What can teachers’ language tell us about the changing nature of conceptions of multimodality and multimodal text

In this presentation we showcase research that addresses contemporary gaps in global literature about the changing nature of teachers’ conceptions of multimodal texts in the early and primary years of formal schooling in Australia. Literature suggests that the language teachers use to describe and explain multimodal texts is often saturated with talk of digital technological tools such as iPads and interactive whiteboards. With the introduction of multimodal texts within Australia’s English curriculum over a decade ago, it is timely to [re]investigate teachers’ use of conceptual language to understand teachers’ current conceptions of multimodal texts and how they engage students in multimodal text production. Using a qualitative orientation, data were generated through semi-structured interviews with seven Queensland teachers. Bernstein’s sociological theories of curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment underpinned the development of the overarching research questions. Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) was used to analyse data. The presentation will report on teachers’ conceptual language use as they described and explained literacy practices related to multimodal text use. This is important because central to this language use are pedagogic actions that conceptualise ideas about how teaching and learning with multimodal texts might be occurring in contemporary literacy classrooms. We recommend broadening the body of research on teachers’ language use pertaining to multimodality in order to better understand the changing nature of and influences on how teachers provide opportunities for students to experience multimodal literacy learning.