3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
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Item A critical multimodal analysis of gender representation in South Africa and Nigeria English language school textbooks(2020) Biowe, Oluchi MaureenThis interpretative mixed methods study applied a critical multimodal literacy framework to holistically examine how multiple modes were utilised to represent gender in South African and Nigerian English language school textbooks. Two current and widely used English language textbooks were selected from both countries to investigate how males and females have been represented. Adapting content analysis categories from Porreca (1984), Hartman and Judd (1978),including Kress and Van Leeuwen’s (2006) social semiotic approach to multimodal analysis, a critical hybrid analytical model was designed for this study. Findings revealed that generally, both textbooks represented males and females stereotypically, however the degree of stereotype and bias between the two textbooks vary. In both the linguistic and visual modes of the textbooks males were numerically represented more than their female counterparts; female firstness was numerically insignificant when compared to the frequency of male firstness; and males and females were portrayed in traditional stereotypical occupational roles and activities. In addition, males were represented in more high status professional occupation than females. Both genders were described as having specific character traits that positioned males as brave and females as passive. Nonetheless, evidence of some subtle differences between both textbooks suggests that the South African textbook Solutions for All adopts a more gender sensitive and balanced representation than the Nigerian textbook Junior English Project. Furthermore, the multimodally designed contents of the two textbooks were explored to discover how gender has been represented in relation to power, positioning and subjectivities, including the ways in which the textbooks pedagogises texts in relation to the activities and exercises accompanying the multimodal textbooks. The exploration showed that both textbooks employed a number of modes ,and drew on discourses of power relations and subject positions to represent each gender differently, thereby reproducing patriarchal gendered ideologies that positioned males as more successful, prominent and powerful than femalesItem Intertextual webs: a multimodal, inter-genre approach to English literature in high schools(2020) De Jager, NicholasThis thesis investigates South African high school learners’ remaking of prescribed novels, poems and plays into songs, storyboards and videogame ‘screenshots’ respectively. As a social semiotic study situated in the multimodal paradigm, it unpacks the contextual, thematic and modal features of each redesign and determines how these are representative of the literary elements (and meanings) of the original texts. Three schools − all within the Johannesburg South district − serve as research sites, with eleven FET Phase learners selecting a canonical narrative and using the researcher’s genre frames to draw, colour, write, cut, paste and even sing their way to artefacts that concisely and agentively communicate prescribed themes, characterisations, settings, symbols and moods. Conducted over three months as an extramural, multimodal enrichment programme dubbed the inter-genre approach, the researcher analyses this data with the aid of his label method and five C’s of intertextual linkage; two forms of transmodal captioning which can be applied as both a learning and dataanalytical tool. Three simple but effective research questions not only enable the identification of such ‘links’ between original and remade works, but also the complex embodied process involved in redesign and − perhaps most importantly − the future implications of these for English HL pedagogy and language classrooms in general. The findings emerging from the study are diverse, and many. With regards to the product of participants’ redesigns, it is found that signs are not self-contained entities, but reliant upon a multiplicity of signifiers, modes and materialities to communicate their meanings. As for the process behind this, the author locates drawing, in particular, as an agentive mind-to-hand-to-paper process informed by mental image, transduced meaning and past experience. The final multimodal artefact is thus presented and analysed as a series of mental images, newly embodied. Findings that impact most upon the pedagogic dimension of the study (that is, its future in-class applications) include the possibility of modal affordances being limited only by the sign-maker’s interests or capabilities, and the school-based semiotic chain being permeable to many more out-of-school texts and experiences as previously thought. Another conclusion is that an interconnectedness exists between multiple modes, texts and genres, provided that these are thematically congruent or connected in some way. Thus, school set works are seen not as existing in a vacuum, but relatable to a plethora of out-of-school artforms and activities − particularly digital ones. Eagleton’s seminal concept of webs of signifiers and signifieds (1983) is also expanded to the researcher’s own intertextual webs; a hybrid of the semiotic chain which seeks to track participants’ use of scaffolds and other, primarily screen-based substrates to arrive at the final artefacts. These trackings in turn demonstrate the multimodal revivability (De Jager, 2017) of formally prescribed texts − their ability to be seen again and regain prominence in the discourses of literature, art and entertainment − as a direct result of the proposed approach.Item Sample, improvise and collaborate: bringing home multimodal learning through creative practice.(2018) Thomson, Susan KaolinThe aim of this creative research project is to argue for and activate a critical pedagogy that is grounded in multimodality and what I will refer to as “this artist’s sensibility” (Andrew, 2011, emphasis mine). This sensibility, for the purposes of this research project, is characterised by processes of sampling, improvisation and collaboration and is envisioned through visual and sonic modes, documenting and sampling the bricolaged constellations of personalised learning events within the home-practice environment. This auto-ethnographic research is framed by my own identity and informed by my experience as an artist, musician, composer, performer, teacher and mother. In addition, the research aims to critique the notion of the classroom and the system of education and to challenge how we think children learn and how they should be taught. I do not suggest a perfect solution, or the only way in which we should consider education. Rather, I hope this will be regarded as an honest and humble contribution to the research annals of critical pedagogyItem Using alternative inter-disciplinary pedagogies in teaching poetry to Grade 10 English first additional language learners at a township school(2018) Munyaka, BeautyThe purpose of this project was to explore and establish whether the introduction of alternative inter-disciplinary pedagogies such as multiliteracy, multimodality and translanguaging would help improve learners' understanding of poetry specifically and improve their reading in general. The methodology adopted was action research, specifically, reflective classroom enquiry an educator my focus was on questioning my own practice for not only personal development, better professional practice and more, self-development through rigorous evaluation and critical self-examination to improve pedagogy. In other words, improving of professional practice is side by side with increase of knowledge in one’s practice. Crucial is involvement of another colleague in designing pedagogical instruments which cause for openness to alternative view points in the implementation. In collaboration with my colleague, findings seem to suggest that mixing translanguaging and multimodality in poetry teaching and learning can result favourably in an increase across four crucial pedagogical learning areas: more participation, increased engagement with the text and one another, positive interest in poetry, better clarity in expression of thoughts, feelings and emotions compared to the traditional way of teaching. Rigorous planning combined with relevant pedagogical tools are key in enhancement of poetry teaching and learning for better understanding and can thus change the negative attitude in poetry teaching, another element in this report is professional development from knowledge gained. Ultimately, the result is that more engagement in reflective practice improved my own pedagogical practice. This reflective classroom inquiry in poetry teaching enhances understanding in my own practice for better lesson delivery.