Undergraduate Research on Building Multiliteracies Through "Compassionate" Listening

• In Event: 41.084 - Roundtable Session 16
  In Roundtable Session: 41.084-6 - Multiliteracies in Action: An Intergenerational Inquiry Into Literacies and Multilingualism Through a Poetry Translation Program

Abstract

In spring 2016, we -- a group of undergraduates -- designed and co-led an after-school “Poetry and Art Club.” The Club met weekly as both a research site and a design space -- creating a contact zone for a multi-generational group including twenty middle school students, six undergraduate student designer/facilitators, three undergraduate student instructors, and our professor. Within the group, all but one of the middle school students spoke a language other than English at home, and the undergraduates included several students of color and multi-lingual/international students. In this university/after-school setting we worked to create a social and discursive space informed by equality of all voices, one where we were each learners and each teachers as we translated poetry and created original poems.

Data Collection: Each session of the Club was videotaped and audio taped (with multiple audio recorders during small group interactions). In addition, our data include pre- and post- videotaped interviews, all participants’ artwork and texts, and weekly session reflections from each undergraduate participant, supported by transcribed segments from each session.

Conceptual Framework and Research Questions: Building on the multiliteracies framework (New London Group, 1996) and work on academically productive talk (Resnick et al., 2015), our primary research questions revolve around the kinds of talk and text that were generated in this unusual research/design space. What kind of talk culture was built, for both the middle school students and university-based undergraduates and faculty? In what ways did this Poetry and Art Club exemplify the pedagogies of multiliteracies -- with instances of situated practice, overt instruction, critical framing, and transformed practice -- as we translated poetry but also expanded the original Poetry Inside Out program to include sessions of creative self-expression in the form of original artwork, public presentations, and discussion?

Data Analysis and Findings: In examining transcripts of recurring speech events, puzzling moments, and public performances, we explore the power of translation -- bringing languages and artistic texts into contact -- amplified by the uniquely liminal identities that all participants in this program embody (many are children of more than one culture and speak a language other than English at home; many are college students, in an inherently liminal stage of life). We explore how translation and public performances serves as a unique kind of “word-work” (in Toni Morrison’s terms), supporting a culture of what we call “compassionate listening,” wherein participants listen to one another with an assets-based orientation -- with creativity, generosity, and compassion.

We will present our findings from the 2016 Club as well our ongoing progress in implementing changes to the next cohort of the Club (Spring 2017) based on documented and theorized problems of practice (for example, moments when compassionate listening is disrupted). The presentation will begin with a video, created from the 2016 Club, in order to contextualize the project and our ongoing program.

Authors

• Celia Ringland, Clark University

• Margaret Foster, Clark University

• Savannah MacLean, Clark University