Researching New Literacies ― Design, Theory, and Data in Sociocultural Investigation

This book provides an expansive guide for designing and conducting robust qualitative research across a diverse range of purposes concerned with understanding new literacies in theory and in practice. It is based on the idea that one of the best ways of learning how to do good research is by closely following the approaches taken by excellent researchers. This volume brings together a group of internationally reputed qualitative researchers who have investigated new literacies from a sociocultural perspective. These contributors offer "under the hood" accounts of how they have adapted existing research approaches and, where appropriate, developed new ones to frame their research theoretically and conceptually, collected and analyzed their data, and discussed their analytic results in order to achieve their research purposes. Each chapter, based on a substantial and successful study undertaken by the researchers, addresses the research process from one or more of the following emphases: theory and design, data collection, and data analysis and interpretation. Core elements discussed in each chapter include research purposes and questions; theoretical and conceptual framing; data collection and analysis; research findings and implications; and limitations, glitches, and difficulties experienced in the research process.

Michele Knobel: PhD from Queensland University of Technology (Australia). Professor of Education, Montclair State University (USA). Co-author of Literacies: Social, Cultural and Historical Perspectives (2011) and co-editor of DIY Media: Creating, Sharing and Learning with New Technologies(2010), both with Colin Lankshear.

Colin Lankshear: PhD from Canterbury University (New Zealand); Adjunct Professor James Cook University (Australia) and Mount St Vincent University (Canada). Co-editor of A New Literacies Reader (2013) and co-author of New Literacies: Everyday Practices and Social Learning (2011), both with Michele Knobel.