Teenagers’ Literacy and Musicking: Some Critical Lessons for Educators

Author(s):

Stewart Riddle(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2011

Network:

21. Emerging Researchers' Group (for presentation at Emerging Researchers' Conference)

Format:

Paper

Session Information

ERG SES D 02, Parallel Session D 02

Paper Session

Time:

2011-09-12

15:10-16:40

Room:

J 27/14,G, 69

Chair:

Dolf van Veen

Contribution

It seems that there is a perpetual literacy crisis presented by politicians and the media (Brock, 1998; Williams, 2007), one that is widespread and powerful in its effect on discourses of literacy. ‘It’s not difficult to look back over the past 150 years and find a constant and consistent level of concern about the abilities of young people to read and write’ (Williams, 2007, p. 178). Luke and Luke (2001) contend that this supposed literacy crisis results from adult anxieties toward new forms of youth identities and changing life options. It is from within this politicised context of literacy that a study was undertaken to investigate the literate lives of teenagers, in and out of school. A particular focus was placed on musicking, which Small (1998) describes as any act that engages with, is transformed or influenced by music as it is such a ubiquitous part of many teenagers’ lives (North, Hargreaves, & O'Neill, 2000).

The study focussed on the music practices of teenagers and their literacy learning in and out of school environments, seeking to unsettle normalising and classifying assumptions made by politicians, the media, education policy makers and curriculum designers, by addressing the following research questions:

· What role/s does musicking play in the constitution of literate subjectivities for teenagers?

· What are some of the disparities between in school and out of school literacies and the formation of literate subjectivities?

· What lessons can be learnt from stories of teenagers’ musicking and literacy experiences in and out of school?

Method

A narrative inquiry approach was taken in data collection and analysis for this study, using dialogical analysis (Polkinghorne, 1995; Riessman, 2002, 2008; Squire, Andrews, & Tamboukou, 2008). Dialogical narrative analysis considers ‘stories as a way of knowing. Stories emerge as data are collected and then are framed and rendered through an analytical process that is artistic as well as rigorous’ (Coulter & Smith, 2009, p. 577). Dialogical narrative analysis is therefore appropriate for ‘studies whose data consist of actions, events, and happenings, but whose analysis produces stories’ (Polkinghorne, 1995, p. 6). By unpacking discourses arising through dialogue/constructed narratives, researchers seek to gain new understandings of the interplay of subjectivities within discursive spaces.

Expected Outcomes

Data were used to re-story narrative portraits of the teenagers’ musically literate lives. These narrative portraits offer some interesting commentary on the ways that young people view their literacy learning and musicking practices, and have implications for broad-brush approaches to teaching and learning that still permeate literacy curriculum design and implementation. There is little doubt that there are important lessons to be learnt for literacy educators by sharing stories about the literate lives of young people.

References

Brock, P. (1998). Breaking some of the myths - again. Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, 21(1), 8 - 19. Coulter, C. A., & Smith, M. L. (2009). The construction zone: Literary elements in narrative research. Educational Researcher, 38(8), 577 - 590. Luke, A., & Luke, C. (2001). Adolescence lost/childhood regained: On early intervention and the emergence of the techno-subject. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 1(1), 91 - 120. North, A. C., Hargreaves, D. J., & O'Neill, S. A. (2000). The importance of music to adolescents. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 70, 255 - 272. Polkinghorne, D. E. (1995). Narrative configuration. In J. A. Hatch & R. Wisniewski (Eds.), Life history and narrative (pp. 5 - 21). London: The Falmer Press. Riessman, C. K. (2002). Narrative analysis. In A. M. Huberman & M. B. Miles (Eds.), The qualitative researcher's companion (pp. 217 - 270). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications Inc. Riessman, C. K. (2008). Narrative methods for the human sciences. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications Inc. Small, C. (1998). Musicking: The meanings of performances and listening. Hanover: University Press of New England. Squire, C., Andrews, M., & Tamboukou, M. (2008). What is narrative research? In C. Squire, M. Andrews & M. Tamboukou (Eds.), Doing narrative research (pp. 1 - 21). London: Sage Publications Ltd. Williams, B. T. (2007). Why Johnny can never, ever read: The perpetual literacy crisis and student identity. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 51(2), 178 - 182.

Author Information

Stewart Riddle (presenting / submitting)

University of Southern Queensland

Faculty of Education

Springfield Central

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