Understanding Texts and Materials in Pre-K–12 Classrooms

• In Event: Catching Up With Teachers: Statewide Exploration of Teachers' Beliefs About Language and Literacy Teaching

Abstract

Purposes
This paper examines how preK-12 teachers report on their classroom literacies texts. Given The Center’s focus on expansive notions of literacies, we were interested in not only more traditional canonical texts and picturebooks, but also digital, social media, embodied, and artful texts as well as the materials (beyond traditional paper/pencil) offered to students to produce their own texts, including digital and art materials.

Theory
Our analysis is shaped by a history of multimodal theories that focus on literacies as ideological, not neutral, and as created using various modes (Street, 1984; Pahl & Rowsell, 2010). More recent scholarship on poststructural, posthumanist, and feminist ‘new’ materialist theories, specifically in literacy education, inspire our thinking of how all bodies, human and more-than-human bodies as well as linguistic and discursive bodies, work together in learning spaces (e.g., Authors). These bodies of theories help us to understand how and why the texts and materials in classroom spaces matter for language and literacies learning.

Modes of Inquiry & Data
As this paper is situated in the larger study described above, data sets are the same.
Drawing upon theoretical concepts from posthumanist theories, we engaged in thinking-with theory and data (Jackson & Mazzei, 2012) in order to explore how and why teachers taught literacies with specific attention to materiality.

Insights
Data analysis suggests that preK-elementary teachers typically discuss literacy materials as a mandated curriculum set. Some teachers mentioned diverse books yet titles shared were dated and described as exclusively a part of a heritage history month. Teachers also discussed the use of ABC magnetic tiles and similar manipulative learning supplies. These same teachers also expressed an absence of open ended composition through artistic and digital tools with their young learners. When asked ‘What makes a child a reader?’ teachers discussed big ideas such as communication and telling stories. However, the pedagogical literacy instruction they shared focused on a narrow set of skills.

Analysis suggests that although some secondary teachers shared newspaper articles, magazines, and/or blogs as adjunct texts for literacy instruction, many focused exclusively on novels. Many indicated that they do embrace digital and media literacies such as documentaries and podcasts, but the focus of instruction tends to be on the credibility of sources. Teachers noted social media, documentaries and blogs as relevant classroom literacies, but viewed texting negatively and to the detriment of the English language given its abbreviated form.

Significance
While there is a significant body of research that articulates multimodal, digital, critical, visual, and more expansive ways of viewing literacies, we observed inconsistencies in how teachers talked about classroom literacies, materials and instruction. For some their ideological beliefs embraced expanded notions of literacies yet the materials discussed for pedagogical purposes and how they engaged those materials did not align. These findings point to the limitations of prescribed curricula and their impact on teachers’ understanding of literacy as a narrow set of skills. Opportunities to enhance teachers’ understanding of expanded notions of literacies and materials are needed to begin to reconcile this negative impact.

Authors

• Angie Zapata, University of Missouri

• Candace Ross Kuby, University of Missouri - Columbia