Veronica Gardiner PhD

Australian school teachers currently face many dilemmas about global technological change and national curriculum reform. It is now imperative to equitably promote literacy for 21st century futures against the backdrop of an increasingly divisive and market driven educational environment. The new national curriculum requires all primary teachers to provide learning experiences with 'multimodality', a concept arising from expanded notions of literacy in a digital world (New London Group, 1996). Yet, it is not clear how teachers might attempt this, when new terminology is dissociated from theory in curriculum documents, and professional learning is dominated by a print-focused standardised assessment regime. This qualitative case study explores how a 'multiliteracies book club' can support the collective literacy learning of a group of primary teachers from low socio-economic schools. Aiming to generate participatory approaches to professional learning and knowledge building, the study integrates a framework of multiliteracies (New London Group, 1996) and communities of practice (Wenger, 1998). Critical discourse analysis is expected to reveal emergent multiliteracies' perspectives and knowledge, scaffolded within a community of practice. Keywords: multiliteracies; community of practice; professional learning