“Wearing Only Our Skin”: the multimodal literacies classroom as a living arrangement
English Teaching: Practice & Critique
ISSN: 1175-8708
Article publication date: 20 October 2021
Issue publication date: 17 May 2022
Abstract
Purpose
Literacy research exploring multimodal composition and justice-oriented children’s literature each have rich landscapes and histories. This paper aims to add to both of these bodies of scholarship through the emerging assemblage of Studio F, a fifth-grade classroom. The authors share poststructural analytic encounters with attention to the unexpected multimodal relationships and the justice-oriented talk and texts that emerged, as well as the classroom conditions that produce them.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors think with assemblage theory to examine the newness that emerged as one small group of students wrestled with the emerging instances of racism present in Freedom Summer by Deborah Wiles.
Findings
Together, the living arrangement of bodies, materials and discourses created openings for students’ explorations of race and racism.
Originality/value
This paper offers teachers and researchers space to rethink what is possible in the literacy classroom when the authors re-envision classrooms as vibrant assemblages, support emergent multimodal composing processes and follow students’ critical encounters toward justice-oriented literacies.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Thank you to Wendy and the students of Studio F for being incredible collaborators and artists.
Citation
Zapata, A. and Kleekamp, M.C. (2022), "“Wearing Only Our Skin”: the multimodal literacies classroom as a living arrangement", English Teaching: Practice & Critique, Vol. 21 No. 2, pp. 113-127. https://doi.org/10.1108/ETPC-03-2021-0023
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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