Critical multimodal composition: A qualitative practitioner inquiry of digitally and critically oriented practices in an afterschool writing club

In the past decade, digital literacy has become an important topic in educational research as literate practices associated with digital technologies continue to broaden and diversify. Researchers and educators have identified new forms of situated literacy practices afforded by digital technologies. Critical approaches to practice and pedagogy of digital literacy have just recently entered the conversation through the genre of critical digital literacy. This study was conducted as a critically-oriented qualitative practitioner inquiry of an afterschool writing club in a suburban public middle school. Learning within the club focused on using dialogic engagement and digital multimodal composing practices to interrogate issues related to the question What is power? and the related power relationships in students\u27 lives. Analysis was conducted using transcriptions of recorded conversations, anecdotal teaching memos, and samples of student work. The resulting text focuses on three main areas of this practice: the experience of critically oriented practitioner inquiry, conversations that surfaced as a result of this work, and related student digital and critical digital practices and texts. The early chapters of this text examine thoughts and experiences in trying to initiate critical conversations and composition, the difficulties and rewards of doing critical work in this particular space, and the risks and tensions of critically oriented practitioner inquiry. Based on this experience, I then offer my new understandings of the tensions in, and of this particular practice, associated risks for students, and my emerging ideas about power dynamics in this afterschool space. This research additionally examines and interrogates the Discourses of disability and ability that surfaced through this work, and the ways in which the research started to impact my daily teaching practice. The latter half analyzes student words and work through critical and digital lenses, focusing on conversations that surfaced in this space when talking about power relationships, and how the critical and digital orientation of the club impacted these discussions. The final data chapter is framed as a case study of the one-on-one conversations held with Neil, a student within the club, and critically oriented multimodal texts that he crafted using critical digital literacy practices