Examining the Influences: Literacy Teacher Educators Who Use a Multiliteracies Approach

Abstract

I am currently a doctoral candidate at the Ontario Institute of Studies in Education, Department of Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning in the final stages of writing my doctoral thesis. I began my PhD in 2012 while also a sessional instructor at Brock University in the Department of Teacher Education. The goal for my doctoral studies was twofold: to more deeply understand the role of the literacy teacher educator in this current tumultuous educational climate and to examine multiliteracies as a viable pedagogical approach for 21st century teachers and learners. During the first year of my doctoral studies, I was invited to join a research team for a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada grant study, examining the literacy beliefs and practices of 28 literacy teacher educators from four countries. This case study is a subset of the larger Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada research project. This case study examines the influences that led six literacy teacher educators to adopt a multiliteracies approach. This case study sheds light on the advantages and disadvantages in conducting interviews over an extended period of time (3 years in this case), the importance of aligning the researcher’s personal paradigm or belief system with their research methodology, the intricacies involved when using a constructivist grounded theory approach, and the advantages and disadvantages in using analysis software.

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