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Constructing Academic Identities through Digital Writing: A Multiple Case Study of Adolescents Deemed “At-Risk”

West, Jessica A
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1423-2446
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1439301510

Abstract Details

2015, PhD, University of Cincinnati, Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services: Educational Studies.
Academic failure is a common problem for adolescents in the United States with more than half of fourth and eighth graders failing to achieve proficient scores on national literacy measures. This qualitative descriptive holistic multiple-case study explored the ways in which four adolescents who were deemed “at-risk” constructed academic identities through digital writing in order to understand the possibilities for selfhood that digital writing in a classroom context creates for adolescents. New Literacies theory (Leu et al., 2013) was used as a theoretical lens to interpret the learning contexts in which adolescents engaged in digital writing practices. Writer Identity theory (Ivanic, 1998) was used to analyze the identities adolescents constructed within their writing as well as the contexts in which they were writing. Gee’s (2000) framework for four ways to view identity was also used to analyze how adolescents perceived themselves, as well as how they were perceived by their teachers, within the Discourse of school. Participants included two fourth grade students and their English/language arts teacher in a suburban elementary school and two ninth grade students and their English teacher in an urban high school in Ohio. Qualitative data sources included classroom observations, digitally recorded observations of participants’ writing events, semi-structured interviews, and artifacts. Data were analyzed inductively using pattern codes and deductively using the theoretical frameworks. Findings are presented both as narrative vignettes of each adolescent’s perceptions of academic identity and experiences with digital writing, as well as a cross-case synthesis of the four individual cases. Cross-case findings suggest that possibilities for selfhood are limited or expanded by the parameters of the assignment more than the medium in which the writing takes place, and that the teacher’s positioning of students as technology experts expands their possibilities for selfhood within the classroom context. The findings of this study reaffirm assertions made in a wealth of literature on the teaching of writing that argues for giving adolescents freedom to write about topics that genuinely matter to them. The writing events in which adolescents engaged during the study period were all directly related to preparing for the PARCC Performance-Based Assessments. This study sheds new light on how educators can work within the confines of high-stakes test preparation to continue to offer students engaging experiences with digital writing, as well as how educators can work to reconstruct identities of failure in adolescents who are at risk of leaving school because of their past experiences with schooling.
Vicki Plano Clark, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
Tom Romano, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Chester Laine, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Cheri Williams, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
364 p.
Education
digital literacies; digital writing; identity; adolescents; case study research; qualitative

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • West, J. A. (2015). Constructing Academic Identities through Digital Writing: A Multiple Case Study of Adolescents Deemed “At-Risk” [Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1439301510

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • West, Jessica. Constructing Academic Identities through Digital Writing: A Multiple Case Study of Adolescents Deemed “At-Risk”. 2015. University of Cincinnati, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1439301510.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • West, Jessica. "Constructing Academic Identities through Digital Writing: A Multiple Case Study of Adolescents Deemed “At-Risk”." Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1439301510

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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This open access ETD is published by University of Cincinnati and OhioLINK.