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Volunteering Literacies Volunteering Literacies: An Ethnographic Approach to Exploring the Literacy Practices of Adult Volunteers on a Vocational Further Education Programme and a Social Media Networking Site in an Aviation-Centred Uniformed Youth Group Siu Yee HO This thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Lancaster University Abstract of thesis entitled: Volunteering Literacies: An Ethnographic Approach to Exploring the Literacy Practices of Adult Volunteers on a Vocational Further Education Programme and a Social Media Networking Site in an Aviation-Centred Uniformed Youth Group Submitted by Siu Yee HO for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Lancaster University The first aim of this research is to better understand how the dominant and vernacular literacy practices of adult volunteers at an aviation-centred uniformed youth group in Hong Kong co-exist through a newly launched continuing education programme – a vocational qualification programme – and various types of texts in the volunteering context. Another aim is to explore how these volunteers’ self-generated literacy practices are shaped by new technologies, with a particular focus on a social networking site, Facebook. The study is grounded in the framework of literacy as a social practice (Barton and Hamilton, 2012) and the community of practice (CoP) learning theory (Wenger, 1998). Literacy as a social practice theory reveals that reading and writing practices are purposeful and embedded in broader social goals and cultural practices. Taking a CoP perspective, this thesis also views the uniformed group as a community sharing common knowledge, ideas and practices. 2 The research was conducted using a linguistic ethnographic approach. Based on the analysis of written texts, including assignments and texts related to volunteering work and multimodal texts on Facebook, interviews and participant observation, this study first reveals how the social practices surrounding these digital and print-based texts constitute the professional practices of volunteers and bring formal education into a nonformal education context. Furthermore, this thesis contributes to the understanding of new practices in social media and other technologies, which will become more prevalent in volunteering and further education environments. The significance of literacy practices cannot be considered in isolation from their unique sociocultural context. 3 Declaration I hereby declare that this thesis represents my original work, except where due acknowledgement is made, and that it has not been previously included in a thesis, dissertation or report submitted to this University or to any other institute for a degree, diploma or other qualification. Signature : ___ ______ Siu Yee HO 4 Contents Abstract 2 Declaration 4 Table of Contents 5 List of Data extracts 9 List of Tables 14 List of Figures 15 List of Abbreviations 16 List of Appendices 18 Acknowledgements 19 Chapter One: Introduction 20 1.1 Motivation for the Research 21 1.2 Research Setting and Background 22 1.2.1 Hong Kong as a ‘Two Written Codes, Three Spoken Languages’ society 23 1.2.2 Volunteering and Uniformed Groups 30 1.2.3 Hong Kong Air Cadet Corps 33 1.2.4 Vocational Qualifications Programme 37 1.2.5 The Blurred Boundary Between Formal and Nonformal Education 39 1.2.6 Two Internet Generation Tools – E-mail and Facebook as Examples 41 1.3 Researcher’s Role 44 1.4 Structure of the Thesis 48 Chapter Two: Summary of the Literature and Conceptual Framing 50 2.1 Introduction 50 2.2 New Literacy Studies 51 2.2.1 Literacy Events 53 2.2.2 Literacy Practices 53 2.2.3 Dominant and Academic Literacies 54 2.2.4 Vernacular Literacies 55 2.2.5 Digital Literacies and Computer-Mediated Communication 56 2.2.5.1 Social Media 57 2.2.5.2 Research on Facebook 59 2.3 Research on Vocational Qualifications 60 5 2.4 Research on Volunteering 61 2.5 Communities of Practice 63 2.6 Ethnography 65 2.6.1 Ethnography vs Ethnographic Approach 66 2.6.2 Linguistic Ethnography 68 2.6.3 Virtual Ethnography 69 2.6.4 Auto-ethnography 70 2.6.5 Connective Ethnography 72 2.7 Conceptual Framework and Research Questions 72 2.8 Chapter Summary 74 Chapter Three: Research Methodology 76 3.1 Introduction 76 3.2 Sampling 76 3.3 Participants 81 3.4 Ethical Considerations 84 3.5 Data Collection 85 3.5.1 Texts and Artefacts Collection 87 3.5.2 Participant Observation 88 3.5.3 Semi-structured and Unstructured Interviews 92 3.5.3.1 Interview Guide for Literacy Acquisition Background and Vocational Qualifications 93 3.5.3.2 Interview Guide for Technology-related Life History, Current Practices, Social Networking and Interacting on Facebook 95 3.5.3.3 Interview Guide for the Perspective of the CVQO Assessor 96 3.6 Data Organization 97 3.7 Approaches to Data Analysis 103 3.8 Issues with Validity 105 3.9 Chapter Summary 106 Chapter Four: Identification and Analysis of the First Issue – VQ Assignment Writing as a New Literacy Practice 109 4.1 Introduction 109 4.2 Writers’ Perceptions of Reasons or Motives for Volunteering 110 4.2.1 Volunteering for Leisure 110 4.2.2 Volunteering for Passion 111 4.2.3 Volunteering for Social Networking 112 4.3 Impact of the Volunteer Experience 112 4.3.1 Impact of the Volunteer Experience on English Language Learning 112 4.3.2 Impact of the Volunteer Experience on Paid Work 118 4.4 Vocational Qualification Programme 119 4.4.1 From Civilian to Military; From Work to Volunteering 120 4.4.2 Vocational Qualification Assignment – Content, Style and Structure 121 4.4.3 Resources Used to Complete an Assignment 127 6 4.5 Assignments-related Literacy Practices of Four Writers 132 4.5.1 Organising Life 132 4.5.1.1 Organising Life in the VQ Programme 132 4.5.1.2 Organising Other Aspects of Volunteering Life 135 4.5.2 Documenting Life 137 4.5.2.1 Documenting Life through Autobiographical VQ Assignments 137 4.5.2.2 Documenting Other Aspects of Volunteering Life 138 4.5.2.2.1 Documenting Life through Other Texts 138 4.5.2.2.2 Documenting Life through Photographs 140 4.5.3 Personal Communication 141 4.5.3.1 Talk-oriented Communication 141 4.5.3.2 Text-oriented Communication 143 4.5.3.3 Talk Around Text Communication 143 4.5.4 Private Leisure 145 4.5.5 Sense Making 146 4.5.6 Social Participation 147 4.5.6.1 Internal Social Participation 148 4.5.6.2 External Social Participation 148 4.6 Chapter Summary 149 Chapter Five: Facebook Use as a New Literacy Practice 151 5.1 Computers, Internet and Facebook 154 5.2 Facebook’s Key Features 157 5.3 Common Facebook Purposes: Social Use and Different Perceptions of the Definitions of ‘Facebook Friends’ 159 5.3.1 Social Use 159 5.3.2 Facebook Friends 160 5.4 Facebook Literacy Practices of Four Writers 163 5.4.1 Organising Life 163 5.4.1.1 Organising Facebook Life 163 5.4.1.2 Organising Life with a Heterogeneous Collection of Appointment Diaries 164 5.4.2 Documenting Life 166 5.4.2.1 Documenting Life about an Offline Text 166 5.4.2.2 Documenting Life through Photographs 166 5.4.3 Personal Communication 169 5.4.3.1 Different Types of Communication Platforms 170 5.4.3.2 Language Choices and Formal & Informal Literacy Practices 171 5.4.4 Private Leisure 174 5.4.5 Sense Making 178 5.4.5.1 Assessing Information 178 5.4.5.2 Problem Solving 180 5.4.6 Social Participation 181 5.4.6.1 Reading and Writing in Social Participation on Facebook 181 7 5.4.6.2 Sharing Images about Social Participation on Facebook 184 5.5 New Landscape of Communication Practices on Facebook 187 5.5.1 Mutual Communication 187 5.5.2 Non-existence of the Chain of Command 192 5.5.3 Influence of Online on Offline Communication 196 5.5.4 Attitudes to Privacy 197 5.6 Chapter Summary 198 Chapter Six: Conclusion 200 6.1 Overall Summary 200 6.2 Summary of Findings and Discussion 200 6.2.1 Vocational Qualification Programme 200 6.2.2 Facebook 201 6.3 Implications 202 6.3.1 Implications of the Study with respect to the Vocational Qualification Programme 202 6.3.2 Implications of the Study with respect to Facebook 204 6.4 Limitations of the Study and Scope for Further Research 204 6.5 Contribution of the Research 205 References 207 Appendices 228 8 List of Data extracts Data extract Remembrance Sunday 23 1.1 Data extract Holiday: ‘Chinese (Cantonese) was like inborn’ 25 1.2 Data extract Sam: ‘I think I can handle it well because it is my mother tongue’ 25 1.3 Data extract Jayden: ‘[I] get used to it’ 26 1.4 Data extract Sam: ‘I get used to write in English’ 26 1.5 Data extract Chris: ‘The major medium of instruction was English’ in HKACC 26 1.6 Data extract Sam: ‘All the learning materials were in English’ 26 1.7 Data extract Holiday: ‘Learning English for the first time must be difficult’ 27 1.8 Data extract Sam: ‘Reading comprehension in English [is my major concern]’ 27 1.9 Data extract Chris: ‘[English] was a bit difficult for me’ 27 1.10 Data extract Sam: ‘I would say English is just for practical purpose’ 28 1.11 Data extract Comparison between L1 (Cantonese) and L2 (English) 28 1.12 Data extract Sam: ‘Regarding pronunciation, (I) used some similar Cantonese 28 1.13 words to write on top of the English words’ Data extract Putonghua is a more popular language now 30 1.14 Data extract Bringing Uniformed Groups into Schools 32 1.15 Data extract Vision, Mission and Core Values of the HKACC 33 1.16 Data extract Direct appointment of uniformed Senior Members 36 1.17 Data extract Facebook instead of Food becomes one of three essential elements 42 1.18 of human survival (“Essential elements”, 2015) Data extract Data about My Major Roles
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