Unequal and Inequitable: Re-Mediating Literacy Online in Two Language Arts Classes

• In Event: 14.042 - Writing and Literacies in New Learning Environments

Abstract

Many look to digital technologies to promote more equitable literacy learning. Even potentially transformative technologies, however, are neither created nor used within a vacuum. Instead, a range of mediators influences their design and implementation (Kaptelinin & Nardi, 2006). Framed by cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) (Leont’ev, 1981; Vygotsky, 1978), this paper broadens the study of students’ literacy learning in educational settings by considering offline mediators as constitutive of students’ online literate activity. Specifically, this comparative case study situated in two English language arts classes taught by the same teacher (one with a mandated curriculum and one without a mandated curriculum) in a junior high school with a diverse, low-income population, addresses the following research questions: What was the nature of students’ online literate activity in each of the two English language arts classes? In particular, what mediators were evident and how did these mediators influence students’ online literate activity and the literate identities available to students?

The researcher, who employed ethnographic methods, sought to establish the trustworthiness of data by multiple means: extended engagement at the research site over the course of an academic year; extensive data collection, including fifty classroom observations and the collection of a large volume of offline and online artifacts; the use of various collection methods, including field notes, interviews, surveys, photographs, and video screen captures; and the triangulation of data within and across data sources. Activity systems analysis (Engeström, 1987) and a tracing methodology (Prior, 2004) guided data collection and analysis. Findings indicated that students’ online literate activity in the two classes was unequal and inequitable. Stark contrasts existed in the affordances offered by the e-learning environments that the two classes used. In the class with the mandated curriculum, student activity was premised on a didactic pedagogy focused on reading strategies, and students were positioned as struggling learners in need of remediation. In the class without the mandated curriculum, student activity involved composing and providing feedback. Students were positioned as collaborative creators. Their activity, however, was also restricted. In both classes, offline mediators significantly influenced online activity, including ideologies of literacy and schooling, teachers’ initiating texts, and the accountability policy context. The accountability policy context, in particular, disrupted the notion of ubiquitous e-learning.

While this study focused on students’ online literate activity in two classes in one school, K-12 institutions across the country are increasingly employing online environments. These spaces may promote learning premised on broad definitions of literacy (e.g., critical inquiry, multimodal composing, collaborative learning). They may also advance learning based on narrow conceptions of literacy (e.g., isolated skills practice, multiple-choice questions, transmission of knowledge as rigid facts). Much depends on the embedded ideologies of literacy and learning and the broader instructional environment. The researcher argues for the importance of considering the affordances of online environments within the broader learning context.

Author

• Sonia Melanie Kline, Illinois State University