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Identity and Knowledge in a Multiliteracies Classroom

Secondary English Teachers Self-Identity and Knowledge: Narrating Teacher Development in a

Multiliteracies Classroom

Laura L. Hegge

OISE/UT

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Abstract

Secondary English Teachers Self-Identity and Knowledge: Narrating Teacher

Development in a Multiliteracies Classroom is a narrative inquiry into the knowledge, identity

and practice of two experienced English teachers. The purpose is to examine how teachers'

identities and knowledge interact to direct their professional learning and classroom practice. By

inquiring into the narratives of the researcher and her co-participant, who both have

multiliteracies approaches, teaching a range of traditional and non-traditional texts from an anti-

racist standpoint, the study analyzes how some teachers are able to develop these approaches to

teaching in a subject field torn between English as literature studies and English as literacy

studies.

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Introduction

Ontario secondary schools are faced today with a range of difficult challenges, one of

which is student literacy. The provinces controversial high-stakes standardized testing of

student literacy in Grade 10 has in recent years drawn much public attention to this age-old

problem in schooling. Greater demand is now being placed upon secondary schools to address

literacy in the high school curriculum, and regardless of ones position on the politics of

standardized testing and measuring literacy levels, it is evident that all students should have

meaningful and effective literacy instruction through all their years of schooling. While there are

initiatives in many schools and school boards to create cross-curricular approaches to literacy at

the secondary level, English teachers often are held most accountable for students success. The

focus by policy makers on literacy in secondary schools reflects a shift in the way in which

English education is conceived at this level within the field of education. Traditionally, the

subject of English was considered to be literary education, providing students with a background

in the Western literary canon and an introduction to the art of western rhetoric (Lee, 2002).

English teachers embraced these literary forms, remaining at the center of instruction and

interpretation (Bean & Moni, 2003, p.639). The subject of secondary English now inhabits

contested epistemological ground; there is a conceptual divide between what was traditionally

conceived as subject knowledge and how current curricula and practices are conceived. Now,

teachers in Ontario are required to teach students literacy skills in reading, writing, oral

communication and media studies (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2007a; 2007b). More recent

conceptions and practices of secondary English instruction favour a dialogical approach to

literacy that involves a range of textual and writing experiences and which values student voices

in addition to the voice of the teacher (Agee, 2000; Langer, 2001).

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This paper is a narrative inquiry, which examines the knowledge and identities of two

experienced secondary English teachers who, over time, have embraced our role as literacy

educators, and who have developed a broad definition for the term, literacy, and how it applies to

our practice. Specifically, this study is an inquiry into the reciprocal influences of knowledge and

identity on the construction of experienced teachers multiliteracies (New London Group, 1995)

approaches to teaching secondary English. A multiliteracies approach addresses both the

multilingual and multicultural diversity in the student body in urban, Canadian schools, and in

addition defines literacy as incorporating a range of text forms beyond traditional notions of

reading and writing. A teacher who has a multiliteracies approach develops critical anti-racist,

inclusive curricula, which teach students skills with print texts, oral texts and visual texts,

including electronic texts. This narrative inquiry into the knowledge, identities and practice of

two experienced English teachers develops current understandings of how teachers learn to

develop a multiliteracies approach to teaching.

The issue at the heart of this study is the nature of teacher development in secondary

English, with an emphasis on links between knowledge and identity construction. How teachers

embrace their role as leaders in literacy and develop a corresponding classroom practice is a key

concern. In Ontario, the shift from English as literature studies to English as literacy studies has

been complicated by the nature of the sudden and sweeping curriculum changes brought about

by the provincial government at the end of the 20th century. Many teachers opposed the

implementation of the standardized literacy test in Ontario, pointing out its many flaws

(Allingham, 2000), and considering it to be damaging to students and the professional judgment

of teachers. Because of the strong associations many teachers in Ontario have with the Ontario

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Secondary Schools Literacy Test (OSSLT) and literacy pedagogy, literacy instruction is

sometimes viewed in a negative light. However, the changing nature of secondary school

student populations, due in part to new minimum educational requirements for many entry-level

jobs, immigration, and new literacy demands in a technologically-driven society (Lee, 2002)

requires a changing approach to English education from literary instruction to literacy instruction

(Cummins, 2006; Lee, 2002). This study examines how a colleague and I have faced and

embraced challenges of teacher learning and identity as we have developed our approaches to

English education over time in a professional environment that has been somewhat resistant to

change. The following narrative inquiry is the result of a co-construction of the multiple

narratives that have intersected and interacted to allow us to develop into the teachers we are

now.

This research project is born out of my ten-year undertaking of becoming an English

teacher. I have shifted through a range of teaching contexts. I have worked in international and

Canadian settings, taught EFL, ESL and first language English courses, and I have worked with

preschool, elementary, secondary and adult learners. The challenges I have faced in learning to

develop a multiliteracies approach over time have led me to this inquiry with the purpose of

understanding what other English teachers with such an approach know, how they gained that

knowledge, and why they sought to develop such a practice.

In this study, it is assumed that a multiliteracies approach to secondary English education

will result in positive outcomes for students (Cummins, 2006; Lee, 2002; New London Group,

1995). This study will examine the problem of how the co-participants have overcome obstacles

to change our practice in such a way that it addresses the evolving needs of students in our

current educational system. Understandings in the field of teacher development of why and how

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some teachers generally develop positive attitudes and practices are wide-ranging but piecemeal.

There is a large and recent body of research on the positive effects of social supports for teachers

through both formal and informal mentoring and induction programs (Howe, 2006; see also

Chubbuck, Clift, Allard & Quinlan, 2001; Eldar, Nabel, Schechter, Talmor & Mazin, 2003).

Some research cites quality teacher education (Darling-Hammond, 2000; Wilson, Floden &

Ferrini-Mundy, 2002) and the development of pedagogical knowledge as a crucial factor in

positive teacher development, while other studies focus on teachers experiential knowledge

(Gitlin, Peck, Aposhian, Hadley & Porter, 2002; Norman & Feiman-Nemser, 2005), and still

others attribute teacher success to disposition (Johnson & Reiman, 2007). Each of these studies

provides a story of successful teacher development; none, however, adequately considers how

multiple factors contributing to this development interact. Teachers develop continually

throughout their careers (Lynn, 2002). There is evidence that identity, the emotions and

knowledge interact, influencing teacher development and subsequently practice (Lasky, 2005).

Literature about teacher induction exists that shows links between early teacher experiences and

identity construction (Herbert & Worthy, 2001; Hoy & Spero, 2005; Liston, Whitcomb & Borko,

2006), but fewer studies exist that focus on the interactions of teachers self-identities and

knowledge at more advanced stages of their careers.

This study examines what occurs when experienced teachers self-identities interact with

narratives of professional knowledge and learning. Through the research, I develop a

preliminary understanding of the effect interactions between these two narratives of teacher

development have in the practice of secondary English teachers and propose areas for further

research in teacher development and English education.

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Methodology

Theory

In order to understand how some English teachers are able to develop a successful

multiliteracies practice, the study employs a narrative approach. Narrative inquiry and self-study

are blurred genres of research (Denzin & Lincon, 2005) that overlap in the ways in which they

employ participants narratives and are situated with in the first person experience of the

researcher (Hamilton, Smith, Worthington, 2008). While this study employs Laboskys (2004)

five characteristics of self-study, I will argue that the research is soundly rooted in a narrative

methodology. Labosky argues self-studies are self-initiated, improvement-aimed, and

interactive, and that they employ multiple qualitative methods that establish trustworthiness

(2004), and in keeping with these characteristics, I initiated this qualitative, multi-method study

in order to inquire into and improve my teaching practice. What makes this a narrative inquiry

and not a self-study is the concern in the research with story and the interaction of the narratives

of the participants. Narrative inquirers view teacher development as a process of interaction

among the past, present and possible future narratives of teachers personal and professional

lives, resulting in ongoing change (Beattie, 1995; Beattie, Dobson, Thornton & Hegge, 2007;

Beattie & Hegge, 2008; Beattie, Thornton, Dobson & Hegge, 2005; See also: Clandinin &

Connelly, 1996; Conle, 2000, 2001; Connelly, Clandinin & He, 1997; Craig 1995, 2000, 2001,

2004; Elbaz-Luwisch, 2002, 2004; Eng, 2005; Kitchen, 2005; Olson & Craig, 2001, 2005).

Under examination in this study are the complex interactions of elements of teachers knowledge

and teachers self-identities as evidenced in their stories of teaching.

In the context of narrative inquiry, teachers knowledge is considered to be personal and

practical, a particular way of reconstructing the past and the intentions for the future to deal

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with the exigencies of a present situation, (Connelly & Clandinin, 1988, p. 25). In narrative

inquiry, personal practical knowledge, which is primarily tacit, is held in the participants

narratives and analysis of these narratives sheds insight into the nature of that knowledge.

Knowledge is closely linked in all cases to language (Gadamer, 1970/2006; Wells, 1995) and

narrative constructions (Crites, 1971, 1986); human beings interact with the world through

language and tell stories of experience to communicate. Memory and narrative are interwoven,

and professional knowledge relies on each. Ben-Peretz (1995) discusses the centrality of

memory in professional knowledge. She embraces Cohens synthesis of research about memory

(1989 as cited in Ben-Peretz, 1995), and describes two types of memory: episodic and semantic.

She discusses how episodic memory (autobiographical information about personal experience)

and semantic memory (general knowledge, categories and schema) interact and form an

interdependent relationship. Professional knowledge, held in teachers memories, involves a

complex sorting of personal experience and theoretical knowledge that is the basis of personal

practical knowledge. Recall of memories for application in present tasks and/or future goals

results in knowledge transformation because it is affected and modified by new interactions with

the outside world. This ongoing narrative construction results in the continually developing

personal practical knowledge held by teachers and other professionals.

In addition to understanding the knowledge construction involved in the development of

a multiliteracies approach to secondary English, another aim of this study is to understand the

role that teacher self-identity plays in the formation of such practice. Teacher self-identity is a

conceptualization of a professional self that is constructed and reconstructed through internal and

external influences (Day, Kington, Stobart & Sammons, 2006). Kelchtermans (2005) describes

teacher self-identity as a form of narrative self-understanding. Considered in light of Ben-

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2. What factors aid in the construction of a teacher identity that commits to the ongoing

development of a multiliteracies approach?

3. What is the impact of the interaction of the narrative of teacher identity and the

narrative of teacher learning on professional knowledge and practice?

Two participants working within a diverse urban public school board were selected from

a list of teachers supplied by a curriculum consultant. This consultant recommended potential

participants who were known to have a multiliteracies approach to teaching secondary English

and who had more than five years of teaching experience. I selected the first two willing

volunteers and am myself co-participant in the study. This paper is an analysis of the first

complete set of data collected from the study of my own practice and from one of the

participants, Anandi Kamala.

Data Collection and Analysis

Data has been collected from interviews, observations, and documents such as

instructional materials, communications and a research journal. Narrative methods have been

used to analyze the data, entailing an ongoing process of uncovering themes, presenting them to

the participant for co-construction of meaning and ensuing refinement of the analysis.

Two scheduled semi-structured interviews of approximately one hour were conducted

with Anandi and transcribed. The purpose of the interviews was to elicit from the participant her

understandings about her knowledge of teaching, her professional learning processes, and her

personal and professional identity. Interviews were designed to draw out stories of Anandis

knowledge and practice, and to encourage her to reflect on how her practice has changed over

time. Classroom observations of Anandis practice took place in one class section of her

childrens literature course over one unit of study. Anandi selected a unit of study that she

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believed highlights her multiliteracies approaches, which was a unit on fairytales and folktales in

her childrens literature course. I made handwritten notes that included thick descriptions of

activities in the classroom and collected copies of teaching materials handed by Anandi to the

students.

Data on my own practice was gathered in several ways. I answered the interview

questions posed of the participant in my research journal. In addition, I have drawn from my

professional journals and other writings in which I have written stories about my own classroom

practice over the course of the past fours years of graduate study and secondary teaching.

Analysis of data employed the qualitative approach of narrative inquiry in which

narrative is both the data source and the method of analysis (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000). All

data has been analyzed for emergent themes, which fall under two general categories: knowledge

and identity. A narrative account has been composed in the form of a letter to the participant,

which outlined themes emerging from the data. The purpose of this account is to invite the

participant to verify emerging themes and to give her opportunity to collaborate and co-construct

the understandings emerging from the study. Participant feedback involves explaining where the

analysis has not represented her understandings, providing clarification of her understandings,

and also providing confirmation if the analysis fits with her understandings. Refinements in the

analysis resulting from feedback from the narrative accounts are incorporated into the narrative

analysis of the data, resulting in this paper.

A Tale of Two Teachers: Stories of Multiliteracies in Secondary English

In this section of the paper, I shift into a narrative mode of analysis, in which the stories

of two teachers, me and my co-participant, Anandi, are both the subject and the vehicle for

analysis. The section is divided into two chapters: My Story andAnandis Story. By

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juxtaposing the two stories, I intend to show the reader how my co-participant and I know and

experience our teaching practices, and how our identities influence their ongoing construction

and re-construction. Each story, while different in content, follows the same structure. First, I

provide a brief biographical introduction that sets the stage for the discussion of classroom

practice. I then present narratives that capture the essence of each teachers knowledge, in a sub-

section entitled, Creating a Multiliteracies Classroom: What the Teacher Knows. These

narratives are followed by stories about how that knowledge was obtained inMaking

Multiliteracies Connections: How the Teacher Learned. Finally, I examine the motivation

behind each teacher for pursuing her individual course of teacher development, focusing on the

influencing and conditioning effects of self-identity in Reflecting on the Creation: Why the

Teacher Sought out a Multiliteracies Practice. . . I begin with my story.

My Story

I have been teaching for ten years, and in that time I have worked in a range of contexts.

My career began in Japan, during a time when teaching jobs were scarce at home in Ontario. I

arrived in Tokyo in May 1997 and worked as an adult EFL instructor for ten months. Disliking

the corporate culture of the EFL school in which lessons were pre-packaged and it was made

clear we were instructors, not teachers, I quickly moved into a small international high school

located just outside of Tokyo, which boasted an English Ontario curriculum and Canadian

certified teachers and administration. There I taught ESL, English, business English and drama

to small classes of students, the majority of whom were Japanese. Eventually, homesickness

urged me back to Canada, and in January of 2001 I returned to Toronto to pursue a career in the

public school system and a Masters in Education at The Ontario Institute for Studies in

Education at the University of Toronto (hereafter, OISE/UT). I experienced reverse culture

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April, I tutored and taught elementary language arts and secondary essay writing at a cram

school north of Toronto until returning to the public board in September. I have worked in the

same public school since September 2003 teaching English, while completing my M.Ed. and

beginning my Ph.D. in curriculum studies and teacher development. My professional and

academic focus since that return has been on developing my understanding of and practical

application of multiliteracies in secondary English.

Creating a Multiliteracies Classroom: What I Know.

Its a typical morning. I was up later than my husband would have liked the night before

preparing for todays lessons. My grade 11 students will be faced with a lesson in revising a

narrative essay and my grade 10 students will be writing love letters from Romeo to Rosaline.

Somehow, despite the hours of preparation, I still feel scattered as I look in my planner, locate

todays handouts and run from the office to the photocopier and back to my desk. It is ten

minutes before class as I approach my room, later than I would like, as usual. There are few

students waiting, and as I open the door several follow me in. We greet each other, and as they

sit down to chat I scrawl the agenda for the day on the chalkboard. The room, which I share with

another teacher, has a Norval Morrisseau print, a poster from Picassos blue period and several

motivational posters on the wall, along with samples of student work. Six rows of desks line the

old and somewhat dirty room. It looks to me like a class out of any Hollywood flick about an

urban school, tidy but slightly shabby.

While the school in which I work lacks much in the way of the latest educational tools,

today I have my personal laptop and a video projector in tow. As the lesson begins I pull up my

sample first draft of the narrative essay assignment, entitled Turning Points, which the students

are working on. We read the draft that I have composed and I ask students to help me revise it.

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We have discussed the nature of revision; students know that at this point in the writing process

we are looking at ideas and content and the logical and aesthetic arrangement of elements of the

story. The students have been discussing how a narrative essay uses literary elements to tell a

story with a point. As they search for the point of my draft, they offer some insightful

suggestions for me to improve my writing. While we work, I show them some of the features of

Microsoft Word that are useful for writers, and many are surprised and amazed by the editing

feature, track changes.

At the end of the period when this group of university track grade 11s file out, my grade

10 students trickle in. These are applied level students, currently bound for college or the

workplace. I have had many conversations with my colleagues about the nature of streaming at

our school. My university track classes are dominated by a critical mass of middle class

students. It is painfully clear to me that students are streamed by social class: this group and

others I have taught in this stream are predominantly working class. Interestingly, when the

grade 10s arrive, I put the computer away and pull out my chalk to write instructions on the

board. We are studyingRomeo and Juliet, which I believe is a questionable choice for this

group of students, selected in a previous year by an unknown teacher in my department.

Thankfully they are for the most part enjoying the story. We do a reading log at the beginning of

each class, in which I pose a topic that requires them to make text to self connections. The next

activity today is to write a love letter in role as Romeo, to his first love, Rosaline. I ask students

to write a note, designed for whatever medium they would use in their daily course of

socializing, such as a text message, Facebook post, or email. I tell them that they are to pretend

that they are a grade 12 boy named Romeo and that they have a crush on a girl in grade 9 named

Rosaline. The note is Romeos attempt to get Rosalines attention. I tell them to write it in a

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voice that comes naturally to them. One girl begins speaking in her Jamaican dialect. I

announce that yes, that would be great. Please dont pretend to be Shakespeare, I implore

them. They all write their notes, some with great amusement, then we share them. There is a

range of tones, from earnest to risqu, and all students in the class get a good chuckle from the

exercise. Next I give each student a printed list of pick-up lines published in a gentlemans

handbook in the seventeenth century. I tell them to compose another love letter, this time using

phrases closer to the language of Shakespeares time. Students peruse the list, ask questions, and

laugh at some of the more outrageous lines. They begin working and compose drafts of their

letters.

There are many tensions in each teaching day. Here I will reflect on some held in this

day, many of which I still do not know how to resolve. I have taught two sections per year of the

grade 11 course over five years, while this is the first time I am teaching a single section of this

grade 10 course. I have two senior colleagues with whom I can collaborate and discuss the grade

11 course. I work in solitude from a two page document alongside a colleague who is

uninterested in collaboration to prepare the grade 10 course. The difference in my comfort level

and my approach to the curricula is glaring. I notice the different ways in which I characterize

multiliteracies curricula in these two different classes. In the one class, I rely more heavily on

technology, and in the other I rely more on including the authentic voices of the students. I have

noted that the two groups are clearly streamed along socio-economic lines, and I wonder if I am

serving my grade 10 students in the best way. They face greater literacy challenges: many of

them receive support from the special education department, and only one of them can write

comparably to the average student in the grade 11 university track course. I know they need to

work on basic reading and writing skills. I know that earlier attempts I have made to bring them

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into the computer lab had very mixed results; I spent most of my time trying to focus their

attention away from personal browsing and onto the task at hand. I know Ive been afraid to try

teaching these students with computers again. I know there is assistive technology that would

greatly help these students, but I havent yet had the opportunity to learn how to use it and test it

out myself. While I am satisfied that students in each class are learning, I am not satisfied that I

am doing enough to create an engaging experience for my grade 10 students. It is clear to me

when I compare my practice in each of these courses that it takes time and collaboration to build

a multiliteracies practice in each and every course.

Making Multiliteracies Connections: How I Learned.

I am still learning about teaching with a multiliteracies approach. To me, learning to

teach this way is a necessity required of me in the contexts in which I have taught. Currently, I

work in an urban, public high school and teach a socio-economically and ethnically diverse

group of students. In my experience, their varying backgrounds, interests and aptitudes cannot

be fairly met and challenged by a traditional approach to English education. I have been learning

over the years I have taught at this school to devise lessons and assignments that address a

breadth of literacies in the attempt to motivate and interest students. I am continually involved in

a process of seeking out different instructional strategies and different texts to bring to students.

I constantly find myself in the curriculum cycle of orientation, development, implementation and

evaluation (Miller & Seller, 1990): I evaluate my stance and practice, I devise and present new

strategies and curriculum; I engage in a process of reflection; I revise my strategies and try again.

When I teach, I am constantly asking myself, what is working? Why is this working? Why is

that not? How can I use this technique or that text more effectively next time? Through this

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cycle I have slowly been gaining an understanding of how to teach multiliteracies in the context

of high school English.

To give the reader an example of this process in action I will tell the story of introducing

book clubs into the grade 11 University English course I teach. After studying with Mary Kooy

and reading her book, Telling Stories in Book Clubs: Women Teachers and Professional

Development(2006), I was challenged by her questions as to why English teachers who enjoy

immense professional learning benefits from being involved in book clubs do not use similar

practices in their English classrooms. While I understood, as she also did, that adult education

and secondary education are very different contexts, I knew that my students could benefit from

the collaborative learning environment required by the book club format. I decided to

experiment.

I began slowly and had all my grade 11 students in the 2007 to 2008 school year read the

same novel, The Kite Runner, (Hosseini, 2003). I instructed them to keep a log of their reading,

responding at least once per chapter. I had two sections of the course, one first thing in the

morning and another in the afternoon, so I had the opportunity to engage in curriculum reflection

and revision that could take place on the same day. When I first checked the students reading

logs, I was surprised and alarmed to discover that many were at a loss as to what they should

write. I had asked them to make connections with their readings and to respond to them and had

given them a handout with a number of prompts with which they could begin writing. We had

discussed the following diagram in class on several occasions, noting how good readers make

multiple connections in various ways with texts, and I had encouraged students to try to make

connections in each area:

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PersonalExperience

WorldKnowledge

Other Texts


I knew that I had modeled the activity of making logs for them, reading aloud and then making

my log on an overhead slide, so it was clear to me that a lack of guidance was not the main

problem.

As I began to inquire further into the students difficulties, two main themes began to

arise in their answers to my questioning: one group of students felt the task simply to be an

onerous imposition that ruined their reading experience. Another group thought the activity

was like kindergarten and I heard from several of them that they had done such logs in grade

four. When I looked at the logs from the second group, I noticed that the majority of

connections they were making were to personal experience. They had misunderstood the

activity, perhaps because of my emphasis on personal connections in the selection I had modeled

for them.

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In the attempt to address this emerging problem, I discussed the issue during class with

students. I explained that it is natural at the beginning of a text for our reactions and connections

to be mostly personal, but that as we were studying a novel, the goal was to move towards the

other types of connections, text to text and text to world, as we read further. In addition, I

explained that in making their logs they were participating actively in their reading, which is

hard work, but which would lead to the development of academic note-taking skills that would

greatly benefit them in grade 12 and beyond. My afternoon class grudgingly accepted my

explanations, but a vocal group of students in my first period class had in my view written me off

as a teacher who was condescending to them.

I was about to ditch the idea of book clubs altogether, but was encouraged by a fellow

graduate student, who was an English teacher using this method, and Mary Kooy my professor,

to persevere. Before the next novel study unit, I gave each class a book talk on five different and

varied texts that were readily available in the bookroom at my school and then put it to a vote.

The first vote, by secret ballot, was whether or not we should do book clubs. I explained that if

we did, they would keep another reading log, and that they would be required to participate in

groups within their class and in online discussion forums which would include students from the

other class who had read the same novel. The other option was to vote to select a single novel

that we would study as a class in a more traditional way.

To my great surprise, the overwhelming majority of students in each class voted to

continue the experiment. Students chose the book that appealed to them most, and I divided the

classes into book clubs. These clubs met in person three times through the reading process, after

reading the first third, second third, and then after completing the novel. They also participated

in the online discussion forum, and it was here that I felt I could best eavesdrop on their

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dialogues. I could also in this forum add more meaningfully to their discussion, and my presence

was less that of the teacher looming over a circle of students, but one of a facilitator adding to

and spurring on the conversation.

This example of developing multiliteracies activities in my secondary English practice is

one of many that have followed a similar professional learning curve. I began with the

experience of personally studying in a collaborative learning environment, which in this case was

structured and facilitated by my professor, Mary Kooy. This led to the experiment of

transferring my adult learning experience to the high school learning context. My first attempts

at scaffolding (Vygotsky, 1986) this non-traditional learning environment for students, who

expected me to give them chapter questions and a list of themes and literary elements to explore,

met with a degree of failure, yet, perhaps because of my enthusiasm, most students wanted to

expand the experiment. I then had to learn to direct online learning groups in addition to

classroom discussion groups. I did this with the technical support of my husband, and drew on

my experiences as an online student to facilitate the discussions and direct the online learning. I

learned that the effort was worthwhile, because despite the fact that several students remained

resistant and several others remained disengaged from the learning, I believe from their logs and

online responses that more students participated meaningfully in the reading than in previous

years when we had simply taken up reading questions. I learned to teach this unit that embraced

the theory of multiliteracies through my own experiences, and through collaboration with

supportive colleagues, professors and family members.

Reflecting on the Creation: Why I Sought a Multiliteracies Practice.

The most compelling reason that has driven me to begin developing a multiliteracies

practice is my need for a positive teacher self-identity. When I began teaching in an urban

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Canadian setting, I experienced what Veenman (1984) termed reality shock. I had an

undergraduate degree in drama and English, two years of experience teaching in a Japanese

private school setting, and no experience working with a multicultural Canadian student

population with diverse needs and abilities. The experience of returning to Canada and working

with a group of students who had a range of exceptionalities in the areas of literacy, learning

skills and behaviour was incredibly difficult for me, and I considered leaving teaching altogether.

I saw myself as a failure. I remember one student who I had transferred out of my class into a

behavoural class scheduled at the same time come up to me to say, You got me kicked out of

here because you couldnt handle me. Thats what Mr. ___ (her new teacher) says. I disagreed

with her, telling her that she would be better off in a class where there were fewer distractions.

Privately, I fumed that this teacher would dare say that to her, while simultaneously believing in

my heart that it was true. I didnt know how to handle that student. I was not a good teacher.

I sought help wherever I could find it, primarily in the English office at my school with

my colleagues and in graduate classes at OISE/UT. My colleagues at the school provided me

with substantial emotional support as well as practical tips and lessons for the classroom. The

assistant department head offered to come into my class and test the reading level of several of

my weakest students, and she concluded, as I had, that there were a few of them who could not

even decode words. While she helped me with the assessment, helping me teach them to read

was another matter. A graduate course I was taking with David Booth,Language, Literacy, and

the School Curriculum, helped me to think about teaching literacy at the secondary level, but

since its theoretical nature offered few practical solutions, the course had few immediate effects

on my teaching. What the support of my colleagues and the knowledge I gained in coursework

offered me was a sense that I was a good enough teacher to learn how to be better. Because I

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had hope that I would eventually learn to be a good English teacher, I persevered, and each year I

have learned more about theory and practice through my studies and my experience. With this

perseverance has come a gradual feeling of self-efficacy. I will now hesitatingly acknowledge

that I am a good English teacher. I recognize my successes and my ongoing and evolving

problems, and since I have a positive outlook on my teaching, I know I will be able to continue

improving my practice. My teacher self-identity has driven my professional learning and has

helped me find the motivation to learn to integrate multiliteracies strategies gradually into my

classroom teaching.

Anandis Story

Anandi is an experienced English teacher who is a curriculum leader in a large, urban,

public secondary school. In the past twenty years, she has spent the majority of her career at this

same school, but she has also ventured into a range of other teaching experiences. After ten

years of teaching English and ESL, Anandi undertook the double challenge of teaching in Korea

at a junior school. She taught grade five for two years in an English school with mixed

English/ESL classrooms. This experience provided Anandi with a rich professional development

opportunity, not only because she had switched teaching panels from secondary to elementary,

but also because she became a student of language, much like her students. After returning to

Canada, Anandi continued to teach in the secondary panel. She has taught ESL, English and

leadership at her school.

Creating a Multiliteracies Classroom: What Anandi Knows.

When I first walk into Anandis classroom, I am amazed by the colorful displays on the

walls. I see posters of films and books, many of them childrens literature, and also incredible

examples of student work. Lined up on a ledge by the side chalkboard are a series of student-

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authored picture books. I learn that students have taken these books to a nearby elementary

school and read them to students there. Thumbing through several of them before class, I realize

that students have put great care into making them. One student is early for class, and she

excitedly points me toward her book and that of her friend. She proudly explains the concept

behind the book it is designed for children to get involved and draw their own pictures based

on the prompts in the story. I read her friends story, which she tells me is really good, and

notice the sophistication of the narrative, a tale about a mother who repeatedly tells her young

daughter that it is not time for this or that, who finally tells her it is always time for a hug. It is

clear that the level of skill is very different the friends work is much more complex but that

the level of accomplishment of each student is very high.

The class I am observing is a locally developed childrens literature course. It is open to

students in all streams who are in grades 11 or 12. Anandi has described the course as a literacy

course that attracts a range of students, some of whom are struggling with literacy and some of

whom are in the gifted program at the school and highly literate. I immediately recognize that

this is a difficult course to teach, not only because the teacher develops her own curriculum from

scratch, but also because of the widely varying levels of skill and ability amongst the students. I

am intrigued to discover how Anandi manages the curriculum and the students to produce the

results I have witnessed in the students storybook assignment.

As I spend more time in the classroom, I recognize that the accomplishments of all the

students, whether they are academically inclined or not, are impressive. The first day I observe

this afternoon class, I learn that several students spent their lunch hour broadcasting with a local

community radio station. They had rehearsed and told stories in celebration of Black History

Month. Anandi not only had these students performing for younger children at a nearby school,

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but she had them reading aloud to a primarily adult audience on a public broadcast. I imagined

the amount of confidence it must have required these students, some of whom are at risk, to read

on air, and was amazed that Anandi knew how to build it in them and then supply opportunities

for them to exercise it.

Over the time I spend observing Anandis classroom, the students work on a unit of study

on fairytales and folktales. They study the Cinderella story, its numerous versions in text and

film, and its patterns and implications. Students go on a field trip to see Coraline (Linden,

Mechanic, Sandell, Selick, & Zoumas, 2009) the film of a graphic novel of the same name, and

they compare the genre of horror and fantasy to that of fairy tales. During the same period,

students have finished reading an independent childrens novel of their choosing, and have

worked on and presented projects ranging from a video to a series of paintings, to a board game

to a rap. Students have also read and analyzed folktales and composed their own in a group

based on a photo they selected from a set provided by Anandi.

What interests and amazes me about Anandis childrens literature class is the degree of

student engagement. I watch as she orchestrates classroom and small group discussions that are

incredibly focused. With each task I observe that the majority of the students are on track,

discussing the topic at hand. Groups whose attention drifts are brought back to the task with

Anandis help, as she circulates constantly and evenly through the room. Most students tackle

assignments with enthusiasm, even though many demonstrate signs of being chronically

disengaged with high school, showing up late to class without materials, etc. Anandi tells me

that many of them do not attend other classes, but come regularly to childrens literature, and I

am not surprised, given that the atmosphere is both fun and supportive.

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When I ask Anandi in interviews how she manages to orchestrate this kind of

engagement she discusses two important things she knows how to do: build classroom

community and differentiate student learning. Anandi works hard at the beginning of a semester

to build a sense of connection and community within each class. She insists on students sitting

in group formation rather than in rows and regularly engages them in co-operative learning

games which force them to work with different people. In this way, she says, she creates a fun

way for students to learn to work with each other.

She also honours students in her classroom by displaying their work in class and for the

school and actively including the samples in her classroom lessons. She explains,

I have a lot of stuff up, but its welcoming. Showing kids work a lot of people think in

high school you dont have to do that but I cant tell you how many people pull their

friends in to see their work. I usually take them and display stuff in the library. So many

kids have come over and read the [student authored] books. Just all that kind of stuff I

think is really important. We think theyre teenagers, but theyre still kids, and they want

to have their work up. We have a website on our school, so we write about the kids who

have gone and done things, so I think is important about a community.

She refers back to the samples hung on the walls, and she believes that these displays give

students a sense of pride in their work, which adds to their feeling of confidence and therefore

belonging in the classroom. When students feel they are being celebrated, they want to come

and participate in class.

Anandi also creates a warm and welcoming environment by caring for students. She

takes an active interest in their activities and provides time in class for students to promote

school wide activities and causes. She encourages them to be comfortable in class by providing

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water for students and occasionally providing food as a celebration for success. She says,

Sometimes together Ill make a meal and we have it together. I think those kinds of things are

important they feel comfortable enough, but they know theres a line. The classroom becomes

a place where students feel as if they are part of something bigger than a daily lesson, and by

encouraging them to bring their outside lives in, Anandi fosters community, enlarging the reach

of her teaching beyond the walls of her room.

Classroom community is also strengthened by the many excursions the class takes into

the neighbourhood. Students are viewed as experts by teachers and students alike when they

visit a local elementary school, and she reaches out to organize community activities such as the

radio broadcast mentioned earlier and student presentations in a local public library. This

outreach has the effect of bringing students closer together as a classroom community and of

building their confidence in their individual and collective abilities.

In addition to building community in her classroom, Anandi knows how to tailor the

curriculum to suit each students individual needs and abilities. Extensive planning goes into

each lesson as Anandi devises ways in which each students needs can be met and strengths

challenged. She explains how she plans lessons and assignments:

There are a lot of challenges in this course. One student doesnt readSo sometimes

shell come in quietly and Ill read to her on her own. Or thats why I do a lot of reading

in class. There are about three kids that dont read. Yesterday we did a reading and

we did the traditional Grimm fairy tales because they really wanted to read them. They

had packages in their group and they had a choice to either read individually or as a

group. And I know that student [who cant read] in her group has a friend, and the friend

knows, and we have that kind of relationship, and she read all the stories in the group. So

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theres kind of that that goes on in here. The other issue is that some of them are in here

just trying to get that last one or two credits, and are not really interested. One of boys in

here, hes dealing with a lot of those kinds of issues just trying to get through and get his

credit. So there are certain kids in here that Im trying to engage that arent even engaged

in reading or anything else. So Im trying to think of creative, innovative ways that are

going to engage them. So youve got someone who can write a novel on their own, and

then youve got someone who can only write four or five words. And who cant read.

The assignments thatFor example, if you look around, they did all their presentations

and they all were with a writing piece, but I think when you leave an assignment open

The first assignment gave them nine or ten choices and then they could create their own

choice. I think Im very big on process and skills. And they think theyre getting marks

all the way through. And so we have one or two meetings. They have to do a write up.

They have to do an analysis sheet. And finally when it comes to the real writing, they

actually have something to write about. Its actually quite thoughtful what theyve

written. And then they have an oral presentation. So at least were covering all the areas:

theyve got their oracy, theyve got a media component in there. Theyre really working

on tailoring what theyre doing and then theyve peer evaluated each other during the

presentations. And its really thoughtful, you know, what they did well. Because this was

really their first big presentation, and for three of them, they said, I dont do

presentations. But they actually got up and did it. And one girl brought in her son

because it was really important for her. The whole class becomes elevated because of

just having a different audience here and recognizing how important it is. Like they were

cheering for this girl that went up. I was tearing up at the back, they were so happy that

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she did it because she doesnt speak. Because of her dyslexia shes dealing with a lot of

issues and she didnt feel comfortable, soJust things like that. It takes a lot to prepare a

lesson for them and really to think it out so these guys are going to need the structure

on the board, those guys dont. Were going to go over story elements, but I also need it

on paper in front of them because thats how those kids learn. And then Im going to do

a chart paper because I know those four work through getting it read to them orally and

talking it out in group work, and then they need a concrete instruction page on their desk.

So even though its on the board the same - You know, all of that? Just leading them into

it. So sometimes it takes a long time to prep the lesson to make sure its successful for all

the kids in the class. And then it just seems so easy but its not (laughs).

Anandi knows how to design lessons and assignments with diverse abilities in mind and

regularly offers a range of options through which students can demonstrate the same skill. An

example of this is the presentation assignment students did on their individual novels. There

were a wide range of options through which students could display their understanding of

characters and themes in their novels. They produced artwork, a film, games, and even a rap

about their novel. These examples demonstrate some of the ways in which Anandi understands

her students and knows how to shape the learning activities to challenge them and

simultaneously meet their needs.

Making Multiliteracies Connections: How Anandi Learned.

Anandi developed her practice through personal and professional experiences which

emphasized learning in community. She stresses the importance of mentors in the development

of her practice, citing in particular the influence of the woman who was her first department

head. She says:

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What I think is lacking in the system today is they dont have as much mentorship. I had

a phenomenal English head. I came to this school its interesting I came to this

school twenty years ago and I left three times and I always came back here. I still

remember she always said, Teach to your strengths. That was her motto: teach to your

strengths and lead by example. And I always remember that, you know. She was really

inspirational. She wrote books. Im still friends with her I mean, she could be my

mother but shes one of my closest friends, and shes amazing. She loved literature. Im

constantly reading, and she did the same thing. And she inspired kids even to the day

when she retired; kids loved her classes. I mean its like a show, right? You are a

performer. If you make Shakespeare exciting and relate it to them, theyre going to want

to come and show up. So she was a real role model, really helped me understand how to

teach. Because I dont think they do that [at faculties of education]. I mean here you are,

youve been at university for four years. So youve readParadise Lostand done all this

kind of stuff. But how are you going to get kids motivated? How are you going to teach

them how to read and write, especially if theyre having difficulties or issues around that?

That was my big thing.

Anandi explains how her mentor, wouldnt tell you what to do, but she would give you advice

and coach you in a positive way. Clearly, Anandi began teaching in an environment where she

was inspired and supported by a senior teacher who saw that English education was more than

teaching literature it was about engaging students interest in reading and writing. She learned

her big thing about how to engage students through multiliteracies because she had found a

role model who encouraged her inquiry and supported her efforts in the beginning years of her

career.

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Anandi describes how positive her relationship with her former department head was and

is. Another intimate relationship that influenced the way in which she learned to teach was with

her mother, who was a special education teacher in the secondary panel. She describes how her

mothers interest in literacy, and more importantly in people, influenced the development of

these same strengths in her teaching. She says:

I have a mother that was in the system and she was also a literacy teacher. Amazing

teacher - very warm and kind; many people know her. And she was a great example I

think of how to be with people, and how you act in different situations. I mean I have

students that knock on my door and bring my family cookies they know my kids. And

I think its that whole pay it forward thing you do something and then they shift. I do

think that. It sounds touchy feely, but I do think it works I think just growing up, and

seeing her. And she had students would come and shed have parties for students in the

back yard, and all that kind of thing. She was just like - you know you give back. She

just did it, so you just learned Although, I think every kid in the family is like that.

Thats part of it. And I think thats my strength.

Anandi observed her mother in her role as teacher while she grew up, and she learned that

teaching was about building relationships with and among students. This indirect, lifelong

mentorship has shaped a substantial and important part of her teaching self-identity as a person

who creates community and guides students with compassion.

Relationships such as the ones discussed above played an important role in how Anandi

learned to develop her teaching practice. Experience also played an important part in the

development of her craft. She explains that the combined experiences of teaching ESL early in

her career in addition to a trip to Korea to teach in an elementary school really helped her to

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learn how to simultaneously challenge students with a range of abilities in the English classroom.

She says:

I was hired [in the Greater Toronto Area] as an English and ESL teacher, and I did the

ESL transition classes which were the higher grades that were studying texts, but English

wasnt their first language. And I also taught a bit of English. I did that for about the

first nine years. And what I found there was it really taught me how to promote literacy

and to teach literacy and I think it made me a better English teacher. Then I went into

full-time teaching English. In my eleventh year I went to Korea, and taught in an

International school for two years. I actually taught elementary grade 5. I taught a grade

five homeroom but they were with the ESL students and so it was really promoting

literacy again. And that experience in the elementary sector actually developed me as a

teacher and an English teacher by understanding how we teach students and how we

should promote literacy, and how to make them better readers and effective learners.

And then I came back to Canada and I went back to teaching English as well as

leadership programs within my school which is a school that really needs to promote

literacy in all areas.

The experiences of teaching ESL and teaching elementary students taught Anandi how to break

learning tasks into manageable chunks for students. It also taught her how to cope with students

varying needs, helping her to develop a differentiated approach to instruction, whereby she

develops lessons and learning activities that are geared to students of multiple levels.

While she has learned extensively from mentors and from teaching experiences, Anandi

also places importance on what students have taught her about teaching. Positive experiences

with students have taught her to respect their knowledge about themselves. Through such

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experiences she has learned to listen to students carefully and to glean from them how they learn

best, incorporating this knowledge into her classroom. She tells the story of a career highlight

where she facilitated a group of students who taught a workshop to teachers on a professional

activity day. She says:

One of the highlights I had here was working with students in my eighth or ninth year,

and working with the equity office, having students trained in developing equity

workshops for teachers and administration. We trained students; we took them away to a

camp. Ive done this many times, but this one was really important because what it did

was they presented to teachers about effective equity practices through literacy in their

classrooms. We talked about media in the classrooms, and they led these workshops. So

it was about media, about the visual perspective of your classroom, all of that. So we

worked on that and they presented it, and teachers actually started changing based on

these student practices. We also trained kids and they did anti-homophobia workshops

and went in with grade nines, and if teachers didnt feel comfortable we went in. There

were a lot of different things. And one of the key focuses was diversity as well. And not

just their backgrounds, but looking at socio-economic paths, that kind of thing. So kids

really understood it and were able to deliver those programmes, and the equity office was

quite impressed. And then we actually wrote it up and we were one of the finalists to go

to California and speak, but of course (laughs) we didnt have the money, so we didnt

go. But I think that was a highlight, not because of me, it had nothing to do with me, but

seeing that how quickly (snaps fingers) and easily (snaps fingers) kids can absorb and

understand this stuff if they are presented with the different tools and different styles of

how to approach things.

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Anandi has learned through the experience of treating students with respect and dignity to let

them speak for themselves. She sees herself, outside and inside the classroom, as a facilitator,

whose job it is to give students the tools they need to reveal their understandings and to learn

together. Through these positive experiences with students in which she listened to their voices,

Anandi has become adept at hearing and reading students in her classroom, which helps her

conduct the complex task of facilitating learning in a multiliteracies environment.

Reflecting on the Creation: Why Anandi Sought a Multiliteracies Practice.

Anandi stresses that one of the driving forces behind her teaching practice is her

commitment to equity, which is an important principle underlying multiliteracies curricula. This

commitment is rooted in her experience and her personal identity. Anandi says,

I came from a mixed background: my fathers Indian, my mothers Welsh. And I grew

up in Etobicoke and the school I went to wasnt diverse at all. I was always not I think

it had a lot to do with it I never felt a part of anything, masking my background, or that

kind of thing. I was born in the 60s, and in the 70s and 80s people werent really

mixed. So I think that awareness, you know thats my first focus is to make kids feel

comfortable, because I know theyll be successful. Because I saw it a lot with students

that were like me that were...Sometimes it was difficult when you were mixed back then

because you didnt feel like you fit in, so you were always trying to think of ways to or to

mask it. Thats stressful and it affects your academics Im sure it affected my

academics. It was interesting, when I moved from elementary school I was a 99 student,

and then when I went to high school my marks dropped. It was more because I was

stressed all the time about all these kinds of issues.

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Anandis self-identity as a mixed race student and person has made her very sensitive to the

diversity of the student body she teaches, and has made her embrace equity and social-justice

issues in her teaching. She knows from her personal experience that identity affects learning and

performance in school, so as a teacher, she has made it part of her teaching identity to teach for

diversity.

Anandis struggles as a child from a mixed race background formed her love of English

and have inspired her teaching. She explains that she became a teacher to pass on her love of

literature, and that the childrens literature course which she now teaches was in part inspired by

memories from childhood. She says,

I had a very strict upbringing and honestly reading was my escape and it saved me. I

didnt have a great relationship with my father. I grew up in a very strict South Asian

household even though I was a mixed child and I was dealing with all those issues. And

back in the 60s and 70s it was very different. Its not like here where there are a lot of

multi-race families and that kind of stuff. So it was really a struggle and a struggle I

think with my parents as a first couple dealing with it. My dad wanted to hold on to his

ideals through his kids. So at home we had a really strict upbringing, and to read for me

was just like this escape you name it I read it from National Geographic to everything

in the house. I was one of those kids. And I would go to other peoples houses as a kid,

Id come over for a play date and Id read their books. My girlfriends would be like,

What are you doing? Its a sleepover and theres me reading a book in the corner. So I

think part of that is because of that whole sense of what you can do through literature and

English. And I think thats why about ten years ago a colleague and I developed this

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childrens literature course. And that whole memory of what, you know how they enjoy

it. And what they love about it.

Anandis self-identity has imbued a sense of purpose into her teaching. She knows from

personal experience that literature and literacy can open up doors of opportunity and pleasure for

students. She believes the excitement that a child who loves to read experiences is something

many students can relate to and experience in a well designed course. Her childhood identity as

has influenced her teacher identity: she is a teacher who loves literature and who wants to

include as many students as possible in that appreciation. Her identity as a voracious reader

combined with her early identity as someone who struggled to fit in has motivated Anandis

professional development over time. Because she is committed to equity and to sharing the

pleasure and power which she gained from her own early literacy, Anandi has been driven to

continually find and improve teaching methods that engage her multicultural, multilingual

student body throughout her career.

Implications for Teacher Development in Multiliteracies Classrooms

This inquiry into the knowledge and identities of two secondary English teachers who

employ a multiliteracies approach has implications for the field of teacher development, despite

its small scale. The interaction between identity and the development of professional knowledge

is an important consideration that is frequently overlooked, especially in studies of experienced

teachers. The influence of identity on the direction of teacher learning, which was identified

within my narrative and Anandis are indications that more research needs to be conducted in

this area with the purpose of considering the role that teacher identity plays in the development

of multiliteracies teaching practices in secondary English, and how identity might be harnessed

to support professional development in this direction. In her self study of teaching secondary

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English in an urban context, Skerrett (2008) explores the role her biography and identity played

in the four years she taught at the high school level. She describes the difficulties she faced as a

Caribbean-born immigrant integrating into mainstream American schools and makes

recommendations for change within preservice and inservice professional development

programmes that include addressing sociocultural influences on teaching and learning and in

designing culturally responsive curricula. (153) She suggests that including formalized

curriculum in these areas for teachers would help sensitize them to the often hegemonic views

and practices of white middle-class culture that dominate mainstream education in America.

While exposure to such curricula is likely beneficial in both American and Canadian contexts, it

is unclear whether this will be enough to provide teachers with the knowledge and skill to teach

in more culturally sensitive and engaging ways. As a person who was exposed to case studies

that explored the roles of race and class in my preservice teacher education, I recognize that this

curriculum did little to prepare me for the practicalities of teaching students with diverse needs,

abilities and interests. What motivated me to learn to teach differently than I was taught by my

teachers was my perceived failure at the beginning of my Canandian teaching career. My

recognition that I was inadequately teaching my students in combination with my need to

identify as a good teacher drove me to seek out and develop new strategies over a period of

eight years. This same motivation of identity is what feeds my ongoing professional learning.

Anandis ongoing experiences of success through students successes develops her self-efficacy

and identity as a teacher who actively promotes literacy and social-justice, and which drives her

to continue to refine her instructional methods and teaching materials. The implication for

teacher development is that teachers need to begin considering their teaching identities early in

their careers and to recognize how identity and values affect the direction of professional

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learning over time. Providing time for experienced English teachers to reflect on how their

personal identities are reflected in their teaching practice at professional development inservice

or through professional learning communities may be an important development that will

promote the further acceptance and integration of mulitliteracies approaches in secondary

English.

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