Study Title: Zining: The unsanctioned literacy practice of adolescents
Study Author: Guzzetti, B. J. & Gamoba, M.
Publication Details: In J. Worthy, B. Maloch, J. V. Hoffman, D. L. Schallert & C. M. Fairbanks, eds., 2004, 53rd Year Book of the National Reading Conference, National Reading Conference, Oak Creek WI, USA.
Summary:
What did the research aim to do?
This study examined the out-of-school writing practices of four adolescents and explored how media and technology influenced and motivated these students. Additionally, it described how the participants’ identities were constructed through these out-of-school writing practices.
How was the study designed?
A purposive sample of three females and one male were used. The participants were all adolescents/young adults who wrote for their peers using online technologies and the genre of the zine. Data were collected over three years (2001-2003). Data consisted mostly of interviews, some of which were formal, audio-recorded and transcribed, as well as informal interviews conducted through email and archived. Direct observations of the students as they produced and distributed their zines were conducted. A number of artefacts were also collected including the students’ written products, examples of media texts that influenced their production, their online journal entries, and peers’ responses. Researchers also kept journals recording their questions, emotions, biases, etc. Data analyses involved an inductive approach using the constant-comparison method. In addition, participants were asked to define unfamiliar terms and to clarify aspects of adolescent literacy about which the researchers were unfamiliar. Data and analyses were returned to the participants for member checking.
What were the limitations?
More critique is needed. The conclusions section includes generalisations which are too strong for a study of four students.
What were the findings?
Findings are discussed in terms of two major themes: writing as catharsis for anger, and autonomy in writing.
Writing as catharsis for anger: All of the students wrote in reaction to the discourses around them and in all cases their response was one of anger. Two female participants wrote zines to critique the popular cultural texts in their environment while the third female participant wrote her zine to mock zines that had sexual themes. The male’s zines were also an angry reaction to the media. In particular he used sarcasm and satire to mock particular images of masculinity portrayed in popular magazines.
Autonomy in writing: The zines demonstrated the self-expression and autonomy that the participants sought. The self-expression was manifested in the lack of the conventions of writing (e.g., punctuation, grammar), as well as in the use of parody and satire as ways to express humour and anger. The zines were also seen as ways of developing alternative views about gender and reacting against society’s expectations of them as young adults.
What conclusions were drawn from the research?
The authors concluded that adolescents and young adults are choosing to engage in new kinds of literacy practices in which they respond to popular cultural texts and the world around them as they represent themselves textually in online environments. The authors suggested that these literacies show that young people are resistant to mainstream texts by engaging in the use of critically literate practices.
What are the implications of the study?
The authors provided two main implications from the findings of their study: young people are motivated to write and teachers need to provide opportunity for student choice in style and content of writing and in engagement with texts that are meaningful for them; and teachers could adopt a critical literacy approach to the development of student writing and also to their teaching of contemporary forms of text with which young people engage in their homes and communities.
The research has a number of strengths, some of which are listed below.
· The study is based in a clearly stated theory of literacy, that is, a social-cultural perspective of literacy as social practice (Street 1984).
· The research is an example of small N case studies involving longitudinal data collection (over a period of 3 years).
· Longitudinal studies in literacy are rare. Researchers and practitioners can learn a great deal from longitudinal studies that obtain rich data from multiple sources over time. The elements considered in the design of this study would be informative for any researcher wishing to conduct a similar study.
Research on topics of this type demonstrates the mismatch between the rich and complex literacy/multiliteracy demands and achievements of adolescents’ ‘real’ lives out-of-school (as they engage with new communication technologies) and the literacy practices in many of Australia’s classrooms and emphasised in many educational policies that focus on print and the attainment of a narrow range of literacy (i.e. reading and writing) skills based in the literacy of school.
Where can interested readers find out more?
Alvermann, D. E. & Heron, A. 2001, ‘Literacy identity work: Playing to learn with popular media’, Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, vol. 45, no. 2, pp. 118-122.
Knoebel, M. & Lankshear, C.V. 2001, ‘Cut, paste and publish: The production and consumption of zines,’ in Adolescents and Literacies in a Digital World, ed. D.E. Alvermann, Peter Lang, New York.
Street, B. 1984, Literacy in Theory and in Practice, Longman House, Cambridge, England.
Wagner, C. 1998, ‘Grrrls’ revolution’, The Futurist, vol. 32, no. 1, p. 12.
Keywords: new technologies, critical literacy, multiliteracies, adolescents, literacy development, gender