[xmca] Mixed up and Multiple

Dear Colleagues,
Forgive me, but I'm teaching three classes this summer and have not been
following threads... and, as it turned out, have mixed up my Mikes and
Michaels...and sent this off to Mike Cole in error...
In essence, I'm wondering if this might fit with symposiums under
development or to be developed... it's multi-modal, multi-genre, and
mixed methods... It's still in need of some work to articulate... and I
am still finishing the analysis... but here goes...

Author(iz)ing the Multimodal-Multigenre 'Zine

Pre-service teachers responded to a text on the aesthetic and efferent
stances to reading (Applegate & Applegate, 2004) by wondering if someone
could change their stance; they asked if it was possible to become an
aesthetic reader, to develop a more aesthetic stance, and if this might
also apply to writing. More specifically, many were deeply troubled by
their performance orientation to writing and worried that they would not
be able to engage their elementary students in meaningful text
production if they themselves could not do so.
The multimodal-multigenre 'Zine - a mini-magazine that supports the
notion of 'text' writ broadly - was developed in response to these
concerns, providing students with an opportunity to engage in a
process-activity to promote their own development that they could also
take into their future classrooms. Based on the multigenre research
project (Romano, 1995; Allen, 2001) coupled with understandings of
transmediation (Harste, 2000) and multiple sign systems (Berghoff, 2000)
this project conceptualizes the aesthetic and the efferent stance in
connection to writing as socially and culturally mediated (Vygotsky,
1978, 1986; Kozulin, 1996; Stetsenko, 2005), allowing for 're-mediation'
that speaks to Guthrie's (2000) work on the contexts for motivation and
engagement when theorizing the activity.
In practice, preservice teachers engaged in a process-activity that
asked them to take risks in a writing process oriented to discovering
the multiplicity in the reader - writer perspective by using multimodal
as well as multigenre representations of a self-chosen theme. The
production process also involved participating in peer reviews
structured to encourage community and collaboration as valuable in the
conceptualization and articulation of successful texts. Just prior to
publication, pairs of students each created a metaphorical
representation of a common underlying theme discovered in their 'Zines
and used diorama as the mode of expression to enhance their
understanding of the role of narrative in human identity formation and
conceptualization. Preservice teachers were also asked to journal at
specific points, to connect theory to process to product using a 3-2-1
journal format, and to complete pre-and post short response
questionnaires intended to mine shifts in perspective. A mixed methods
approach (Creswell, 2003, 2005; Greene 2007) within an activity theory
(Cole, 1996; Engestrom,1980, 1999; Roth & Lee, 2007) paradigm (Greene &
Caracelli, 1997; Gutierrez & Stone, 2000).
The Ultimately, most students were surprised by their engagement in the
project, the way their work became an expression of their identity and
the engagement in the meaning-making process became more important than
completing an assignment or receiving a grade, and most felt that they
could bring this aesthetic process oriented approach to bear upon their
teaching framework even within the current neoliberal, high stakes
context of elementary public education in the United States.

~ Em
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Received on Wed Jul 16 13:07 PDT 2008