Abstract:
Changes in literacy theory and practices in relation to technological change necessitate shifts in
contemporary pedagogical practices. In the New Zealand context, little is known about literacy in terms
of meaning-making pedagogical practices in secondary science classrooms. This study aimed to
document the characteristics of language use and literacy practices and teachers’ understanding of
literacy theory and practices. This research uncovered the ways school literacy is changing. It explored
how far pedagogical approaches have shifted towards embracing active and participative practices of
meaning-making through drawing on the multiplicity of literacies and negotiations of meanings in
social and multimodal contexts.
The study used qualitative interpretive methodologies and case study methods to collect and analyse
data. Three secondary science teachers and their classes participated in this study. Non-participant
classroom observations, two teachers’ interviews, teachers’ journals, and supplementary materials were
used to collect data for six one-hour-long science lessons.
This study found that in pedagogical practices, language and literacy theories were perceived and
enacted only to a limited extent. In that respect, science teachers primarily practiced generic literacies
rather than discipline-specific literacies. The observed disciplinary practices predominantly used
linguistic and written forms of meanings; thus, the essential role of multimodality in developing
students’ active and agentive meaning-making and multi-literacies in science was largely absent.
Science teachers only partially perceived and enacted literacy theory and practices; there was limited
evidence of active meaning potential in their pedagogical design and practices. The significance of new
technical and ethos stuff, which could impart participatory, social, multimodal, and active forms of
meaning-making conditions as enacted pedagogical approaches, was missed. This suggests that the
pedagogical approaches represented only that of ‘being digital’ with conventional literacies. In
addition, only one of the three science teachers embraced, at least partially, the multiliteracies in
pedagogy. Therefore, it is reasonable to argue that prevalent schooled literacies are far from changing
literacies. In conclusion, key principles are suggested for designing effective literacy pedagogy in
response to changing literacies in meaning-making perspective.