Real-And-Imagined Spaces: Productive Play in a Multimodal
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Real-and-Imagined Spaces: Productive Play in a Multimodal Youth Writing Program Ah-Young Song Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy under the Executive Committee of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2019 © 2019 Ah-Young Song All rights reserved ABSTRACT Real-and-Imagined Spaces: Productive Play in a Multimodal Youth Writing Program Ah-Young Song This ethnographic study is driven by the aim of understanding how an out-of-school learning program supports the development of youth artists and writers, particularly when it operates outside of institutional strictures such as mandatory grading, curricular guidelines, and tracking based on age and perceived abilities. The research is guided by the following overarching questions: 1) In what ways do Black, Latinx, and queer students demonstrate investment in critical multimodal literacies? 2) How do world-building projects reveal the possibilities and limits of the imagination? 3) What conditions can inspire youth to articulate their identities as evolving writers and leaders? This work argues that playing with multimodal projects and imaginative world-building opportunities provided generative conditions for young adults’ development as writers, creators, and mentors. By engaging in transdisciplinary projects that invited crafting, coding, urban planning, architectural modeling, and creative writing, youth participants contributed to a participatory learning environment that celebrated their inherent capacities as critical thinkers and actors. My research ultimately highlights the ways that critical multimodal literacies can promote powerful self-expressions, complex articulations of the future, and projections of self- confidence through productive play and public engagement with wider audiences. TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES iv LIST OF FIGURES vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vii DEDICATION x CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1 Statement of the Problem 2 Purpose of the Study 7 Research Questions & Overview 9 Theoretical & Conceptual Frameworks 10 Significance of the Study 12 CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE 14 Critical Multiliteracies as a Conceptual Framework 14 Tracing the Roots of Critical Literacies 19 Engaging with Texts through Consumption and Production 22 Developing Critical Multimodal Literacies 26 Mixing and Moving Across Modalities 27 Multimodal Elements of Digital Storytelling 31 The Case for Serious Play 34 Exploring Sociocultural Perspectives in Critical Literacy Studies 36 i New Literacy Studies and Situated Learning 39 Cultivating Hospitable Dispositions in the Social Thirdspace 43 Deconstructing the In/Out-of-school Binary 46 Beyond Access: Advocating for Sustained Equity 49 CHAPTER III: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 54 Overview of Constructivist Methods and Critical Postmodernity 54 Context of the Research 61 Origins of the Study 64 Pilot Study 65 Research Setting 67 Program Participants 70 Methodological Framework & Research Design 75 Data Collection Procedures 77 Data Analysis 82 Constructivist Grounded Theory 82 Spatial Analysis in Three Dimensions 85 Positionality of the Researcher 86 Critical Postmodernity’s Influence on the Research(er) 86 Participation in Affinity Groups 88 Situating the Study 92 ii CHAPTER IV: MATERIAL SELF-EXPRESSIONS IN FIRSTSPACE 94 Ada’s Personal Incantations in Multimodal Artifacts 96 Expressions of Empowerment in Self-Made Journals 96 Post-Rationalizing with Papier-Mâché Masks 101 Lyra’s Ideological Textures and Texts 107 Demonstrations of Investment in Learning Through Coded Weavings 107 Conveying Personal Values in Online Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Stories 113 Nonessentialist Identity Positions in Multimodal Self-Expressions 118 CHAPTER V: THE OUTER LIMITS OF THE IMAGINATION IN SECONDSPACE 126 Judy’s Multi-Layered Urban Planning Visuals 127 Structural Reproductions in Urban Tracings 127 Environmental Futures in Urban Collages 132 Katie’s Imagined Spatial Diagrams and Systems of Governance 135 Porous Borders and Restrictive Regimes in Fictional Maps 135 Erecting State Authority in Architectural Models 140 Epistemic Constraints on the Creative Mind 144 CHAPTER VI: SOCIAL FLUIDITIES AND STUDENT LEADERS IN THIRDSPACE 150 Spatiotemporal Flexibility in an Out-of-School Learning Space 151 iii Unstructured Time for Community-Building 151 Using Agentive Silence to Build Writerly Confidence 157 The Art of Slow Reading and Responding 161 Celine’s Verbal and Nonverbal Creative Acts 166 Verbal Contributions to Group Writing Activities 166 Negotiating Space and Time During Role-Playing Activities 171 Brooke’s Path from Private Writer to Aspiring Peer Mentor 174 Ayanna’s Evolving Activism Across Thirdspaces 179 Seeing Extraordinary Possibilities in Ordinary Places 179 Building Fellowship Within and Beyond the Program 182 Nourishing the Body to Sustain the Soul 185 CHAPTER VII: A FUTURE FOR CRITICAL MULTIMODAL LITERACIES 189 Summary of Emerging Understandings 189 Importance of Out-Of-School Learning Environments 193 Implications for Classroom Educators 196 Theoretical Significance for Researchers 200 Concluding Remarks 202 REFERENCES 204 APPENDICES 226 iv LIST OF TABLES Table 1 Curricular Calendar PAGE 69 Table 2 Research Process and Analysis PAGE 75 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Ada’s superpower mask PAGE 104 Figure 2. Lyra’s binary weaving PAGE 112 Figure 3. Lyra’s branching narrative PAGE 115 Figure 4. Judy’s urban city retracing PAGE 130 Figure 5. Judy’s Future Brooklyn collage PAGE 134 Figure 6. Katie’s emergent map PAGE 138 Figure 7. Katie’s architectural model PAGE 142 Figure 8. Book Club novels PAGE 161 Figure 9. Book Club branching narratives PAGE 169 vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to share my deepest appreciation for the teachers in my life who have told me in various ways that my ideas had value. I would like to acknowledge a few special individuals who have been instructive for me in this way: Firstly, I am deeply indebted to my advisor, Dr. Bob Fecho, whose gentle guidance and provocative questions transformed this work. He has patiently offered pointed and valuable feedback throughout the past few years, including during the two courses I took with him. I have also appreciated his willingness to bring his advisees together to share stories and insights, as I have continued to learn from others at different stages in the program. In addition, I am grateful for the support of Dr. Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz, who has provided affirming feedback that highlighted the inherent richness of participants’ voices. She has inspired me to take up the work of numerous Black and Latinx scholars, whose contributions have been integral to this dissertation. Additionally, her full presence and attention to each individual she encounters has been an extraordinary model for me as an educator. My writing and thinking have indelibly changed over the years because of the influence of Dr. Ernest Morrell, my first advisor at Teachers College. His commitment to his students resonates profoundly because of his abundant love and respect for the profession of teaching. Likewise, I am grateful for the outreach of Dr. Detra Price-Dennis, whose mentorship has had a lasting impact on my scholarship and teaching. Her brilliance and enthusiasm have shaped my interests in multiliteracies, and her genuine kindness makes her graduate students feel incredibly valued. I am thankful for the support of Dr. Sheridan Blau, whose invitation to coordinate Fieldwork sessions and participate in international teaching partnerships have emboldened me as vii a facilitator and instructor. He has unfailingly demonstrated inquisitiveness about texts and the wider world, helping to shape the kinds of questions I hope to pose as an educator. I am also indebted to Dr. Ruth Vinz, whose encouragement to interrogate the work of Edward Soja catapulted my thinking around this work, and to Dr. Janet Miller, whose course texts have informed the critical postmodernist inflections of my research. I also truly appreciate the mentorship of Dr. Rachel Throop, who has modeled deep listening and compassionate teaching at Barnard. In addition, I am fortunate to have encountered Dr. Allison Skerrett, who has been an incredible guiding force as my NCTE Cultivating New Voices (CNV) mentor. I have also benefited from the conversations with other CNV mentors such as Dr. Eurydice Bauer, who has directed me to Bonny Norton’s work, and Drs. Anthony and Keffrelyn Brown, who have inspired me to examine Derek Bell’s science fiction. The Center for the Professional Development of Teachers (CPET) has been an important academic home that has contributed to my growth as an educator and teacher coach. Our meetings have been delightful spaces for exploring interdisciplinary practices and understanding the interconnected nature of teaching, learning, researching, and coaching. I am also sustained by the thoughtful engagements I’ve had with colleagues in the English Education program. In particular, I am honored to have been able to converse over the years with Lora, Noah, Jacqui, Greg, Dorrell, Andrew, Iain, Jen, Katie, Lisa, Marissa, Tara, and countless others. Our conversations have been intellectually enlivening and spiritually nourishing. Similarly, I am thankful for the countless teachers I have worked with along the way, notably in New York City, Taiwan, New Hampshire, South Korea, and Massachusetts. I am viii especially appreciative of Nathan, who first inspired me to pursue graduate studies, along with my incredible colleagues at Taipei American School, which was