A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal

Multiliteracies in the Making – Multidisciplinary Conceptualization




AuthorsLaapotti, Tomi; Iikkanen, Päivi; Kerttula, Tero; Koistinen, Aino-Kaisa; Martin Anne; Sormanen, Niina

Publication year2025

JournalThe Journal of Literacy and Technology

Volume26

Issue1

First page 16

Last page41

ISSN1535-0975

eISSN1535-0975

Web address https://literacyandtechnology.org/current-issue/(external)

Self-archived copy’s web addresshttps://jyx.jyu.fi/jyx/Record/jyx_123456789_100049(external)


Abstract

This article focuses on the concept of multiliteracies from a multidisciplinary point of view. By 
analyzing texts that were created to discuss differing research foci and relationships with the concept, 
a nonhierarchical and dynamic model, a wheel of multiliteracies, is formulated for understanding the 
processes of multiliteracies. Communication, temporality, and contextuality form the hoop of the 
wheel and the spokes include agency, competencies, expressions, individual experiences, and 
collectivity. The intertwined spokes can be examined through the tensions connected to 
communication, contextuality, and temporality: individuality/relationality, local/global, and the 
tensions built in the concept of time, respectively. The conceptualization reflects recent discussions 
on multiliteracies and develops the concept further through the dynamics emerging from the built-in 
tensions in the wheel. Furthermore, this text is an exploration of collective knowledge production 
through academic writing and the processual quality of multiliteracies – or multiliteracies in the 
making.

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Last updated on 2025-20-03 at 14:46