Research methods and analytical approaches that support inquiry in the social sciences need to respond to continual changes in the theoretical frameworks, research methods, and technologies used to support data collection and analysis in contemporary research frameworks. This article describes a variation of qualitative content analysis, termed ‘multimodal content analysis’, that draws upon previous iterations of qualitative content analysis, interpretivist research designs, deductive and inductive reasoning, qualitative data collection and analysis methods, and theories of multimodality for conceptualizing and analyzing a selected corpus of multimodal phenomena. In addition, the analysis of selected commercial wine labels is presented to offer researchers an example of multimodal content analysis to guide future research and open up a dialogue focusing on the potential advantages and challenges to researching multimodal phenomena.

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This study explores how an alternative writing unit with a focus on comics, choice, and publishing supported positive identity development in a fourth-grade classroom. Many traditional literacy practices with an emphasis on skills marginalize students from under-represented populations. This study reports literacy practices that countered the production of previously established unequal relationships and instead supported bilingual students’ negotiation of positive identities. We conducted an analysis of two bilingual case studies to examine the ways in which the shift from traditional literacy skills/practices to multimodal formats provided opportunities for students who were traditionally marginalized to renegotiate identities as experts and authors.

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The authors detail how one fourth‐grade teacher implemented a comics writers’ workshop in the weeks that concluded the academic school year. Each phase of the comics writers’ workshop is described. Students interpreted and analyzed the words, images, and design features that compose published comics before constructing and publishing their own multimodal comics text. The authors show that multimodal literacies instruction recognizes the multiple ways in which students can represent and communicate their thinking, and they argue that multimodal literacies instruction should occur throughout the curriculum across the school year.