‘Time flies in California’: multiliteracies bridging local diversity and global connectedness through a Reggio-inspired approach

Abstract

A pedagogy of multiliteracies is based on the theoretical perspective that in order to find our way around our mass media, multimedia and electronic hypermedia communication environments and accommodate the realities of increasing local diversity and global connectedness, a broadened definition of literacy is required. New ways of making sense of a diverse world now challenge teachers to reflect critically on how old patterns of teaching literacy can be transformed to provide culturally relevant learning experiences. This research project, documented in a Western Australian independent school over a nine-month period, reports an ethnographic case study of how one teacher facilitated children’s multiliteracies learning to bridge local diversity and global connectedness in an early childhood classroom through a Reggio-inspired approach. Implications for educational evaluation and research are that a pedagogy of multiliteracies, when combined with the Reggio Emilia educational philosophy, can optimise children’s achievement of the Early Years Learning Framework for Australia outcomes.