Connecting multiliteracies and engagement of students from low socio-economic backgrounds: using Bernstein's pedagogic discourse as a bridge

Many students in Australia from low socio-economic status (SES) backgrounds have historically been alienated from learning and education because of the narrow definition of literacy and of what counts as legitimate texts. Consequently, traditional pedagogy, curriculum and assessment practices disengage many students. To address this issue, we embedded multiliteracies utilising information and communication technologies (ICTs) into three low SES classroom programmes and found that the associated classroom messages greatly enhanced the students' engagement in learning and their view of themselves as learners. This approach worked better than the traditional approaches because students created multimodal texts that changed what was seen as legitimate school texts and thus credited them as literate individuals. This paper discusses students as co-constructors of knowledge, who used ICTs for an authentic purpose. It considers changes in students' engagement and achievement as the result of shifts in the pedagogic discourse and the way that the discourses of power played out in the classrooms, via the messages students received about their knowledge, ability, control, voice and place. The multiliteracies-based unit of work utilising ICTs provided spaces for students to develop new literacy practices and to view school as a place for them.