The African Storybook and Language Teacher Identity in Digital Times

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• 作者：Espen Stranger-Johannessen and Bonny Norton
• 刊名：The Modern Language Journal
• 出版年：2017
• 出版时间：Supplement 2017
• 年：2017
• 卷：101
• 期：S1
• 页码：45-60
• 全文大小：288K
• ISSN：1540-4781

文摘

The African Storybook (ASb) is a digital initiative that promotes multilingual literacy for African children by providing openly licenced children's stories in multiple African languages, as well as English, French, and Portuguese. Based on Darvin and Norton's (<a href="#modl12374-bib-0016" rel="references:#modl12374-bib-0016" class="link__reference js-link__reference" title="Link to bibliographic citation">2015a>) model of identity and investment, and drawing on the Douglas Fir Group's (<a href="#modl12374-bib-0019" rel="references:#modl12374-bib-0019" class="link__reference js-link__reference" title="Link to bibliographic citation">2016a>) framework for second language acquisition, this study investigates Ugandan primary school teachers’ investment in the ASb, its impact on their teaching, and their changing identities. The study was conducted in a rural Ugandan school from June to December 2014, and the data, which focus on one key participant, Monica, were drawn from field notes, classroom observations, interview transcripts, and questionnaires, which were coded using retroductive coding. The findings indicate that through the ASb initiative and its stories, Monica and other teachers began to imagine themselves as writers, readers, and teachers of stories, reframing what it means to be a reading teacher. Teachers’ shifts of identity were indexical of their enhanced social and cultural capital as they engaged with the ASb, notwithstanding ideological constraints associated with mother tongue usage, assessment practices, and teacher supervision. The authors conclude that the enhancement of language teacher identity has important implications for the promotion of multilingual literacy for young learners in African communities.