Within and Beyond ELA Boundaries: A PAR Examination of a Critical and Culturally Sustaining Use of Digital Multimodal Compositions

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 8
  In Roundtable Session: Digital Literacies for Equitable Aims

Abstract

Secondary ELA teachers work in a landscape of increasing linguistic, cultural and digital diversity, yet restrict literacy to monolingual, monomodal forms of English. Examined through a conceptual framework that positions critical digital literacies (Ávila & Pandya, 2013) as a form of culturally sustaining pedagogies (Paris & Alim, 2014), this PAR study investigates how secondary ELA teachers can honor the communicative repertoires of culturally and linguistically diverse students through the use of digital, multimodal compositions. A grounded theory (Strauss & Corbin, 1994) analysis revealed that we as teachers grafted traditional ELA skills and concepts to critical, digital and culturally sustaining concepts, thereby moving within and beyond the bounds of ELA classrooms to provide an agentic and empowering compositional experience for students.

Author

• Ari Dolid, San Leandro Unified School District