Multiliteracies in music subject
Multimodal approach to teaching music in lower secondary education

This dissertation enhances research-based understanding of how multilite-
racies emerge and how secondary school music education fosters them. The 
study examines what kind of elements are associated with the development 
of multiliteracies and how music education could promote students’ multilite-
racies. The research questions are as follows: 1. How can inter-arts studying 
support the meaning-making of secondary school students from the perspec-
tive of multiliteracies? 2. How are multiliteracies taken into account in the 
objectives of music subject in basic education? The theoretical framework of 
this study is built on media education, multiliteracies, sociocultural learning 
and sociosemiotics.
The first sub-study explores secondary school students’ meaning-making 
processes from the perspective of multiliteracies. The data were collected du-
ring a music and dance inter-arts project. The sub-study demonstrates how 
students collaboratively create meanings that cross disciplinary boundaries. 
The study suggests that multimodal and inter-arts learning can help students 
to develop their ways of meaning-making, thereby enhancing their ownership 
over learning and fostering equality.
The second sub-study examines through content analysis seventh-grade 
students’ audiovisual storytelling in short films that they chose to produce on 
their topics. The findings show a variety of audiovisual storytelling ideas. It is 
noteworthy from the multiliteracies’ perspective that the students used both 
the techniques that they had learned in the classroom and on the media they 
use in their leisure time. The results are consistent with earlier studies that 
highlight the fact that learning occurs everywhere. Therefore, music educa-
tion should accommodate flexible interaction between informal and formal 
learning environments.
The third sub-study is a concept analysis on multiliteracies within the 
framework of music education and multiliteracies research and the Finnish 
national core curriculum. The study concludes that the objectives of basic mu-
sic education foster multiliteracies by providing opportunities for multimodal meaning-making and critical thinking. This is based on the research literature 
on multiliteracies and music education. Nevertheless, the study suggests that 
the continuum of multiliteracies in music could be refined to highlight the 
various features of musicking that support multiliteracies.
This dissertation concludes that music education can support multili-
teracies through multimodal, collaborative learning that combines different 
senses and art forms. Concerning contemporary phenomena such as digita-
lized media, supporting diverse learners and cultural diversities, the concept 
of multiliteracies challenges and inspires us to examine basic music education 
goals from a new perspective. Supporting students’ multiliteracies necessita-
tes research on multiliteracies in music and other subjects as well as various 
forms of communication across different modalities.

Keywords: multiliteracies, multimodality, inter-art, music education, basic 
education