Abstract:
Theories of Anstey and Bull (2006), Lankshear and Knobel (2006), Sandretto (2006), Janks
(2009), and Cope and Kalantzis (2009) suggest that literacy instruction needs to be more in line with
the literacy requirements of participation in today’s society. However less is known about how 21stcentury literacies are planned for and taught by teachers on a day-to-day basis in New Zealand
primary schools. This study aimed to fill that gap by investigating 21st-century literacy planning and
pedagogy of Year 5 to 8 New Zealand primary school teachers.
A qualitative study using an interpretivist framework was conducted to understand how Year
5 to 8 teachers plan for and teach 21st-century literacy literacies. The research consisted of a smallscale study of four teachers. The first phase of data collection comprised of semi-structured
interviews while the second phase of data collection involved obtaining participants’ literacy
planning, including weekly and long-term planning, which was then analysed using a literacy
framework synthesised from three prominent literacy frameworks (Coiro, 2020; Freebody & Luke,
1990; Green, 1997). This analysis was compared with participants’ interview responses to give a
clear indication of teachers’ perceptions of 21st-century literacy and how they implemented these
literacies in their classrooms.
Findings indicate that 21st-century literacy teaching and learning happened in pockets
across the literacy programmes studies and while participants’ attitude towards 21st-century literacy
was positive and they could clearly see the purpose of it, integrating 21st-century literacies into
classroom practice was not always manageable due to time, budget and infrastructure constraints as
well as teacher knowledge and capability.
Implications of those findings are that educators need support to understand and plan for
21st
-cenutry literacies. The framework created during the analysis stage of the study goes some way
to supporting educators to do this in order to hang the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of 21st-century literacies
on, and to embed digital, critical and multiliteracies into everyday school literacy practices.