
Access to Electronic Thesis Author: Owen Barden Thesis title: "We're superhuman, we just can't spell." Using the affordances of an online social network to motivate learning through literacy in dyslexic sixth-form students. Qualification: EdD This electronic thesis is protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. No reproduction is permitted without consent of the author. It is also protected by the Creative Commons Licence allowing Attributions-Non-commercial-No derivatives. If this electronic thesis has been edited by the author it will be indicated as such on the title page and in the text. “We’re superhuman, we just can’t spell.” Using the affordances of an online social network to motivate learning through literacy in dyslexic sixth-form students. Owen Barden A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education University of Sheffield School of Education September 2011 Abstract This is a study of the use of Facebook as an educational resource by five dyslexic students at a Sixth Form College in north-west England. Through a project in which teacher-researcher and student-participants co-constructed a Facebook group page about the students’ scaffolded research into dyslexia, the study examines the educational affordances of a digitally-mediated social network. An innovative, flexible, experiential methodology combining action research and case study with an ethnographic approach was devised. This enabled the use of multiple mixed methods including participant-observation, interviews, video, dynamic screen capture and protocol analysis. This range of methods helped to capture much of the depth and complexity of the students’ online and offline interactions with each other and with Facebook as they contributed to the group and co-constructed their Facebook page. The philosophy and concepts of the New Literacy Studies and multimodality (Cope & Kalantzis, 2000; Kress & van Leeuwen, 1996, Kress 2010), and rigorous qualitative analytical procedures are used to construct a substantive grounded theory (Charmaz, 2006) of the students’ engagement with the social network and hence its educational potential. The study assesses the students' motivation to learn through literacy, the role of identities, and considers the pedagogical principles their use of the network evokes. It concludes that Facebook offers an affinity space which engages the students in active, critical learning about and through literacy (Gee, 2004 & 2007). Little if any research has apparently been documented on the potential of digital media to engage and motivate dyslexic students, nor to integrate models of dyslexia, radical perspectives on literacy and social models of disability (Herrington & Hunter-Carsch, 2001). This study begins to address this oversight and imbalance. Dedication For Loo, who made it possible Acknowledgements I acknowledge my debt to the five participants, and offer my gratitude My supervisor, Dr. Julia Davies, for wisdom and added sparkle Professor Jackie Marsh, for her advice and encouragement throughout my EdD Jayne Clarke and Nick Brown, Principals of the Sixth Form College which supported and part-funded this research Manchester Metropolitan University, who also part-funded this research Contents Part One: Introducing the Thesis Preamble Focus of the Thesis .........................................................................................................ii Primary Research Question:.......................................................................................ii Subsidiary Questions: .................................................................................................ii Structure of the Thesis .................................................................................................. iii Chapter One: A Review of the Literature 1.0 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 1 1.1.2 The Medical Model of Dyslexia: A discourse of deficits .................................. 6 1.1.3 Visual Thinking and Dyslexia ............................................................................ 9 1.1.4 Dyslexia and the Social Model of Disability ................................................... 10 1.1.5 Challenging the Deficit Discourse of Dyslexia ................................................ 11 1.2 Digital Technologies, Adolescence & Dyslexia ...................................................... 14 1.2.1 Digital Technologies in Young People's Lives………………………………………………15 1.2.2 Social and Economic Drivers for Digital Technologies…………………………….…..16 1.2.3. The Epistemological Challenges Digital Technologies Present ..................... 18 1.3 The New Literacy Studies & Multimodality .......................................................... 20 1.4 Chapter Summary.................................................................................................25 Chapter Two: Research Site & Context 2.0 Research Site ......................................................................................................... 26 2.1.1. The College .................................................................................................... 26 2.1.2 The Classroom Setting.................................................................................... 31 2.1.3 The Participants ............................................................................................. 31 2.1.4 Facebook ........................................................................................................ 33 Part Two: Collecting and Analysing the Data Chapter Three: Methodology of the Study 3.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 36 3.2 Philosophical and Epistemological Basis of the Methodology ............................. 36 3.3 My Research Methodology ................................................................................... 39 3.4 Project Design ....................................................................................................... 40 3.4.1 Case study ...................................................................................................... 42 3.4.2 Action Research.............................................................................................. 45 3.4.3 Classroom Ethnography ................................................................................. 47 3.5 Researcher Positionality ........................................................................................ 49 3.6 Sampling process ................................................................................................... 51 3.7 Ethical Considerations ........................................................................................... 52 Chapter Four: Methods of Data Collection 4.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 54 4.2 Using mixed-methods ........................................................................................... 55 4.3 Data Collection Methods Used in this Study ........................................................ 56 4.3.1 Interviews ....................................................................................................... 56 4.3.2 Participant Observation ................................................................................. 57 4.3.3. Observation via video recordings ................................................................. 59 4.3.4 Dynamic Screen Capture ................................................................................ 60 4.3.5 Protocol Analysis ............................................................................................ 62 4.3.6 Q-Sort ............................................................................................................. 64 Chapter Five: Methods of Data Analysis 5.1 Introduction: Constructing a Credible Analysis .................................................... 66 5.2 A Grounded Theory Approach to Data Analysis ................................................... 68 5.2.1 How a Grounded Theory Approach Fits with this Study ................................ 69 5.2.2 Substantive Grounded Theory: Theory in Context ........................................ 71 5.3 Constructivist Grounded Theory ........................................................................... 73 5.4 Methods and Processes of Data Analysis ............................................................. 73 5.4.1 Simultaneous collection and analysis of data ................................................ 74 5.4.2 A three-step data-coding process .................................................................. 75 5.4.3 Constant Comparison ..................................................................................... 76 5.4.4 Memo-writing ................................................................................................ 78 5.4.5 Theoretical sampling ...................................................................................... 78 5.4.6 Integration of the theoretical framework. ..................................................... 79 Part Three: Presenting the Data Chapter Six: An Interpretation of the Data 6.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 82 6.2 A note on data presentation ................................................................................
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