Media-making matters: exploring literacy with young learners as media crafting, critique and artistry MICHELLE CANNON A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Bournemouth University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy MARCH 2016 BLANK 2 This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with its author and due acknowledgement must always be made of the use of any material contained in, or derived from, this thesis. 3 BLANK 4 ABSTRACT: Michelle Cannon Media-making matters: exploring literacy with young learners as media crafting, critique and artistry This research is a timely response to the widespread use of digital media in western social worlds, and a perceived gulf separating school practices from those in contemporary living. I argue for a dynamic educational experience that embeds digital media production in the curriculum. Of central importance is the investigation of a wider conception of literacy that includes the manipulation of moving image and sound through time, as a means of creative expression that also shows critical understanding. By drawing out the particular characteristics of learning with digital media, I identify the ways in which traditional pedagogies could be transformed in order to accommodate more social and collaborative ways of working. In relation to this I explore discursive tensions, including current educational reform measures, perceived as hindering the development of dispersed digital media-making practices. Qualitative ethnographic methods were chosen for their capacity to engage with the complex tensions and textures of modern pedagogy. Photographic, audiovisual and interview materials were gathered in formal and non-formal school settings which, through the adaptation of a values-driven hermeneutic framework, inspired critical and reflexive narrative interpretations. The discussion draws on theories related to cultural studies, media literacy, and film and moving image composition to explore our ‘performance’ with digital media in a networked society, under the prevailing social conditions of possibility. This study positions media-making in schools as a core entitlement which adds to and enriches, rather than supplants, traditional literacy. Given the complex ways in which modern social actors use media representations to negotiate identity, and their relationships with each other and the environment, it is argued that providing primary learners with opportunities for creative digital media-making will create a more relevant, engaging and critically-oriented school experience. Practical media work nurtures the skills, competencies and disposition for praxis-oriented socio-cultural participation, of benefit to the individual, and the local and wider community. 5 BLANK 6 LIST OF CONTENTS COPYRIGHT............................................................................................................. 3 ABSTRACT: MICHELLE CANNON ..................................................................... 5 LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................. 14 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................... 17 CHAPTER I – INTRODUCTION ......................................................................... 20 A. BACKGROUND .................................................................................................... 20 B. RESEARCH PROBLEM .......................................................................................... 21 C. RESEARCH QUESTIONS ....................................................................................... 22 D. METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................. 22 E. JUSTIFICATION .................................................................................................... 23 F. THESIS STRUCTURE ............................................................................................. 24 Chapter II – Review of the literature ................................................................. 24 Chapter III – Methodology and methods ........................................................... 25 Chapter IV & V – Presentation of research materials ...................................... 27 Chapter VI – Discussion .................................................................................... 28 Chapter VII – Conclusions and recommendations ............................................ 28 G. DEFINITIONS ....................................................................................................... 29 H. DELIMITATIONS .................................................................................................. 31 I. CONCLUDING THOUGHTS ..................................................................................... 31 CHAPTER II - LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................ 32 A. SOCIO-CULTURAL LANDSCAPE ........................................................................... 32 The empirical and the mind ............................................................................... 33 Making, instrumental learning and the socio-economic .................................... 35 Maker Faires and human capital ....................................................................... 37 Media and vocational training ........................................................................... 40 Media production, creativity and policy ............................................................ 43 Media-making as craftwork ............................................................................... 45 B. APPROACHES TO (MOVING IMAGE) LITERACY IN SCHOOLS ................................. 48 ‘The New Literacy Studies’ and the ‘ideological’ model ................................... 48 Media-making, phronesis and rhetoric .............................................................. 50 Media composition ............................................................................................. 53 7 Moving image literacy and editing .................................................................... 55 C. MEDIA-MAKING PROCESSES ............................................................................... 57 Approaches to literacy with ‘new’ media .......................................................... 57 Media composition and curation ....................................................................... 60 Cyber-libertarianism and media production ..................................................... 63 D. MEDIA PEDAGOGIES AND SITES OF LEARNING .................................................... 66 Habitus and the borderlands ............................................................................. 67 Mobilisation and participation .......................................................................... 69 E. CYCLE OF DIGITAL MAKING: A THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ............................... 73 Cycle of Digital Making ..................................................................................... 75 F. CONCLUDING THOUGHTS .................................................................................... 79 CHAPTER III – METHODOLOGY ..................................................................... 81 A. REFLECTIONS ON METHODOLOGY ...................................................................... 81 B. METHODOLOGICAL JUSTIFICATION .................................................................... 82 Ontological and epistemological reflections ..................................................... 82 Creative Methods ............................................................................................... 85 Current educational research trends ................................................................. 87 Research principles and educational values ...................................................... 88 Ethnography ....................................................................................................... 91 A critical visual anthropological approach ....................................................... 92 Narrative methodology ...................................................................................... 97 Pragmatising the imaginary .............................................................................. 99 Storying children’s lives .................................................................................. 101 C. RESEARCH SETTINGS AND PROCESSES ............................................................. 103 Researcher role ................................................................................................ 105 Gathering materials ......................................................................................... 106 Interview technique .......................................................................................... 107 Setting 1 (non-formal): East London Primary School - The Clip Club ........... 108 Setting 2 (non-formal): North London Primary School - Le Cinéma: Cent ans de Jeunesse [CCADJ] ........................................................................................... 115 Setting 3 (formal): Riverside School & Institute of Education - Film in a Morning............................................................................................................ 118 Setting 4 (formal): Riverside School English and Drama Department ........... 121 8 Interpretive Framework ................................................................................... 124 D. CREDIBILITY, LIMITATIONS & ETHICS ............................................................. 129 Credibility ........................................................................................................ 129 Limitations ....................................................................................................... 130 Ethics ................................................................................................................ 130 E. CONCLUDING THOUGHTS ................................................................................. 131 CHAPTER IV – INTERPRETATION OF MATERIAL PART 1 .................... 133 A. INTERPRETIVE FRAMEWORK ............................................................................. 133 B. SETTING 1: EAST LONDON PRIMARY SCHOOL - THE CLIP CLUB ...................... 136 C. NIMBUS ............................................................................................................ 137 A media practitioner’s core practices and values ........................................... 138 Practitioner insight: tools, iterative technique, dual contexts ......................... 139 D. NIMBUS AND LEONARDO .................................................................................. 140 Nimbus, Leonardo & Mr. P interview ............................................................. 141 Autonomous control & social interaction ........................................................ 142 Practitioner insight: review and redraft .......................................................... 143 E. LEONARDO ....................................................................................................... 144 Co-composition and display ............................................................................ 145 Practitioner insight: ownership and public celebration .................................. 146 F. CLARA AND G-MAN .......................................................................................... 147 Iterative and critical approaches to understanding film language ................. 147 Practitioner insight: embodying film grammar and power relations .............. 148 Social (non)participation ................................................................................. 150 Practitioner insight: roleplay, mess & collaboration ...................................... 151 Flow, mobility and autonomy .......................................................................... 153 Practitioner insight: aesthetic composition ..................................................... 155 G. WIZARD ........................................................................................................... 155 Multimodal craftsmanship ............................................................................... 156 Practitioner insight: the affective, corporeal and imaginary .......................... 157 Media crafting and the film sentence ............................................................... 158 Practitioner insight: technique and iterative practices ................................... 159 Material and digital connectivity ..................................................................... 160 Practitioner insight: intertextual remix ........................................................... 160 9 H. DUAL 2 ............................................................................................................. 161 Dialogic relations & porous pedagogies ......................................................... 161 Participation & collaboration ......................................................................... 162 Practitioner insight: agency and autonomy ..................................................... 163 Co-composition and editing as an iterative craft ............................................ 164 Practitioner insight: phronesis and rhetorical performance ........................... 165 I. MEDIA COMPOSITION PRACTICES IN ACTION ...................................................... 165 Whole group collaboration .............................................................................. 165 Practitioner insight: technological constraints ............................................... 167 J. CONTEXTUAL INTERPRETATION: CLIP CLUB FINDINGS ...................................... 168 Social & participative forms of literacy ........................................................... 168 Conditions of possibility .................................................................................. 169 Hybrid transactional pedagogic model ........................................................... 170 CHAPTER V – INTERPRETATION OF MATERIAL PART II .................... 172 A. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 172 B. SETTING 2 – LE CINÉMA: CENT ANS DE JEUNESSE (CCADJ) ........................... 173 Relations between theory and practice through artistry .................................. 174 Aesthetic / film sensibility ................................................................................ 179 Moments of translation and ‘Practise, practise, practise!’ ............................. 180 Practitioner’s insight: tacit communication, tools and anatomy ..................... 184 ‘Film essai’ editing: a socially contingent and embodied cultural practice ... 185 BFI Screening: public display & process exegesis .......................................... 190 Practitioner’s insight: improvisation, historical continuity and critique ........ 192 Contextual interpretation: CCADJ programme .............................................. 194 C. SETTING 3 – RIVERSIDE SCHOOL - FILM IN A MORNING ................................... 200 Improvised co-production and playful agency ................................................ 201 Practitioner’s insight: digital artistry and media composition language ....... 203 Critical and hybrid pedagogy .......................................................................... 205 Contextual interpretation: formal frustration .................................................. 207 D. SETTING 4 – RIVERSIDE SCHOOL - ENGLISH AND DRAMA DEPARTMENT .......... 210 Preparation for praxis and critical thinking .................................................... 211 Practitioner insight: pedagogy porous to the popular and the public ............. 215 Making meaning between a rock and a hard place ......................................... 217 10