Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have given rise to many
distinct discourses in the field of literacy studies. The present study examined the
discursive interplay between two of these discourses, namely the practical discourses of
those who see themselves as empowered by ICTs and the theoretical discourses of theory
and research literature on the notions of multiliteracies. Drawing on the emergent
discourses from the interview data, this study explored the practitioners' underlying
beliefs and their assumptions about technology-mediated new multiliteracies as opposed
to traditional print-based literacy. As such the study also argued for a sustainable
dialogue between the discourses of practice and discourses of theory and research,
suggesting that the discursive interplay between these two discourse communities would
contribute to the application of the complex theoretical notions to multiliteracy pedagogy.
Employing a qualitative approach, the study drew on Bakhtin's (1986) notion of
primary/secondary genres to depict the relevance of the notions of discourse in arriving at
the underlying assumptions about the nature of multiliteracies and its implications. This
study was broadly framed within a critical social research perspective (Fairclough, 2003).
The notion of multiliteracies was explored from the standpoint of the New London Group
(1996). Grounded Theory procedures (Strauss & Corbin, 1998) were also employed to
identify major themes in the data, while general content analysis method was used to
interpret the interview data.
The main question that guided this investigation was as follows: How do expert
practitioners' perceptions of new multiliteracies and their implications map onto their
practices with new multiliteracies?
The findings of this study pointed to the practitioners' willingness to implement
new approaches in their literacy practices. Moreover, these findings highlighted the
importance of a sustainable dialogue between the discourses of theory and practice to
enhance literacy educators' pedagogical choices. The researcher hopes that the findings
of this study contribute to the future teacher education policy and curriculum
development in such a way that current pedagogical practices are expanded to include
multiple literacies. / Education, Faculty of / Language and Literacy Education (LLED), Department of / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UBC/oai:circle.library.ubc.ca:2429/16824 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Tabyanian, Shahbaz |
| Source Sets | University of British Columbia |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis/Dissertation |
| Rights | For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use. |
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