Abstract

The multiliteracies approach to literacy education has become established as an accessible and effective paradigm for classroom practice in the 21st century. The Multiliteracies Classroom enlivens this theory with its vivid description of events in a real classroom. Teachers will identify with the lively transcripts of classroom interactions, and be inspired to widen students’ access to new literacy practices in an increasingly digital and globalised world. The possibilities and constraints that can be encountered when implementing multiliteracies are explored in detail. Educators know from experience that students begin their classroom journey with entirely unequal opportunities for literacy success. The Multiliteracies Classroom does not ignore this reality, highlighting the influence of society’s patterns of power on literacy learning in the digital age. Its key themes provide a blueprint for the future of literacy research and practice.

This is both an entertaining and an erudite book that discusses the latest and most relevant pedagogical theories, but grounds them in the practical, everyday activities of a primary school classroom...This book provides thought-provoking and illuminating discussion on how we can best prepare our children for the digital world. It is also a good place to start for educators who are feeling slightly anxious about the changing face of literacy teaching.

We've made great progress in theorising multiliteracies - but realising them in the traditional, print-based cultures of schooling is a far more difficult challenge. This book traces the journey of a researcher, a teacher and her students in bringing multiliteracies to life in the classroom.

The Multiliteracies Classroom is a well-written and timely contribution to the field of literacy and language learning. The book provides extremely valuable insights into the ways in which new technologies, together with linguistic and sociocultural diversity, are altering the nature of literacy and the implications of being literate. It is certainly a thought-provoking work “intended to make a significant contribution to education for years to come”.

Kathy A. Mills is Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Education at Queensland University of Technology, Australia. Kathy's research interests include literacy, digital media, education research paradigms, critical sociology, ethnography, classroom observation, discourse analysis, and multimodal analysis. She is Associate Editor of the Australian Educational Researcher and her previous works include The Multiliteracies Classroom (Multilingual Matters, 2011).