Multiliteracies: Remnant Discourses and Pedagogies

Abstract

This research paper discusses the findings of research regarding the interactions between pedagogy and access to multiliteracies among culturally and linguistically diverse learners. This critical ethnographic research was conducted in a culturally and linguistically diverse Australian classroom in which the multiliteracies pedagogy of the New London Group was enacted. The study demonstrated that: a) The reversion to monomodal writing pedagogies was inconsistent with the aims of the multiliteracies pedagogy; b) The transmission of exclusive grammar worked against cultural inclusiveness; and b) Existing pedagogies of the typographic age limited the non-linear potentials of digitally mediated textual practice required in society today.

Systemic policy has alerted educators to the rapidly changing forms of meaning-making and increased cultural and linguistic diversity. This research paper responds to these imperatives, informing educators of the powerful social possibilities and constraints realised by the multiliteracies pedagogy in the context of local diversity and global connectedness.