A Multiliteracies Project

1. Goals

In 2004 Fairview Heights State School decided that in order to develop a school-wide approach to literacy, staff needed to embark on shared, but individual projects with a focus on:

• increasing personal knowledge about literacy education, 
• investigating their current pedagogy and practices, and
• developing individual and shared goals for change and validating change.

2. The Program

We developed a program in consultation with the principal and staff that involved:

• Specific workshops on multiliteracies and visual literacies and analysing and changing pedagogy
• Engagement with a self reflective tool in which staff rated themselves on aspects of literacy teaching and then identified areas for change
• Staff developing individual projects in which they planned for implementing change and validating how they had changed
• Staff audiotaping lessons, transcribing and analysing their teaching

The program took place over an eight month period and involved a mixture of whole day sessions with all staff released from the classroom, follow-up sessions with groups and individuals during school time, and a full day for sharing and validating outcomes in which staff reported on their individual projects.

3. Outcomes

On validation day teachers and staff shared their individual projects. The Principal and staff all agreed that the following outcomes were most significant:

• Change in Pedagogy
• All staff agreed that the audio-taping and transcript analysis, while the most difficult aspect of the project, had greatest impact on their teaching in literacy and all other discipline areas.
• Change in knowledge about literacy
• The combined use of whole staff workshops and individually selected professional reading ensured all staff increased knowledge about literacy
• Growth in collegial conversation: School renewal
• The principal and staff reported on the growth of collegial conversations as staff engaged with their projects and shared challenges and successes along the way.
• Sustainablility
• Conversations with the principal and staff in the 12 months after the project indicated that the changes were maintained and built upon as staff embarked on other projects and the school continued on its goal of whole school renewal.

For more detailed information on the Fairview Heights Project see:

One School’s journey: Using multiliteracies to promote school renewal

Principal and Staff talk about the Fairview Heights Multiliteracies Project

Sample Overview of a Multiliteracies Project

Responding to Rapid Change: Multiliteracies and ICTs

Darth Vader versus Luke Skywalker: Reflecting on quests for better literacy education.