno Conectado, recentemente implantado em escolas públicas de Pernambuco. Trata-se de uma pesquisa de caráter exploratório, cujo percurso investigativo procurou delinear-se pelos princípios de um estudo qualitativo, tendo sido alicerçado teoricamente por abordagens críticas do letramento trazidas pelos Novos Estudos do Letramento (NLS), revisitados em autores como Street (2012, 2010, 2007, 1984), Heath (1983), Barton (1994), Hamilton (2000a), entre outros. Diante da constatação de usos escassos dos computadores franqueados pelo programa no ambiente escolar, apesar da escola possuir condicionantes técnicos favoráveis e os estudantes declararem fazer usos intensivos daqueles em outros espaços, dedicamo-nos a identificar razões que pudessem estar relacionadas a essa assimetria. Por meio do cotejamento de práticas sociais letradas dentro e fora da esfera escolar e de recortes de falas dos sujeitos engajados, partimos do pressuposto de que um dos fatores que implicaria no pouco aproveitamento que esses equipamentos, resultantes de dispendiosos investimentos públicos, tem tido nas escolas pode estar relacionado também com o modelo de letramento radicado nessas instituições, como já registrado na literatura por autores como Warschauer (2006) e Buzato (2007). Operando a partir desse pressuposto, este estudo se propôs a compreender valores que referenciam o discurso de estudantes do ensino médio, ao se reportarem as próprias práticas letradas apoiadas ou intermediadas por artefatos digitais. Os dados empíricos foram coletados a partir da utilização de um software de monitoramento eletrônico (Spymaster), instalado nos computadores de cinco estudantes e de entrevistas semiestruturadas. O corpus foi tratado em um software para análise qualitativa (NVIVO10), com base em técnicas de Análise de Conteúdo (AC), como descrito por Bardin (2011). Como resultado, verificamos que os informantes se engajam em uma diversidade de eventos e práticas letradas apoiadas ou intermediadas pelos artefatos digitais em diferentes esferas em seu cotidiano, entretanto, ao se reportarem a esses empregam um discurso profundamente arraigado em valores que compreendemos serem oriundos do modelo de letramento dominante no âmbito escolar. Em vista disso, reproduzem uma fala desqualificadora em relação a outros letramentos de outras esferas da vida cotidiana, mas que são pouco vivenciados nas salas de aula, notadamente aqueles apoiados ou intermediados pelas TIC. / This research has as a backdrop a public policy for the integration of Information and Communication Technologies, ICT into formal education, namely the Connected Student Program recently implemented in public schools in Pernambuco. It is an exploratory study, whose investigative route delineates by the principles of a qualitative study, having been theoretically grounded for critical literacy approaches brought by the New Literacy Studies (NLS), revisited in authors like Street (2012 2010, 2007, 1984), Heath (1983) Barton (1994), Hamilton (2000a), among others. Given the fact of limited use of computers franchisees by the program at school, although the school has favorable technical conditions and students declare to intensive uses of those in other areas, we are dedicated to identify reasons that could be related to this asymmetry. Through the read back of literate social practices inside and outside the school sphere and speeches of the subjects engaged clippings, we assume that one of the factors that would involve little use in such equipment as a result of expensive public investments, has had on schools It may also be related to the literacy model rooted in these institutions, as reported in the literature by authors such as Warschauer (2006) and Buzato (2007). Operating from this assumption, this study aimed to understand values that reference the high school students of speech when reporting their own literacy practices supported or carried out through digital artifacts. Empirical data were collected from the use of an electronic monitoring software (Spymaster), installed on the computers of five students and semi-structured interviews. The corpus was treated in software for qualitative analysis (NVIVO10), based on content analysis techniques (AC), as described by Bardin (2011). As a result, we found that the participants engage in a variety of events and literacy practices supported or mediated by digital artifacts in different spheres in their daily lives, however, when reporting these employ a deep-seated discourse on values that we understand be derived from the model dominant literacy in schools. As a result, they reproduce a line disqualifying relative to other literacies of other spheres of everyday life, but are somewhat experienced in classrooms, especially those supported or mediated by ICT.

The aim of the study was to describe the reading and writing activities that takes place in vehicle repair workshops and to elucidate how people experiencing low reading-and-writing ability describe their encounters with text in working life. Reading and writing are considered in the study from an educational-philosophical and special educational perspective. This study of literacy was inspired by ethnographic methods. The empirical material consists of field notes from ten participatory observations in vehicle repair workshops, photographs from the workshops and three interviews. To see patterns in how literacy was used, literacy events were taken as the unit of analysis. The literacy environment, community of practice, reading path and technical surroundings are analytical concepts in the thematic presentation of results. Central literacy practices were characterized primarily by reading, often via computer, for information needed for solving problems. The type of reading was often non-linear, given the multimodal texts and choices in computer environments. In addition, semiotic systems and several languages were interpreted. It is important to understand how information is organised and how to handle the technology. Technology provides support structures e.g. pictorial support and translation programmes. Writing out words, button-pushing and keyboard entry to register and search for information through the use of measurement instruments and in computer-generated text environments, were central. Literacy events were embedded in the work tasks and in ongoing learning, and many literacy practices included items of both reading and writing. Social skills, plus recognizing one’s problems and asking for help, were useful strategies for handling the demands of reading and writing in working life, as were allowing time and creating concentration for the task. Interpreting pictorial matter, using technology, copying text and noting down things to remember were further strategies. Implications of the study are that effective strategies for managing the demands of reading and writing that are required in the working place should begin in school. Significant is the teachers’ approach to handling the students’ frustration when studies are not working out as expected. Caring teachers, positive energy and not giving up make a difference. General education teachers need special educational resources in the upper-secondary school in order to counteract school failure and to enhance students’ learning.

In today’s society it’s important to teach our pupils to identify the messages in the texts they meet. From a critical literacy perspective, no text is neutral and analysing texts is about learning how language is related to power and how it affects us. The purpose of this degree project has therefore been to create, test and evaluate a material that aim to enable pupils´ development of strategies for critical reading and writing as well as providing support for the teacher in working with texts from a critical literacy perspective. The study is based on theoretical views within literacy with a socio-constructivist view on language, where learning takes place in a social context, through communication. This interventional study was conducted in a Swedish school with pupils aged 9–10 years. We observed two lessons where the material was used in teaching, to examine how critical reading and writing activities were carried out in practice. Interviews were also made with the teacher and some of the pupils in the class, to further examine how the material was perceived. Our analysis shows that strategies for reading comprehension such as, questioning, summarizing, predicting, clarifying, making connections and creating mental images was being used before, during and after the reading. When reading strategies were used without explicit instructions the pupils was given the opportunity to make connections to their previous experiences from various literacy practices when needed, in order to build their comprehension of the text. Moreover, the material provided support for the teacher in working with critical reading and writing but did not affect the teacher´s general approach to reading and writing.

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