The Future of Education

The purpose of the proposed presentation is to report the results of teacher self-perceptions regarding the frequency of classroom activities that reflect new literacies skills and 21st Century knowledge processes.  Pedagogy of new literacies includes a balanced classroom design of Situated Practice, Overt Instruction, Critical Framing and Transformed Practice (The New London Group, 1996). There are myriad conceptions of new literacies and a range of terms used when referring to new literacies, including multiliteracies and digital literacies (Coiro, Knoebel, Lankshear, & Leu, 2008).  A sociocultural orientation of new literacies focuses on literacy as a social practice, which emphasizes the role of literacy with a range of socially patterned and goal-directed ways of getting things done in the world (Lankshear & Knobel, 2003). New literacies knowledge processes include conceptualizing, experiencing, analyzing, and applying. Skills that align with new literacies knowledge processes that include but are not limited to 21^st Century learning skills such as critical thinking skills, collaboration skills, communication skills, global connection skills, local connection skills, and technology skills (Ravitz, Hixson, English &Mergendoller, 2010). Data will be collected through participation in an online survey and follow-up focus groups on current district practices to inform potential changes to literacy teacher training. The participants, elementary school teachers from a large urban public school district in the southeast US, completed an online survey and some volunteered to attend follow-up focus groups. 

Objectives:  The current research will collect and report perceptions of elementary school teachers in regards to the current use of new literacies skills (multiliteracies and multimodalities) in his/her current classroom.  Our findings will inform literacy researchers, administrators and educators in regards to the need for teacher training on the dynamic components that are important in creating a literacy curriculum that is flexible enough to account for the myriad Discourses of students in the sixth largest school district in the US. Data findings will be used to help the district to develop teacher training.

Research question: What are the self-reported perceptions of public school teachers regarding the use of new literacies in elementary classrooms?