"Blackness Is Not Just a Single Definition": Multimodal Composition as an Exercise for Surfacing and Scaffolding Student Theorizing in a Black Studies Classroom

• In Event: Theorizing Multimodality Through Children's and Youths' Perceptions and Experiences

Abstract

Objectives:
This study aims to investigate multimodal composition as an exercise or tool for teaching students theory building. To illustrate, an analysis of artifacts comprising a student’s multimodal composition, which was created in response to a multipart literacy assignment on theorizing Blackness, is analyzed.

Theoretical Perspectives:
Afrocentricity served as both theoretical moor and research
methodology. Afrocentricity is a lens of critical theory concerned with bringing African or Black peoples into focus as (figuratively) free and agentic human beings. The two Afrocentric principles underpinning this study are Ma’at, “the quest for justice, truth, and harmony” with the goal of “of helping to create a more fair and just society” (Reviere, 2001, p. 711), and Nommo, “the creation of knowledge as a vehicle for improvement in human relations” (p. 711). Theorizing, a process of knowledge generation, is fertile ground for the practice of Ma’at and Nommo. The focal student in this study practices Ma’at and Nommo via multimodal composition by participating in a quest to create situated and subjective or little “t”truths about Blackness with a greater goal of interrupting capital“T” truth and knowledge claims about this phenomenon.

Methods/Data Sources:
Qualitative case study, focusing on the case of an individual student, was the research method used. The subject of analysis in this study is a single individual selected through purposive sampling. Isabelle (pseudonym) was chosen as the focal case based on her response to a prior assignment tasking students with naming a preliminary definition of Blackness that crystallized the relationship between their conceptualization and experiential knowledge. The uniqueness of Isabelle’s response to the assignment signaled that a close study of her work would offer me, the pedagogue, an opportunity to learn more about how she made (out-of-the-ordinary) meaning of Blackness.

Findings:
Multimodal composition was an effective exercise for surfacing the multidimensionality of a student’s complex knowledge while simultaneously placing the student in the powerful position of theorist. The process of composing multimodally integrated reading, writing and speaking skills while revealing the focal student’s need for targeted writing intervention.

Significance:
The study evidences multimodal composition as a useful exercise for capturing
students’ nuanced interpretations or students’ critical theorizing as well as meaningfully incorporating and assessing students’ literacy skills. The study evidences multimodal composition as a useful exercise for capturing students’ nuanced interpretations or students’ critical theorizing as well as meaningfully incorporating and assessing students’ literacy skills.

Author

• Esther Oganda Ohito, Rutgers University-New Brunswick