Incorporating Multiliteracies: An opportunity for powerful teaching
- Cheryl Madliger
- Jan 29, 2017
- 4 min read
As a STEM educator, I am familiar with the ways in which technology is an important element of our lives today, and I am amazed at the ever-progressing role technologies play in our daily lives. I appreciate the way in which students today need to be taught new skills to enable them to thrive in today’s world, which is different even than the world that I grew up in. The rate of change, in large part thanks to the internet and technologies associated with it, is astounding. Our world is more connected than ever, information is at our fingertips, and we are almost constantly connected. The role of consumer and producer are ever-more becoming blurred--take for instance this blog post, the creation of which involved me simultaneously taking on both roles.
Multiliteracies theory, an idea coined by the New London Group in the mid-90s, is a response to the changing world and the resulting needs of students. The scholars behind its motivation was to put forth a theory to serve what they called the fundamental purpose of education, “to ensure that all students benefit from learning in ways that allow them to participate fully in public, community, and economic life” (Cazden et. al, 1996, p. 60). They pointed out trends like globalization and the cultural and linguistic diversity in contemporary society, and called for a revolutionized approach to literacy instruction.
In specific, the New London Group's theory required that we “broaden [the] understanding of literacy and literacy teaching to include negotiating a multiplicity of discourses” (Cazden et. al, 1996, p. 61). While traditionally, literacy was narrowly defined as reading and writing, today’s world demands that we define literacy in a more encompassing way. It is sensitive to what Cope and Kalantzis (2009) refer to as “the changing landscape” (p. 1), a landscape which has changed vastly even since the theory was put forth. It is sensitive to the multiplicity of ways in which students today
must negotiate information and communicate, incorporating literacies related to visual elements like videos and images, music, text, and the interaction of elements students encounter. Given the vast amount and diversity of information students can access today, multiliteracies theory also importantly includes a critical element, reminding students to consider not only what they are reading, but the form in which it arrives to them.
Before entering teacher’s college, I completed my masters in Kinesiology. My thesis was a critical discourse analysis of CrossFit media. I was surprised--pleasantly--to find that some of the scholars (like Gee, or Fairclough, for instance) I’d relied on to help me negotiate my research were cited in multiliteracies research, as well. While most teacher candidates likely don’t lose sleep over the discursive power that comes with taking on the role of a teacher, my reflective nature led me to ask big questions about the responsibility that comes with being in such a position. I was so happy to be exposed to multiliteracies theory, which helped me not only think on this level in a formal way and to gain exposure to some of the literature in the area, but also to see that the critical consciousness I sometimes think of as one of my downfalls is actually a skill worth teaching to our students. Now more than ever, we need to be able to look at the media we consume on an almost constant basis, and question it. Our students are bombarded with images--think about the filtered, edited images they scroll through on instagram when we catch them losing focus in class--and unless they are explicitly taught about the nature of these images as constructed, they might go through life taking them for-granted, never stopping to think about the ramifications and power effects associated with them.
While this seems like high-level thinking, creating a critical consciousness in our students does not have to be complicated. In science, for instance, we might compare a research article from a peer-reviewed journal with something written on a blog. This could provide an opportunity to learn content, but also segue into an easy discussion about types of media, and is an important strategy informed by multiliteracies theory. As Cope and Kalantzis (2009) suggest, “the everyday experience of meaning making [is] increasingly one of negotiating discourse differences” (p. 3).
Part of multiliteracies theory involves opening up the ways in which we allow students to represent their knowledge. No longer are the options simply a test or an essay. As teachers, we ought to encourage our students to develop competency across a variety of media forms. A side benefit of this practice and of giving students options when it comes to representing their knowledge is that we give them the opportunity to thrive. If a host of options for a research project format are given (i.e. a blog post, infographic, essay, video, podcast, song, or image collage, for instance) is given, diverse learning styles will find ways to complete the project in an enjoyable fashion, still meeting criteria. From blog posts to YouTube videos, new media is becoming an increasingly important element of our lives, and it makes sense to help students develop the skills required to produce their own quality work in these domains.
I am naturally drawn to Multiliteracies theory because it tickles my critical thinking fancy. I like the element of social justice which is inherent in taking a critical look at the world around us, and I have often remarked that I wish I had known about such theories and the sociological imagination before I got to my final years of university. As a teacher of Science and Biology, I am grateful for the opportunity multiliteracies pedagogy provides, which is to incorporate (multi)literacy instruction into every element of our students’ education. I hope that as a teacher, my dedication not only to helping students gain knowledge, but also to understand the source and context of what they are learning, provides them with the kind of consciousness that will help them to thrive in an ever-changing world.
Sources:
Cazden, C., Cope, B., Fairclough, N., Gee, J.; et al. (1996). A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures. Harvard Educational Review, 66(1), 60-92.
Available at: http://newarcproject.pbworks.com/f/Pedagogy%2Bof%2BMultiliteracies_New%2BLondon%2BGroup.pdf
Cope, B., & Kalantzis, M. (2009). ‘Multiliteracies’: New literacies, new learning. Pedagogies: An International Journal, 4(3), 164-195.
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