When thinking of New Literacies Studies (Street, 2003), I am inclined to think of it as a critical social practice which asks the questions of : Whose literacies are dominant? Whose literacies are marginalized? and Whose literacies are resistant? Literacy then is not a technical or neutral skill as the autonomous model of literacy would suggest. Rather, literacy is closer akin to the ideological model of literacy which posits that it is a social practice that is always embedded in socially constructed epistemological principles (Street, 2003, p. 77).
Within NLS there are literacy events and literacy practice that work upon a continuum of sorts, with a shift from observing literacy events to conceptualizing literacy practices (Street, 2003, p. 79). Street (2003, 1998), describes the shift as involving both "events" (Heath, 1982) and social models of literacy that participants bring to bear upon those events and that give meaning to them.
Wohlwend (2009) provides us with the opportunity to see the aforementioned in action. Within her study, "The Disney Princess Players were avid Disney Princess fans, but they were not passive consumers. Zoe transformed Princess Aurora from victim to self-rescuer. All three girls adapted princess dolls to play out family scenarios that fit into their own experiences, writing a script in which the king and queen go inside the castle to take a nap, turning a princess into an adopted daughter, or drawing weddings to end their books" (p. 78). Wohlwend (2009) provided the term productive consumption (de Certeau, 1984) to describe this back-and-forth communication and meaning making transaction wherein "viewing and reading a multimedia text is simultaneously an act of consumption and an act of production as consumers make sense of products and produce personal meanings and strategic uses" (p. 78).
NLS seeks to provide a way for researchers to observe and examine the act of pivoting - as in through play with dolls into a figured world within which new identities could be assigned to the dolls, and new roles could be played out with meaning-making and global narratives all playing at the same time. When reflecting back on figured worlds, I am reminded that existent within figured worlds are these sedimented layers of understanding and meaning-making. Wohlwend (2009) says that sedimented layers reflect the child's decisions about which models and modes to use. The answers to the questions of: Who holds the power? Who is marginalized? Who resists? can be found within these sedimented layers and are demonstrated through identity performance which is available within the prevailing discourses. Wohlwend (2009) provides us with the example of gender - and gender as a social construct - one which usually situates girls as passive learners and boys as active learners. Yet, we see that the girls play with the dolls in such a way that moves them from the stereotypical and socially constructed 'norm' and recontextualize the role(s) that the female doll can hold. It was also interesting to observe how the girls in this project positioned themselves in such a way that they exerted power over the boys who were marginalized in may ways and at one point even excluded from play within the figured world of one of the participants.
References
Knobel, M., & Lankshear, C. (2014). Studying New Literacies. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 58(2), pp. 97-101.
Street, B. (2003). What's "new" in New Literacy Studies? Critical approaches to literacy in theory and practice, Current Issues in Comparative Education, 5(2), pp. 77-91.
Wohlwend, K. E. (2009). Damsels in discourse: Girls consuming and producing identity texts through Disney princess play. Reading Research Quarterly, 44(1), pp. 57-83.
Within NLS there are literacy events and literacy practice that work upon a continuum of sorts, with a shift from observing literacy events to conceptualizing literacy practices (Street, 2003, p. 79). Street (2003, 1998), describes the shift as involving both "events" (Heath, 1982) and social models of literacy that participants bring to bear upon those events and that give meaning to them.
Wohlwend (2009) provides us with the opportunity to see the aforementioned in action. Within her study, "The Disney Princess Players were avid Disney Princess fans, but they were not passive consumers. Zoe transformed Princess Aurora from victim to self-rescuer. All three girls adapted princess dolls to play out family scenarios that fit into their own experiences, writing a script in which the king and queen go inside the castle to take a nap, turning a princess into an adopted daughter, or drawing weddings to end their books" (p. 78). Wohlwend (2009) provided the term productive consumption (de Certeau, 1984) to describe this back-and-forth communication and meaning making transaction wherein "viewing and reading a multimedia text is simultaneously an act of consumption and an act of production as consumers make sense of products and produce personal meanings and strategic uses" (p. 78).
NLS seeks to provide a way for researchers to observe and examine the act of pivoting - as in through play with dolls into a figured world within which new identities could be assigned to the dolls, and new roles could be played out with meaning-making and global narratives all playing at the same time. When reflecting back on figured worlds, I am reminded that existent within figured worlds are these sedimented layers of understanding and meaning-making. Wohlwend (2009) says that sedimented layers reflect the child's decisions about which models and modes to use. The answers to the questions of: Who holds the power? Who is marginalized? Who resists? can be found within these sedimented layers and are demonstrated through identity performance which is available within the prevailing discourses. Wohlwend (2009) provides us with the example of gender - and gender as a social construct - one which usually situates girls as passive learners and boys as active learners. Yet, we see that the girls play with the dolls in such a way that moves them from the stereotypical and socially constructed 'norm' and recontextualize the role(s) that the female doll can hold. It was also interesting to observe how the girls in this project positioned themselves in such a way that they exerted power over the boys who were marginalized in may ways and at one point even excluded from play within the figured world of one of the participants.
References
Knobel, M., & Lankshear, C. (2014). Studying New Literacies. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 58(2), pp. 97-101.
Street, B. (2003). What's "new" in New Literacy Studies? Critical approaches to literacy in theory and practice, Current Issues in Comparative Education, 5(2), pp. 77-91.
Wohlwend, K. E. (2009). Damsels in discourse: Girls consuming and producing identity texts through Disney princess play. Reading Research Quarterly, 44(1), pp. 57-83.
Christina,
ReplyDeleteI love how you focused on the critical aspects of NLS. Over and over again, I was struck with this--in both the articles I read and video of Allan Luke that I found: https://thelearningexchange.ca/projects/allan-luke-the-new-literacies/. You know I took notice the moment I heard Paulo Friere's name mentioned. I wonder if we are also seeing how the lens applied can impact the findings of a researcher. You mentioned the act of pivoting; the dolls also act as a pivot for the girls to enter this figured world...Does this make NLS a descendant of activity theory? Is it in many ways an activity theory plus theory with the critical layered? This learning makes my head spin.
This statement you made "... it as a critical social practice which asks the questions of : Whose literacies are dominant? Whose literacies are marginalized? and Whose literacies are resistant? Literacy then is not a technical or neutral skill..." is a good rephrasing and simpler definition of New Literacies. Your definition in my opinion nails it perfectly!
ReplyDeleteLooking at NLS as a gateway to further investigate the meaning of literacy and what defines literacy is how I was interpreting this weeks reading. These articles create explanation of what NLS provides if we open our eyes beyond the technical world. Literacy is a core aspect of learning and can emerge in many different forms.
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