Literacies in Digital Contexts strand
This research strand explores:
- how digital resources and contexts are impacting formal pedagogies for literacy;
- how literacies and communicative practices may be evolving in the light of screen-based / digital contexts and affordances.
We refer to the established 'new literacies' paradigm, as well as more recent accounts of literacies as socio-material practices, where meaning making involving text can be understood from a range of diverse perspectives that include, but are not restricted to school-based learning. We have a strong focus on developing both teacher and student agency in the use of digital resources.
Feature projects
These are some of the projects we are involved in to explore the themes of our strand.
Teaching narrative writing with digital resources and apps
This British Academy/Leverhulme project is led by Clare Dowdall and explores how digital resources can be used to support the teaching of writing in primary schools.
Teaching English when Schools are Closed
This BERA project is led by Annabel Watson and explores how Secondary School English teachers adapted to online teaching during covid lockdowns, and the impact of this experience on their teaching after schools reopened.
Feature publications
Dowdall C (2020). Teaching writing in digital times: Stories from the early years. In Chen H, Myhill D, Lewis H (Eds.) Developing Writers Across the Primary and Secondary Years, Oxon: Routledge, 78-93.
Dowdall C, Burnett C (eds) (2021). Digital Literacies in Education: teaching, Learning and Assessment in 21st Century Classrooms. Leicester, United Kingdom Literacy Association.
Myhill D, Watson A, Newman R, Dowdall C (2022). Understanding Literacy and Disadvantage., SAGE.