Written Communication Apr 2017

Seeing Academically Marginalized Students’ Multimodal Designs From a Position of Strength

Kate T. Anderson Arizona State University ; Olivia G. Stewart Arizona State University ; Dani Kachorsky Arizona State University

Abstract

This article examines multimodal texts created by a cohort of academically marginalized secondary school students in Singapore as part of a language arts unit on persuasive composition. Using an interpretivist qualitative approach, we examine students’ multimodal designs to highlight opportunities taken up for expanding literacy practices traditionally not available to lower tracked students. Findings examine the authorial stances and rhetorical force that students enacted in their multimodal designs, despite lack of regular opportunities to author complex texts and a schooling history of low expectations. We extend arguments for the importance of providing all students with opportunities to take positions as designers and creators while acknowledging systematic barriers to such opportunities for academically marginalized students. This study thus counters deficit views of academically marginalized students’ literacy practices by demonstrating their authoritative stance taking and enacting of layered positionalities through multimodal designs in which they renegotiated ways of knowing and doing in their classroom.

Journal
Written Communication
Published
2017-04-01
DOI
10.1177/0741088317699897
CompPile
Open Access
Closed
Topics
Export
BibTeX RIS

Citation context

Cited by in this index (6)

  1. Stewart (2023)
    Using digital media in the classroom as writing platforms for multimodal author…
    Computers and Composition
  2. Reid et al. (2022)
    One Fourth-Grader’s Orchestration of Modes Through Comic Composition
    Written Communication
  3. Corrigan et al. (2021)
    Articulating a Sociocognitive Construct of Writing Expertise for the Digital Age
    Journal of Writing Analytics
  4. Hesse (2019)
    Journals in Composition Studies, Thirty-Five Years After
    College English
  5. Smith (2019)
    Mediational Modalities: Adolescents Collaboratively Interpreting Literature thr…
    Research in the Teaching of English
Show all 6 →
  1. Smith (2018)
    Composing for Affect, Audience, and Identity: Toward a Multidimensional Underst…
    Written Communication

References (62) · 11 in this index

  1. 10.1080/02671520902867200
     ↗
  2. 10.1080/19463014.2016.1271742
     ↗
  3. 10.14507/epaa.v23.2141
     ↗
  4. Anderson (2013)
    Contrasting Systemic Functional Linguistic and Situated Literacies Approaches t…
    Written Communication
  5. Anderson K. T. (2008)
    Youth Tell: Bridging Formal and Informal Learning through Digital Storytelling with Singa…
Show all 62 →
  1. 10.2478/dfl-2014-0061
     ↗
  2. Barton D. (2000)
    Situated literacies: Reading and writing in context
  3. 10.1146/annurev.an.19.100190.000423
     ↗
  4. Bezemer et al. (2008)
    Writing in Multimodal Texts: A Social Semiotic Account of Designs for Learning
    Written Communication
  5. Compton-Lilly (2014)
    The Development of Writing Habitus: A Ten-Year Case Study of a Young Writer
    Written Communication
  6. Cope B. (2000)
    Multiliteracies: Literacy learning and the design of social futures
  7. Dyson A. H. (2008)
    Written Communication
  8. Dyson (2013)
    The Case of the Missing Childhoods: Methodological Notes for Composing Children…
    Written Communication
  9. Gee J. P. (2004)
    Situated language and learning: A critique of traditional schooling
  10. Green J. (2012)
    Research methods and methodologies in education
  11. Green J. (2013)
    Learning lives: Transactions, digital culture, and learner identity
  12. Halliday M. K. E. (1994)
    An introduction to functional grammar
  13. 10.1007/s11422-008-9136-7
     ↗
  14. 10.1017/CBO9780511841057
     ↗
  15. 10.1016/j.ijedudev.2010.12.004
     ↗
  16. Hull et al. (2006)
    Crafting an Agentive Self: Case Studies of Digital Storytelling
    Research in the Teaching of English
  17. Hull et al. (2005)
    Locating the Semiotic Power of Multimodality
    Written Communication
  18. Ismail M. (2005)
    Redesigning pedagogy: Reflections on theory and practice
  19. 10.3102/0091732X07310586
     ↗
  20. 10.4135/9781446282229.n18
     ↗
  21. Jewitt C. (2014)
    The Routledge handbook of multimodal analysis
  22. Kirkland D. E. (2013)
    A search past silence: The literacy of young Black men
  23. Kress G. (2010)
    Multimodality: A social semiotic approach to contemporary communication
  24. 10.4324/9780203619728
     ↗
  25. 10.1111/j.1467-9345.2007.00460.x
     ↗
  26. 10.1177/016146819509700104
     ↗
  27. 10.1111/j.1741-5446.1998.00351.x
     ↗
  28. 10.1177/14687984030031003
     ↗
  29. 10.2307/748192
     ↗
  30. Leitão (2003)
    Evaluating and Selecting Counterarguments: Studies of Children's Rhetorical Awareness
    Written Communication
  31. Lillis (2008)
    Ethnography as Method, Methodology, and “Deep Theorizing”: Closing the Gap Betw…
    Written Communication
  32. Luke C. (2003)
    Reading Research Quarterly
  33. 10.1080/09500780802152762
     ↗
  34. Mills et al. (2014)
    Time, Space, and Text in the Elementary School Digital Writing Classroom
    Written Communication
  35. Ministry of Education. (2010a). English language syllabus 2010: Primary and secondary (express/normal (academ…
  36. Ministry of Education. (2010b). English language syllabus 2010: Primary (foundation) and secondary (normal (t…
  37. Ministry of Education. (2012). Press release: Performance by ethnic group in national examinations 2002-2011.…
  38. Ministry of Education. (2014). Education statistics digest 2014. Retrieved from http://www.moe.gov.sg/educati…
  39. Moore B. N. (2015)
    Critical thinking
  40. 10.17763/haer.66.1.17370n67v22j160u
     ↗
  41. 10.1177/016146819509600418
     ↗
  42. Omi M. (2015)
    Racial formation in the United States
  43. Rahim L. Z. (1998)
    The Singapore dilemma: The political and educational marginality of the Malay community
  44. 10.1075/prag.5.4.04ram
     ↗
  45. Saldaña J. (2015)
    The coding manual for qualitative researchers
  46. Shanahan (2013)
    Composing “Kid-Friendly” Multimodal Text: When Conversations, Instruction, and …
    Written Communication
  47. 10.1080/00138390608691341
     ↗
  48. 10.1007/978-0-387-30424-3_31
     ↗
  49. Stroud C. (2012)
    Style, identity and literacy: English in Singapore
  50. 10.1080/17405904.2015.1034740
     ↗
  51. Unsworth L. (2001)
    Teaching multiliteracies across the curriculum
  52. Unsworth L. (2002)
    Australian Journal of Language and Literacy
  53. Unsworth L. (2006)
    English Teaching: Practice and Critique
  54. 10.1080/17439884.2016.1160926
     ↗
  55. Vasudevan L. (2009)
    10.58680/ee20097236
    English Education  ↗
  56. Vasudevan et al. (2010)
    Rethinking Composing in a Digital Age: Authoring Literate Identities Through Mu…
    Written Communication
  57. Wheeler S. (2000)
    Deconstruction as analytic philosophy
CrossRef global citation count: 32 View in citation network → Build reading path →

Related articles

  1. Reflections: A Journal of Community-Engaged Writing and Rhetoric Feb 2026
    Voices from Rock Bottom: Queering Addiction Recovery Rhetoric & Community Literacy ↗
    Danielle Bacibianco
    rhetorical criticism archival research multimodality literacy studies gender and writing public rhetoric community literacy
  2. Pedagogy Apr 2025
    Contributors ↗
    modern rhetorical theory rhetorical criticism african american rhetorics cultural rhetorics first-year composition writing pedagogy basic writing graduate education two-year college teacher development writing centers technical communication professional writing labor and working conditions digital rhetoric multimodality social media literacy studies race and writing gender and writing community literacy literary studies editorial matter
  3. Pedagogy Oct 2024
    Contributors ↗
    rhetorical criticism first-year composition writing pedagogy basic writing writing across the curriculum graduate education two-year college service learning teacher development revision argument collaborative writing assessment writing program administration multimodality multilingual writers literacy studies race and writing disability studies community literacy editorial matter
  4. Community Literacy Journal Oct 2022
    Front Matter ↗
    rhetorical criticism creative writing collaborative writing multimodality social media literacy studies race and writing gender and writing community literacy editorial matter
  5. Community Literacy Journal Apr 2022
    Front Matter ↗
    Community Literacy Journal
    rhetorical criticism creative writing collaborative writing multimodality social media literacy studies race and writing gender and writing disability studies community literacy editorial matter