Disquietude: A Sonata-Form Inquiry into Multiliteracies Practices in an EAL Classroom

Abstract

This narrative case study describes an English as an Additional Language teacher’s struggle to understand her young adult learners’ apparent resistance toward multiliteracies pedagogical practices in a college setting. Multiliteracies Pedagogy (New London Group, 1996) advocates the use of digital media, and home languages and culture, to engage diverse youth in designing personally meaningful multimodal texts that can significantly impact learner identity, voice, and agency. This arts-based study uses an innovative sonata-style format to document the making of a class documentary, accompanied by teacher reflections on the video project in the form of poetry, journal excerpts, and classroom dialogue. The sonata form provides a unique methodology for teacher inquiry, allowing the teacher-researcher to explore the ways in which curriculum, pedagogy, and sociocultural influences intersect in the classroom. The study does not end with a clear resolution of the problem; instead, the process of inquiry leads to deeper understandings of what it means to teach in the complex worlds of diverse learners. Chapter One: Theoretical Preface This narrative case study describes my undertaking, as an EAL (English as an Additional Language) teacher, to better understand my young adult English language learners’ apparent resistance toward multiliteracies practices in my classroom. This has been a recurring issue for the 5 years that I (and my colleagues) have been teaching in this program. It is not supposed to happen; multiliteracies pedagogy, as envisioned by the New London Group (1996), should motivate, engage, and empower all students, especially diverse and marginalized learners. Department of Graduate and Undergraduate, Studies in Education, Faculty of Education, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario 60 International Journal of Language and Literature, Vol. 2(4), December 2014 It builds on students’ proficiency with digital technology and taps their home cultures and languages through collaborative and creative project work. It is a dynamic, innovative pedagogy that is supposed to have a profound effect on English language learners. And it does—for some, but not for others. It seems there is an undercurrent of tension in our classroom, a resistance to multiliteracies practices, that is difficult to comprehend and challenging to address. This narrative inquiry involves reflection on transformative theories of language and literacy education, personal history, and living in that uncomfortable space in which pedagogy and real world application come into conflict. The study is written in a sonata-style format, a creative framework for arts-based inquiry. The sonata begins with an exposition, which introduces the primary theme: the making of a class documentary. This is followed by a contrasting secondary theme, which explores teacher reflections on classroom events and conversations. The exploration uses poetry, journal notes, and reconstructions of classroom dialogue. Through these reflections, the conflict between pedagogy and practice, between curricular imperatives and meeting broader student needs, is exposed. While the study examines the tension in the classroom, it does not attempt to resolve it; rather it is grounded in the understanding that not all teacher practical knowledge is about clear solutions to specific pedagogical problems. The case study is told from the perspective of a fictional English as an Additional Language teacher, whose story is based on my own teaching experiences. The inquiry uses arts-based representations of real classroom experiences to problematize idealistic conceptions of literacy pedagogy and to offer more complex ways of viewing English language teaching and learning. My hope is that the presentation of an alternative view of multiliteracies pedagogy will lead to further avenues for research and will facilitate more respectful, responsive, and ultimately more effective pedagogical practices.