Critical literacies in a digital age: current and future issues

Identity, positioning, and platforms: A case study of an older job seeker in a community technology center

“…It's … it's Goodwill,” the pause in her speech may have reflected some uncertainty about who was responsible. This uncertainty about the email's responsible party hindered Amanda's ability to confront discrimination in this context, supporting a sociomaterial perspective on the challenges of enacting human agency within opaque digital spaces (Aguilera & Pandya, 2021; Burnett & Merchant, 2020; de Roock, 2021; Leander & Burriss, 2020; Nichols & Stornaiuolo, 2019). Amanda's shifting positioning of her identity, including her agency in reporting this predatory tactic and its limitations, surfaced in two moments during our interview.…”

“…Such literacy practices encompass not only activities like reading, writing, listening, and speaking, but also people's associated values as part of larger sociocultural dynamics and power structures (Barton et al., 1999). Scholars from this sociocultural orientation have more recently conceptualized the technology tools used in learning settings as non‐neutral platforms, calling for a new understanding of literacies as sociomaterial (Aguilera & Pandya, 2021; Burnett & Merchant, 2020; de Roock, 2021; Leander & Burriss, 2020; Nichols & Johnston, 2020; Nichols & Stornaiuolo, 2019). In other words, human and nonhuman entities inhabit a complex entanglement of relations, a layered and ongoing assemblage of the human and the material which together enact meaning‐making practices.…”

“…However, the platforms also act upon the adults in systemic ways that cannot be undone by agentic self‐positionings alone. In this article, I engage with a sociomaterial lens on the role of technology in learning environments (Aguilera & Pandya, 2021; Burnett & Merchant, 2020; de Roock, 2021; Leander & Burriss, 2020; Nichols & Johnston, 2020; Nichols & Stornaiuolo, 2019), to explore the following question: How did Amanda position her identity in and through a variety of literacy practices as she engaged with technology platforms in her job search?…”

Critical Inquiry in (and About) Media Environments: Examining an Asset-Based Digital Literacy Curriculum

“…Although work within the broader field of critical digital literacies has taken some steps in this direction (e.g., Aguilera & Pandya, 2021; Mirra et al, 2021), and an emerging body of literature has argued for a greater role for media ecology and platform studies in classrooms (Nichols & Garcia, 2022; Nichols & LeBlanc, 2021), this research has rarely been framed in relation to digital reading comprehension, a central approach within literacy studies and English language arts, with much curricula surrounding these topics failing to make its way into classrooms (Smith & Parker, 2021).…”

“…Smith and Parker (2021) found that both teachers and students “desire a more critical pedagogy that bridges the gap between traditional in-school learning and the literacy experiences that students are cultivating online” (p. 20) but are often unsure of where to start. More recent work on critical digital literacy (Aguilera & Pandya, 2021; Mirra et al, 2021), media ecology education (Nichols & LeBlanc, 2021), and platform studies (Nichols & Garcia, 2022) has also pointed to the need for digital instruction in which students critically examine digital media environments not traditionally taken up in school contexts.…”