This case study was conducted in one elementary French-language school in Ontario with 1 administrator, 4 teachers and their culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students. Through the integration of bhabha’s (1994) notion of Third space, multiple literacies theory (Cummins, 2001; Masny 2009) and by drawing on interviews, observations, and students’ work samples, I conceptualise an alter(n)ative literacies framework to address growing diversity in French-language schools. The term alter(n)ative is developed to express the intertwined benefit of expanding traditional notions of literacy to include alternative language practices and the potential alter-ative effect of re-envisioning the resources children bring to their literacy and language development at school. This thesis argues that teachers can critically (re)interprete official policies concerning Frenchlanguage schools in order to effectively foster students’ alter(n)ative literacies development. In doing so, teachers affirm the plurality of students’ multiple identities as a foundation for their participation within evolving cosmopolitan franco-ontarian communities.

Orientador: Dirce Charara Monteiro / Banca: Renata Moschen Nascente / Banca: Camila Höfling / Resumo: No início do ano letivo de 2008, a Secretaria de Educação do Estado de São Paulo iniciou a implementação de uma nova proposta para os vários componentes curriculares, dentre os quais a Língua Inglesa. A perspectiva de trabalho com Língua Inglesa, dentro desta nova proposta curricular, é a dos letramentos múltiplos, buscando o desenvolvimento das competências relacionadas à leitura e à escrita, por meio dos diversos gêneros textuais. O objetivo principal desta pesquisa foi acompanhar o primeiro ano da implantação da nova proposta curricular de língua estrangeira para o Ensino Fundamental bem como seu processo de implementação em uma classe da rede pública estadual. Pretendíamos, mais especificamente: a) analisar os fundamentos da atual proposta; b) compará-la com a anterior; c) avaliar sua eficácia na promoção das competências leitora e escritora dentro do contexto de ensino-aprendizagem de língua estrangeira; d) avaliar as atividades práticas sugeridas, principalmente no que se refere ao aspecto motivacional. Pode ser considerada uma pesquisa avaliativo-descritiva, de natureza qualitativa. Os sujeitos de pesquisa foram alunos da 7a série do Ensino Fundamental de uma Escola Estadual de uma cidade do interior paulista. Para a coleta de dados foram utilizados os seguintes instrumentos: a) questionário inicial e final para os alunos; b) questionários para avaliar algumas atividades de língua inglesa; c) portfólio do aluno; d) um diário de campo da pesquisadora. De um modo geral a nova proposta curricular mostrou um potencial motivacional maior do que a anterior, mas algumas dificuldades na sua implementação puderam ser apontadas: a) insuficiência do tempo previsto para a finalização de algumas atividades; b) falta de flexibilidade para inserção de atividades diferenciadas e mais motivadoras contidas... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: At the beginning of the school year, in 2008, the Education Department of São Paulo state began to implement a new proposal for the various curriculum components, including English language. The perspective of working with English language, in this new curriculum proposal, is that of multiple literacies, seeking to develop skills related to reading and writing, working with the various textual genres. The main goal of this research was to follow the first year of implantation of the new curriculum proposal for foreign language in elementary school as well as its implementation process in a class of a public school. Our more specific aims were: a) to analyze the basis of the current proposal; b) to compare it with the previous one; c) to evaluate its effectiveness in promoting reading and writing skills within the context of teaching and learning foreign language; d) to evaluate the suggested practical activities, particularly with regard to the motivational aspect. It can be considered a descriptive-evaluative research of qualitative nature. The research subjects were students from the seventh grade of an elementary public school in a city in the state of São Paulo. The following instruments were used to collect data: a) initial and final questionnaires for students, b) questionnaires to evaluate some of the English language activities c) the students' portfolio, d) the researcher's field diary. In general the new curriculum proposal showed a motivational potential greater than the previous one, but some difficulties in its implementation could be identified: a) insufficient time for the completion of some activities; b) lack of flexibility for inserting differentiated and more motivating activities in the proposal; c) implementation, in practice, of the integration of the four basic skills (speaking, listening, reading,... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

Doctor of Philosophy / Curriculum and Instruction / F. Todd Goodson / In the past, literacy was viewed solely as the basic, functional skills of reading and writing. However, with the New London Group’s (1996) proposal of multiliteracies and the more recent push for a plurality of literacies (NCTE, 2011), teachers have been urged to expand their definitions of literacy. This qualitative study explores how secondary-level social studies and science teachers perceive literacies and identifies their instructional literacies practices. Data were collected through a pre- and post-questionnaire, three focus group sessions, classroom observations, field notes, and artifacts. This study solicited nearly one hundred secondary social studies and science teachers from three Midwestern school districts. Eight educators (four social studies and four science) participated in the study that took place in the spring of 2015. Furthermore, a generous grant from a local chapter of Phi Delta Kappa partially funded this research. After applying initial and holistic codes to the data, nine themes emerged: conventional, progressive, hesitant/emerging, collaborate, calibrate, perform, practice, interdisciplinary, and intradisciplinary. The nine themes were further classified by how they appeared in the data: dispositional themes, behavioral themes, and bridge themes. Throughout the data analysis, contemporary genre theory guided the study (Devitt, 2004). Descriptive codes, derived from contemporary genre theory, further revealed that the situational, social, historical, and individual aspects of genre influence teachers’ pedagogical practices related to multiple literacies across disciplines. Therefore, the ways in which teachers perceived multiple literacies and implemented them into classroom instruction are multifaceted and vary depending on grade level, content area, and teaching location. However, teachers’ dispositions regarding literacy move beyond a traditional mindset of functional reading and writing as they engage in professional learning opportunities and collaborate within and across disciplines and grade levels. This study provides secondary educators insight into the prominence of multiple literacies present across content areas while also revealing the teaching methods and instructional strategies that foster multiple literacies.

Adolescent perspectives on health and the social and literate values of their health related behaviours require exploration and examination in health literacy, as knowledge gaps related to the constituents of health literate practices, and the functions and acquisition of health literacy exist in the literature. Research addressing this was approached based on socio-cultural and socio-ecological principles using a collective instrumental case design. Participants were new adolescent mother aged 15-18 recruited from 4 different community/education programs around Victoria, BC. Data was collected over a four month period, and consisted of individual and focus group interviews, journals, and researchers’ observations and field notes. Findings show that participants’ health behaviours changed significantly in tandem with their identities, the groups they associated with, and the social contexts they moved within. Findings indicate that identity, informal social environments, and unconscious cognitive process and psychosocial needs play a role in adolescents health literacy and literate practices.