Cliff Top Literacies: Digital Technologies Supporting Composing Literacies in an English Primary (Elementary) School

• In Event: 54.080 - Roundtable Session 22
  In Roundtable Session: 54.080-14 - Digital Literacies, Digital Lives: Blooper Reels to Cliff Top Literacies

Abstract

The project New Purposes, New Practices, New Pedagogy (NP3) investigates the support for composing literacies in primary schools in the UK, through study of the technological competencies children bring to school from the home arena. It can be difficult for schools to value such practices in a policy context where literacy is conceived as above all concerned with performance in narrowly defined skills and where national curricula ignore the digital world. Here we present a multimodal case study of engagements with technologies, carried out through multiple means of data collection during a school year. We show how a dynamic environment is shaped that enables a “permeable curriculum” to flow between school and home, fostering children’s and teachers’ sense of agency.

Authors

• Julia Gillen, Lancaster University

• Peter Twining, The Open University