Digital Literacies for Disciplinary Learning: Theoretical Convergences and Methodological Expansions

• In Event: Circling Back and Moving Forwards in Digital Literacies Research

Abstract

Disciplinary literacies research has expanded from the use of cognitive and sociocultural approaches toward the application of critical and pluralistic perspectives due in part to the expansive nature of digital literacies (Castek and Manderino, 2021). Using the turn of phrase, digital literacies for disciplinary learning, the authors illustrate the inextricable linkages across these areas that offer expansive opportunities for research and learning. Through two examples, a public science mural collaborative and a filmmaking community collective and 5th graders, the authors illustrate how each project bridges digital and disciplinary, in- and out-of-school literacies, and makes connections across local and global contexts for agentive action among students and community members. Through intersecting theoretical frames of pluriversal literacies and transdisciplinary approaches, the authors foreground ways that theory lives, grows, and evolves, in conjunction with digital literacies practices. Drawing on pluraversal design constructs (Escobar, 2018), this poster illustrates the interconnectedness and complexity of global linkages that require expansivity and inclusion in the ways researchers theorize and operationalize digital literacies to address complex issues such as sustainability, water rights, and the climate crisis. Using a visual metaphor of braiding, findings illustrate that research theories and methods can be generative in ways that reduce the once artificial demarcations between digital and disciplinary.

Authors

• Michael Manderino, Northern Illinois University

• Jill M. Castek, University of Arizona