This classroom ethnography documents the developing critical literacy pedagogy of an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) instructor over the course of several terms. My research, which involved extensive collaboration with the EAP instructor, explores how specific classroom practices and discourses are enacted and mediated through dialogic intertextualities, material objects, and social actions that frame representations about language, literacy, and what Lefebvre (1988) called “le quotidien” – the everyday, and how these affect the students’ meaning-making potential in specific ways. It also traces the contours (and detours) of the instructor’s classroom practices after the researcher’s mediation in the form of collaborative inquiries on functional grammar and critical literacy, and the effects of these classroom practices on making meaning in her EAP classes. I consider several issues from an integrated theory and practice perspective. Because of an urgent need to understand the students’ practices and epistemologies as they engage in ever newer forms of multimodal text productions, I contend that EAP classroom practices must be reshaped to facilitate more (inter)active engagements of the multimodal texts that saturate students’ lives, both inside the class and outside. Related to this, I highlight in my classroom data what actually counts as the ‘critical’ or the ‘uncritical’ in this EAP classroom and argue why these distinctions matter. Lastly, I suggest ways in which the role of a critical multiliteracies education in EAP can meet the pragmatic needs of both students and teachers. My research contributes to a much-needed dialogue between critically oriented researchers and practitioners in the field of TESOL/Applied Linguistics by bridging the gap between theory and practice. The lessons learned from this collaborative classroom praxis point to concrete ways to help EAP teachers and students utilize their meaning-making potential. This involves equipping them with an expanded social semiotic tool-kit that can enable them to not only meet their immediate academic needs, but also help create a more active and possibly transformative role in the social constructions of discourse, language, and society. This doctoral dissertation has implications for those who are involved in EAP teaching and research, curriculum planning, teacher training, and student needs assessment.

This classroom ethnography documents the developing critical literacy pedagogy of an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) instructor over the course of several terms. My research, which involved extensive collaboration with the EAP instructor, explores how specific classroom practices and discourses are enacted and mediated through dialogic intertextualities, material objects, and social actions that frame representations about language, literacy, and what Lefebvre (1988) called “le quotidien” – the everyday, and how these affect the students’ meaning-making potential in specific ways. It also traces the contours (and detours) of the instructor’s classroom practices after the researcher’s mediation in the form of collaborative inquiries on functional grammar and critical literacy, and the effects of these classroom practices on making meaning in her EAP classes. I consider several issues from an integrated theory and practice perspective. Because of an urgent need to understand the students’ practices and epistemologies as they engage in ever newer forms of multimodal text productions, I contend that EAP classroom practices must be reshaped to facilitate more (inter)active engagements of the multimodal texts that saturate students’ lives, both inside the class and outside. Related to this, I highlight in my classroom data what actually counts as the ‘critical’ or the ‘uncritical’ in this EAP classroom and argue why these distinctions matter. Lastly, I suggest ways in which the role of a critical multiliteracies education in EAP can meet the pragmatic needs of both students and teachers. My research contributes to a much-needed dialogue between critically oriented researchers and practitioners in the field of TESOL/Applied Linguistics by bridging the gap between theory and practice. The lessons learned from this collaborative classroom praxis point to concrete ways to help EAP teachers and students utilize their meaning-making potential. This involves equipping them with an expanded social semiotic tool-kit that can enable them to not only meet their immediate academic needs, but also help create a more active and possibly transformative role in the social constructions of discourse, language, and society. This doctoral dissertation has implications for those who are involved in EAP teaching and research, curriculum planning, teacher training, and student needs assessment.

Globalization and English-language predominance situate English teachers as increasingly influential mediators of both language and culture. In the iconic multicultural hub of Ontario, Canada, teachers work within a causal nexus of social theories of language, the information and communication technologies revolution, and unprecedented global interdependency. Changes in English curriculum reflect these trends, from references to “global citizenship,” to stress on “intercultural communication,” “cultural sensitivity,” and Information and Communication Technology (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2007). Delegated gatekeepers of both linguistic and critical literacies, and facing new questions about the purposes and priorities of their discipline, Ontario English teachers must negotiate the divide between an inherited curriculum and the impacts of sociocultural transformation on changing literacy needs. To contribute to a professional dialogue about teaching English in a multicultural society and global age, this thesis presents findings from interviews with fifteen Ontario secondary English teachers. The focal question, “How is English changing?” introduces a range of pressing issues, such as: displacing the canon, practicing intercultural communication, balancing a democratic discourse, or “common culture,” with respect for diverse values, and managing opposing views and resistance to English curriculum change. The data reveal how English teachers across levels of experience occupy contrasting positions on the curriculum change debate. In part, this can be explained in terms of epistemological orientations. The participants represent three categories: Adaptation, Applied Research / Collaborative Inquiry, and Activism, each by turn more geared toward reconceptualizing English for social diversity and global consciousness. Beyond these classifications, the teachers reflect dissonant perceptions, sometimes personal ambivalence, on the changing role of text choice, and written and oral dialogue in the English classroom. From passionate defenses of Shakespeare, to radical measures to revamp book lists for cultural relevance, to remarkable illustrations of curriculum linked with global consciousness and civic action, the responses of the English teachers delineate zones of difficulty, change, and possibility. They help, too, to catch sight of a new horizon: the English classroom as a space for “cultural conversation” (Applebee, 1994) where canon- and teacher-centred dialogue give way to intertextual (Bakhtin, 1981; Kristeva, 1980) and intercultural (R. Young, 1996) transactions.

Submitted by isabela.moljf@hotmail.com (isabela.moljf@hotmail.com) on 2017-08-08T11:28:07Z No. of bitstreams: 1 fabianosantosaito.pdf: 2225284 bytes, checksum: e301c7cf28a8e31d10326ef4fa1184dc (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2017-08-08T18:04:15Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 fabianosantosaito.pdf: 2225284 bytes, checksum: e301c7cf28a8e31d10326ef4fa1184dc (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-08-08T18:04:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 fabianosantosaito.pdf: 2225284 bytes, checksum: e301c7cf28a8e31d10326ef4fa1184dc (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-03-18 / FAPEMIG - Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais / O objetivo desta dissertação é investigar as práticas discursivas de três professoras que se relacionaram direta e indiretamente com as Tecnologias da Informação e Comunicação (TICs) no processo de ensino-aprendizagem. Para cumprir com esta proposta, adotamos o modelo de Multiletramentos Digitais, de Selber (2004), que congrega as várias dimensões de Letramento(s) Digital(is) e tenta explicá-los razoavelmente através de três categorias principais: Letramento Digital Funcional; Letramento Digital Crítico e Letramento Digital Retórico. Além disso, para melhor investigar as práticas discursivas das professoras pesquisadas, encontramos suporte na Teoria do Posicionamento, de acordo com a qual nós disponibilizamos lugares discursivos para nós mesmos e para os outros dentro de uma ordem moral que estabelecemos durante uma troca simbólica, construindo pontos de vista específicos através de posicionamentos (cf. HARRÉ e VAN LANGENHOVE, 1999). Metodologicamente, esta pesquisa se estrutura como um estudo de caso etnográfico (ANDRÉ, 1995; YIN, 2001; VIÉGAS, 2007), associado a uma (micro) análise do discurso (GEE et al., 1992; SACKS et al., 1974, 2005; DAVIES e HARRÉ, 1990). O contexto investigado é uma escola pública da rede municipal de ensino de Juiz de Fora-MG, localizada em um bairro periférico da cidade. As participantes são três professoras que se relacionaram direta e indiretamente com as TICs no ensino, a saber: a professora de Informática Educacional, a professora regente de turma (4º ano do Ensino Fundamental) e a professora responsável pela biblioteca escolar. Para geração de dados, utilizamos questionários, notas de campo, observação e entrevistas semi-estruturadas. O corpus de pesquisa constitui-se principalmente das transcrições das entrevistas realizadas com as participantes. Os resultados do estudo indicam que, embora as professoras tenham um posicionamento favorável ao uso das TICs no ensino, suas experiências pessoais e profissionais com tais tecnologias acabam influenciando em diferentes níveis de engajamento quanto ao projeto de inserção das TICs no processo de ensino-aprendizagem. A análise dos dados também indica um predomínio do modelo de Letramento Digital Funcional na escola investigada, o que aponta para a necessidade de se adotar perspectivas mais críticas de Letramento(s) Digital(is) no contexto educacional. / The aim of this thesis is to investigate the discursive practices of three teachers that have kept direct and indirect relationships with Information and Communication Technologies (ICT‟s) in the teaching-learning process. To accomplish with this purpose, we have adopted as theoretical framework the model of Digital Multiliteracies proposed by Selber (2004), which considers the multilayered dimensions of Digital Literacies and tries to explain them reasonably through three main levels of computer literacy: Functional Literacy, Critical Literacy, and Rhetorical Literacy. In addition, to better investigate the discursive practices of the teachers surveyed, we also have found support on Positioning Theory, according to which we provide discursive locations for ourselves and the others within a moral order that we establish during a symbolic exchange, building specific points of view inside the positions we take on (Harré and Van Langenhove, 1999). Methodologically, this research is structured as an ethnographic case study (André, 1995; Yin, 2001; Viégas, 2007) associated to a discourse (micro) analysis (Gee et al., 1992; Sacks et al., 1974, 2005; Davies and Harré, 1990). The context of this qualitative research is a public school pertaining to the municipal education system of Juiz de Fora – Minas Gerais. This school is located in a suburbian area of the city. The participants are three teachers that have kept direct and indirect relationships with ICT‟s in education, namely: the teacher of Educational Informatics, the teacher of a classroom (4th year of Brazilian elementary school) and the teacher responsible for the school library. To generate the data, we have used questionnaires, field notes, observation and semi-structured interviews. The corpus of this research consists mainly of the transcripts from interviews made with the participants. The results of this study point out that although the teachers have taken on favorable positions regarding the use of ICT‟s in education, their personal and professional experiences with such technologies tend to influence at different levels of commitment to the project of insertion of ICT‟s in the teaching-learning process. The data analysis also evinces a predominance of Functional Digital Literacy in the school investigated, which indicates the necessity for adoption of more critical perspectives regarding Digital Literacies in educational settings.

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