Multiple technologies and multiliteracies:
How Beginning English Teachers Make Sense of Technology and
Literacy in their Classroom Instruction
Benjamin Boche
Purdue University
United States
bboche@purdue.edu
Melanie Shoffner
Purdue University
United States
shoffner@purdue.edu
Abstract: This brief paper draws from a research study initiated in the fall of 2012 to explore beginning
secondary English teachers’ understandings of and experiences with multiliteracies. One element of the
study – teachers’ use of technologies to address multiliteracies in their classroom instruction – provides the
focus for this brief paper. In order to better understand the connections between technology and
multiliteracies, the researchers explore how beginning English teachers make sense of and engage with
technology within the context of multiliteracies. They then apply their findings to preservice English teacher
preparation.
Introduction
This presentation begins with a brief introduction to an ongoing study that examines beginning
English teachers’ understandings of and experiences with multiliteracies. The presentation then focuses on
the teachers’ use of technologies to support their teaching of multiliteracies through an overview of current
findings based on data analysis from the first semester of the study. Following discussion and implications
that can be gathered from the study thus far, the presentation concludes with future directions of the study
and its potential impact on teacher education and English teacher practices.
Theme and Significance
Multiliteracies is the broader notion of literacy that encompasses the traditional literacies of
reading and writing as well as the use of technology, visual and spatial understanding, and out-of-school
literacy practices (NCTE, 2005, 2008). Literacy is no longer understood as a set of conventions to be
learned but as a way to negotiate meaning (Leland & Casten, 2002), often occurring in a technology-rich
setting. Multiliteracies are, therefore, complex in nature and encompass multiple forms of representation
and communication across different landscapes (Jewitt, 2008).
Although multiliteracies – and technologies – are deeply engrained in society, students may or
may not be academically or personally proficient with their varied uses (Sewell & Denton, 2002). In
addition, the integration of multiliteracies in the classroom is not a foregone conclusion, in particular those
associated with technologies, requiring English teachers and English teacher educators to develop “nuanced
and critical understandings of these technologies and the literacies with which they are associated”
(Swenson, Young, McGrail, Rozema, & Whitin, 2006, p. 353). Therefore, examining English teachers’
understandings of and approaches to multiliteracies through their instructional practices is a crucial element
of providing English teacher preparation that is suited for the context of modern classrooms.
As students engage with new multimodal texts, they become active meaning-makers in ways that
often require new literacy strategies. Students must develop the requisite abilities to merge old and new
literacies, requiring English teachers to find new ways to tap into students’ prior knowledge, social acts and
methods of communication in order to support student learning of these abilities (Swenson et al., 2006,
Shoffner, De Oliveira & Angus, 2010). Students often experience these multimodal texts in a technology-
rich environment. This type of environment lends itself to new avenues of social acts and communication
by which students are able to use a range of technologies for new and varied purposes. Thus, understanding
how technology expands the concept of literacy within multiliteracies encourages students to develop a
more sophisticated understanding of literate practices.
English teachers also play a role in how such knowledge is constructed by the choices they make
regarding multiliteracies in classroom instruction (Jewitt, 2008). Beginning English teachers have
particular beliefs regarding how, when and why to incorporate multiliteracies and technology in their
teaching. Often times they may not be aware of the varying technology-based teaching resources available
to support instruction or how to integrate them effectively (Shoffner, 2011). The role of technology, either
as fully integrated across all tasks or of secondary importance, continues to influence when, where and how
English teachers use it in the classroom. Since technology in the classroom offers both affordances and
constraints, this paper seeks to understand how beginning English teachers negotiate their use of
technology to positively support students’ learning of multiliteracies.
Research exploring English teachers’ understandings of and experiences with technology in the
context of multiliteracies offers insight into how technology impacts students’ understanding of and
experiences with varied literacy practices. Such research may also support a richer understanding of the
ways in which beginning English teachers enact their constructed pedagogical knowledge and, by
extension, suggest ways in which English teacher educators may better prepare new English teachers to
work with technology to support students’ multiliteracies.
Research Questions
1.
2.
How do beginning secondary English teachers’ apply their understandings of and experiences with
technology within the context of multiliteracies?
How do beginning secondary English teachers use technology to support multiliteracies in their
classroom instruction?
Methodology
This qualitative study is grounded in a phenomenological approach. As Creswell (2013) explains,
phenomenology uses individual experiences with a phenomenon to develop a composite description of the
meaning of the experience for all individuals. Beginning teachers develop varied and multiple meanings of
their experiences; therefore, the participants’ views are central to understanding the intricacies of
multiliteracies. For the purposes of this study, the phenomenon under study is denoted as teaching English,
the individuals under study are beginning English teachers and the experiences under study are those
experiences with technology and multiliteracies.
Five beginning secondary English teachers are currently participating in the study. These teachers
are graduates of the same English teacher education program at a large research university in the
Midwestern United States. They are teaching in a variety of schools across the country.
Data from the participants consists of a questionnaire, interviews, observations and teacher
materials. The questionnaire was disseminated electronically in the fall of 2012 to explore participants’
understandings of and experiences with different aspects of multiliteracies, including technology. Two indepth interviews (Seidman, 2006) will be conducted with each teacher at different points in the first year of
teaching (2012-2013) in order to provide a more complete picture of their understandings and applications
of multiliteracies. The first interview will occur during the fall of 2012. It will focus on the teachers’
experiences and understandings of multiliteracies that may influence their work with multiliteracies in the
English classroom. The second interview will occur in the spring of 2013. It will focus on the teachers’
experiences, successes and struggles with multiliteracies in their classroom instruction and the different
factors that may have played a positive or negative role in that instruction. Both interviews will also
address the English teachers’ experiences with, beliefs about and use of technologies to address
multiliteracies in their classroom instruction.
Two classroom observations of each teacher will also be conducted: one in late fall 2012 and one
in spring 2013. Any materials used in the observed lessons will be collected from each teacher. These
materials may include lesson plans, unit plans, student handouts, instructional examples and content,
lecture notes and/or multimedia presentations.
Data analysis will consist of going through the data and highlighting significant statements,
sentences or quotes that provide understanding about this study. After this, clusters of meaning will be
developed from these significant statements into overarching themes. Several techniques will be used to
create these themes such as making comparisons, drawing upon personal experience, looking at language,
establishing a negative case and looking at the structure of the narrative (Corbin & Strauss, 2008). Using
these overarching themes, the researchers will meaningfully describe what the teachers have experienced as
well as how they have experienced it, offering a rich description of the teachers’ common experiences to
support a deeper understanding of the phenomenon itself.
Future Discussion
This ongoing research study seeks to examine the potential of technology to develop multiliterate
practices in the classroom for beginning English teachers. The support of multiliteracies in the preparation
of English teachers stems from an understanding that considering and analyzing multiliteracies will better
inform teaching, learning and meaning making (CEE, 2008). This understanding is further supported by
examining the themes of multimodal literacies and digital technologies, as articulated by Swenson,
Rozema, Young, McGrail and Whitin (2005). Recognizing that new technologies have changed the ways
in which we make meaning and, as such, require new meaning-making strategies, English teachers and
students must develop an understanding of the interplay between literacy and technology. This requires
English educators to promote and facilitate the teaching of literacies that employ current communication
and language use, valuing communication technologies for research and pedagogical purposes (CEE,
2008). This research study also recognizes the importance of examining the strengths and limitations of
technology, as applied in the context of multiliteracies, in both teacher instruction and teacher education.
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