A Review of the "Digital Turn" in the New Literacy Studies

Digital communication has transformed literacy practices and assumed great importance in the functioning of workplace, recreational, and community contexts. This article reviews a decade of empirical work of the New Literacy Studies, identifying the shift toward research of digital literacy applications. The article engages with the central theoretical, methodological, and pragmatic challenges in the tradition of New Literacy Studies, while highlighting the distinctive trends in the digital strand. It identifies common patterns across new literacy practices through cross-comparisons of ethnographic research in digital media environments. It examines ways in which this research is taking into account power and pedagogy in normative contexts of literacy learning using the new media. Recommendations are given to strengthen the links between New Literacy Studies research and literacy curriculum, assessment, and accountability in the 21st century

Facilitating alumni support for a low-resourced high school using a participatory action research approach

South African public schools in disadvantaged areas are experiencing serious levels of under resourcing which negatively impact the educational experiences of learners. Attempts to lessen such negative impact include involving alumni who know the school‟s context, history and ethos. Unfortunately, the concept of alumni support in terms of mentoring and motivating learners is not the norm in many under resourced schools. This research focuses on fostering partnerships with alumni using participatory action research (PAR), because it is holistic, relationally driven and inclusive. Embedded in complexity theory that views the school community as a nonlinear system of different interacting parts functioning to improve the school context, the research follows actionreflection cycles of a group of ten past pupils and five educators from various backgrounds, levels of education and expertise collaborating with and mobilizing other alumni. Data were generated using drawings, photo voice and interviews. Thematic data analysis was used to build patterns and form categories. The following themes emerged namely, the importance of establishing a collective vision for sustained alumni engagement for alumni‟s personal and professional aspirations to serve the vision of the school, the importance of creating an alumni culture that reinforces the concept of „paying it forward‟. Lastly, establishing a sustainable alumni association through sustained actions and interactions and by creating an organisation of excellence The newly developed alumni structure as a „resource fountain‟ generating and cascading energy around the school emerged as an anchor for sustainability. The cascaded energy evolved into a structured „Alumni Week‟ providing ongoing motivation for current learners to sustain alumni engagement

Discovery Education Transformative Professional Development Model in Egypt: A phenomenological study

This phenomenological study aims to explore teachers’ and principals’ personal experiences with and perspectives on the features of “STEM Now Egypt” program as a transformative professional development (PD) model. It also seeks to examine “STEM Now Egypt” PD program participants’ perceived skills. This study was guided by constructivist principles which were thought to yield transformative PD results. It was conducted in fifteen public schools in Greater Cairo in Egypt and employed a qualitative phenomenological study approach by conducting one to one semi-structured interviews with twelve teachers and three principals selected based on their participation in the two-year “STEM Now Egypt” PD program. All data collected were coded. A thick descriptive representation of findings in almost all participants’ responses was used to find out similar themes and generate conclusions. The research findings reveal general agreement among all participants’ perspectives on PD transformative features, perceived skills, and professional learning pertaining to the literature review and as implemented in “STEM Now Egypt” PD program. All teachers and principals were found to hold positive perspectives toward “STEM Now” extended, and experiential workshops; expert mentoring for follow-up support; principals’ participation in the PD program side by side with teachers; embedding technology in content-based and contextualized training; coherence in addressing digital curricula, research-based instructional strategies and ways of assessing 21st century skills; face-to-face and online professional learning communities; and ongoing feedback and reflection. The study also generated some recommendations that might transform future PD programs in Egypt

Webs of support and engaged accountability: weaving community and making meaning of learning and teaching in an information age

This dissertation explores political, social, economic, cultural, pedagogical, and technological challenges facing education and educators in the 21 st century. The tensions surrounding educational communication technologies and the debate over the capacity or incapacity of these technologies to facilitate human connection, rather than disconnection, reverberate through each chapter. The first chapter provides a general introduction to the three articles that follow and the fifth chapter provides a general conclusion for the dissertation. The second chapter interrogates definitions and conceptions of community, culture, and communications, and explores the possibilities of creating supportive communities for educators online through computer-mediated communication (CMC). The third chapter investigates learning theories and articulates connections between pedagogical practices and emerging conceptions of authentic, connected, learning communities. The fourth chapter follows the history of technological permutations of boundaries, reconfigurations of social spaces, alterations of senses of time and place, and redefinitions of what counts as knowledge and learning. Throughout this dissertation it is argued that educators must go beyond either-or thinking to facilitate connections and relationships, and to make meaning of teaching and learning in the 21st century. Corporeal as well as online Webs of Support and Engaged Accountability (WoSEA) are proposed as approaches that might help transform schools into the authentic social enterprises that educational theorist John Dewey called schools to become back at the turn of the 20th century

Rhetorical outcomes: A genre analysis of student service-learning writing

Service-learning continues to be a popular pedagogical approach within composition studies. Despite a number of studies that document a range of positive impacts on students, faculty, institutions, and community members, the relationship between service-learning and student writing outcomes is not well understood. This study presents the results of a genre analysis of student-authored ethnographies composed in four distinct sections of a service-learning--based intermediate writing course at a Midwestern urban research university. Results of the analysis are then used to develop a contextualized writing assessment framework to evaluate student writing outcomes and to consider the implications of using contemporary genre theory for both service-learning and writing program assessment

Pathway to Successful Young Adulthood

The Pathway to Successful Young Adulthood assembles a wealth of findings from research, practice, theory, and policy about what it takes to improve the lives of children, youth and families, particularly those living in tough neighborhoods. By laying out a comprehensive, coherent array of actions, the Pathway informs efforts to improve community conditions within supportive policy and funding contexts. The Pathways framework does not promote a single formula or program. Rather, our emphasis is on acting strategically across disciplines, systems, and jurisdictions to increase the number of young people who make a successful transition to young adulthood. The Pathway provides a starting point to guide choices made by community coalitions, services providers, researchers, funders, and policymakers to achieve desired outcomes for young people and their families

Exploring the role of ICT-enabled social innovation for the active inclusion of young people

This Report presents the final results of the study ‘ICT-enabled social innovation services for active inclusion of young people’ (IESI-Youth) which has been commissioned by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre, Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (JRC-IPTS) and implemented by Arcola Research in 2014. The overall objective of the study was to review the state of the art in the domain of active inclusion services for young people, with a specific focus on how ICTs can support active inclusion of disadvantaged youth to strengthen their skills and capacities and support them to participate fully in employment and social life. The study was conducted as preparatory activity contributing to the development of the broader research project on 'ICT enabled Social Innovation in support of the Implementation of the Social Investment Package (IESI) being implemented by JRC-IPTS in collaboration with DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion (DG EMPL).JRC.J.3-Information Societ

New creative careers: the problems of progression and uncertainty

This chapter presents findings from research which we conducted with participants who were current and former art college students, practitioners in different areas of creative arts and design, and therefore workers in a relatively newly named part of the economy, the ‘creative industries’. Originally identified by New Labour as a significantly successful new sector, they have subsequently received considerable attention from policy-makers and also academic commentators, in the UK and elsewhere. The list of creative industries cited by New Labour (DCMS 2001) also corresponds closely to the subject areas and activities of many art college courses, indicating how these institutions function as a vocational training ground and entry point for the creative industries. In this chapter, we discuss special issues which our research raised in relation to creative working; the implications of our research findings for vocational learners themselves and for course providers, teachers and institutions; sources of advantage and disadvantage for learners, as indicated by our research, and some further implications for those aiming to assist and expand lifelong learning opportunities