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The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore young adolescents' use of ICT (information communication technology) and popular media texts to make sense of themselves and their world. The rationale for the study stemmed from the lack of research considering (a) the overlaps and schisms between adolescents' use of ICT and popular media texts in their everyday practices (home, community, peer group) and school-directed assignments and (b) how adolescents' redesign of ICT and popular media texts affects established social institutions. Grounded in symbolic interaction, the New London Group's (1996) conception of multiliteracies (cf., Cope & Kalantzis, 2000) and an activity theory-influenced framework (Beach, 2000; Cole, 1996; Engestrom & Miettinen, 1999) were used to guide the study. Collected over a 24-month period, data included field notes from: in-school classroom observations, focus group discussions, observations of non-curricular ICT use in the school setting, face-to-face interviews, and home visits. Data collection also included online documents and artifacts such as websites, listserv contributions, and e-mail messages. Data were analyzed inductively and recursively.
About the author
Donna Mahar, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of literacy and teacher preparation at the State University of New York, Empire State College. Her research interests revolve around adolescent literacies as well as clinically-rich teacher preparation. She has been published in a range of journals and has presented her research internationally.
