Research Paper Proposal: "A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies"

Karen Mooney

Professor Barbara Gleason

English B6400

November 9, 2013

“A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies”: A Research Paper Proposal

In 1994, a group of scholars and educators gathered in New London, Connecticut, to discuss the interests they shared in the ways in which literacy and teaching were changing. “A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies: Designing Social Futures” is the self-described manifesto that emerged from that meeting. In it, they argued that the cultural and linguistic diversity fueled by globalization and the emergence of new communications technologies require a new approach to literacy that goes beyond the mere reading and writing of words. They called it “Multiliteracy.”

The forces that inspired the New London group have strengthened in the decade since their document was released. Computerization and the internet in particular have penetrated every facet of life, requiring us to “read” in a new way. In fact, humankind may be in the middle of a transformation with similarities to that from an oral to a print culture; how we perceive the world may be changing dramtically in the process.

Questions:

            I would like to focus my paper specifically on the document “A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies.” What are its intellectual roots? What was the scholarly reaction to it? To what degree have the ideas and practices it proposed been accepted within mainstream scholarship? To what degree have these ideas and practices been adopted in the classroom? Is this approach relevant only to post-industrial societies or is it essential for all cultures so they are not left behind?

Choice:

I chose this topic because it resonates with my own experience and observations

about the contemporary world. First, I have been professionally “bi-literate” for decades,

using words as a primary tool but using images as well. Second, because I believe the

penetration of digital media into everything we do today is inexorable. And thirdly, because I have marveled to see how differently young people have related to words over the years. I am not convinced that mass media and digital technologies have “dumbed down” our culture. It may be that we just don’t understand its implications yet, and our assessments are inadequate to measure what is happening.

Difficulties:

I have just begun my research, but there could be minimal scholarship on multiliteracy; the approach may be viewed as deviating too far from the word to warrant more. It may be difficult to clearly distinguish the difference between multiliteracy and “media literacy.” I will also have to work to keep from exploring down sidebar research paths to the extent that it scatters my focus and risks missing the deadline.

Bibliography (Preliminary):

Cope, Bill. Multiliteracies: Literacy Learning and the Design of Social Futures. London: Routledge. 1999.

            Multiliteracies is a primary overview of the work of the New London Group. It considers the basic premises of literacy pedagogy and the effects of technological change, multilingualism, and cultural diversity on it. It also includes case studies of putting the theories into practice.

Kress, Gunther. Literacy in the New Media Age. London: Routledge. 2003

            Kress examines how new media has changed the relationship between writing and the book, the move of the image toward the center of communication, and these changes affect on literacy. He also looks at the social and cultural effects of these changes and the shift in power they engender.

The New London Group. “A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies: Designing Social Futures.” Harvard Educational Review 66.1 (Spring 1996), 1-29, Web. 11 October 2013. wwwstatic.kern.org/filer/blogWrite44ManilaWebsite/paul/articles/A_Pedagogy_of_Multiliteracies_Designing_Social_Futures.htm#11

In this paper, The New London Group describes the changes in working lives, public lives, and private lives that require new means of discourse and new languages. Schools, then, need to recruit, rather than ignore or erase the many differences students bring to learning. The group borrowed the key workplace innovation concept of Design to re-imagine the creation of artifacts and systems of meaning as well to reshape literacy pedagogy. They hoped their document would provide a basis for public debate and an inspiration for new research. They also hoped teachers would adopt these new ideas and help students achieve literacy learning in the modern world.

McLuhan, Marshall. “Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man.” Rev. Ed. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1994. Print.

            Marshall McLuhan was a philosopher of communication theory and “prophet of the information age.”  He documented and interpreted the emergence of new and mass media, and probed the function and effect of the different media, depending on how they involve and stimulate the observer. It is from McLuhan that we inherited the terms “the global village” and “the medium is the message.”

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. “Understandings of Literacy.” “Education for All: Literacy for Life.” Paris: UNESCO, 2005. Web.  9 November 2013. http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/leading-the-international-agenda/efareport/reports/2006-literacy/

            This is the final report of the United Nations Decade of Literacy. It provides a global perspective on the understandings of literacy, and surveys different nations’ views.

Watt, Helen. “How Does the Use of Modern Communication Technology Influence Language and Literacy Development? A Review.” Contemporary Issues in Communication Science and Disorders. 37.1 (2010): 141-148. Web. 8 November 2013.

            Helen Watt reviews the latest research on the effects of new communications technologies on language and literacy.  She finds that the field is surprisingly thin, and that the effects are still relatively unclear. The survey of research, however, should be useful.