Aesthetic literacies in action: Exploring how students design literary knowledge in hybrid interpretive communities

This dissertation examines the intersection of literary literacies and multimodal composing practices in a secondary English Language Arts context. Situated within sociocultural learning theory and social semiotic approaches to multimodality, the study investigated how students took up aesthetic literacies when producing interpretive and critical knowledge about literary works through audiovisual essay composing. Data collection for this exploratory single case study included classroom observations, semi-structured interviews with the teacher, student think-aloud protocols, screen recordings of composing processes, and multimodal content analysis of the participants’ audiovisual essays. Findings revealed that fostering hybrid interpretive communities positively influences students’ ability to leverage disciplinary practices from literary studies and multimodal literacies from their lifeworlds to produce sophisticated and diverse forms of literary interpretation. This study contributes to emerging scholarship on aesthetic literacies and offers insights into how researchers and practitioners might bridge disciplinary literacy and multiliteracies approaches in secondary English education. It also highlights the potential of audiovisual essay composition to democratize literary knowledge production and serve as an intellectually and affectively engaging learning experience for students.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ed.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Educ Policy, Orgzn & Leadrshp

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2024

Author dc:creator

• Aleo, Trevor

Contributors dc:contributor

• Kalantzis, Mary
• Cope, Bill
• Dhillon, Pradeep
• Magee, Liam

• Aesthetic Literacies
• Literary Literacies
• Multimodal Composition
• Hybrid Interpretive Communities
• English Language Arts
• Social Semiotics
• Multiliteracies

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2024 Trevor Aleo

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/127227

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F127227