- Dr Ibrar Bhatt
Senior Lecturer
School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work
Queen's University Belfast
Email: i.bhatt@qub.ac.uk
Twitter: @ibrar_bhatt | Tel: +44(0)28990971489
- Queen's University Belfast, Education, Faculty Memberadd
- New literacy studies, Technology Enhanced Learning, Actor Network Theory (ANT), Actor-Network-Theory, Actor Network Theory, Education, and 31 moreApplied Linguistics, TESOL, Technology-enhanced Learning, Computers and Composition, John Law, STS (Anthropology), Sociology of Translation, Digital epistemologies, Bruno Latour, Educational Technology, Digital Media, Digital Culture, Digital Literacy, ESOL, Bilingualism, Cultural Capital, Language and Identity, Sociomateriality, Adolescent Digital Literacy, Languages and Linguistics, Higher Education, E-learning, Teaching English as a Second Language, Educational Research, Sociology of Education, Educational Leadership, English as a Foreign Language (EFL), Science and Technology Studies, Computer Networks, Databases, and Softwareedit
- @ibrar_bhattedit
This Element examines the semiotics of Sino-Muslim heritage literacy in a way that integrates its Perso-Arabic textual qualities with broader cultural semiotic forms. Using data from images of the linguistic landscape of Sino-Muslim life... more
This Element examines the semiotics of Sino-Muslim heritage literacy in a way that integrates its Perso-Arabic textual qualities with broader cultural semiotic forms. Using data from images of the linguistic landscape of Sino-Muslim life alongside interviews with Sino-Muslims about their heritage, the author examines how signs of 'Muslimness' are displayed and manipulated in both covert and overt means in different contexts. In so doing the author offers a 'semiotics of Muslimness' in China and considers how forms of language and materiality have the power to inspire meanings and identifications for Sino-Muslims and understanding of their heritage literacy. The author employs theoretical tools from linguistic anthropology and an understanding of semiotic assemblage to demonstrate how signifiers of Chinese Muslimness are invoked to substantiate heritage and Sino-Muslim identity constructions even when its expression must be covert, liminal, and unconventional.
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Approaching academic assignments as practical controversies, this book offers a novel approach to the study of digital literacy. Through in-depth accounts of assignment writing in college classrooms, Bhatt examines ways of understanding... more
Approaching academic assignments as practical controversies, this book offers a novel approach to the study of digital literacy. Through in-depth accounts of assignment writing in college classrooms, Bhatt examines ways of understanding how students engage with digital media in curricular activities and how these give rise to new practices of information management and knowledge creation. He further considers what these new practices portend for a stronger theory of digital literacy in an age of informational abundance and ubiquitous connectivity.
Looking also at how institutional digital learning policies and strategies are applied in classrooms, and how students may embrace or avoid imposed technologies, this book offers an in-depth study of learner practices. It is through the comprehensive study of such practices that we can better understand the efficacy of technological investments in education, and the dynamic nature of digital literacy on the part of students charged with using those technologies.
Looking also at how institutional digital learning policies and strategies are applied in classrooms, and how students may embrace or avoid imposed technologies, this book offers an in-depth study of learner practices. It is through the comprehensive study of such practices that we can better understand the efficacy of technological investments in education, and the dynamic nature of digital literacy on the part of students charged with using those technologies.
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This Point of Departure 'kicks off' a process that we hope will elicit submissions for a Special Issue to mark the 30th anniversary of Teaching in Higher Education: Critical Perspectives. The theme of the issue will be to debate the... more
This Point of Departure 'kicks off' a process that we hope will elicit submissions for a Special Issue to mark the 30th anniversary of Teaching in Higher Education: Critical Perspectives. The theme of the issue will be to debate the meanings of the concept 'critical' or 'criticality' or 'critique' and its associated uses such as 'critical perspectives', 'critical thinking' and 'critical literacy' in higher education and the implications of these debates for teaching. We will invite contributors to interrogate the definitions, uses and import of these terms, particularly in the context of conducting and writing about research on teaching theory and practice in higher education for this journal. Despite its pervasiveness in higher education discourse, the meanings of the concept remain vague and implicit, such that they can function as mechanisms of exclusion and domination, for example when assessing students (Stables 2003; Gravett, Taylor, and Fairchild 2024; Taylor et al. 2023) or reviewing submissions for publication (Bozalek and Romano 2023; Taylor et al. 2023). More specifically, we hope to clarify for ourselves and for potential authors how we might meaningfully rethink and redescribe the concept in contemporary higher education contexts that are shifting and unstableat many levelsexistential, institutional, disciplinary, epistemological, technological, cultural and planetary. As editors and reviewers of the journal, we also hope that contributions to the Special Issue will challenge not only how we teach, but also how we frame and manage the journal and thus open up, enrich, and diversify our coverage of research on teaching that adopts a critical perspective. Context By stating in its purpose and scope, that it hopes to be responsive to its shifting global and local contexts, Teaching in Higher Education follows Paulo Freire's well-known adage that reading the world always precedes reading the word, and reading the word implies continually (re)reading the world (Freire and Macedo 1987). A key question then becomes, through what lens do we re-read the world? Below we touch on a few pressure points that we (the authors) think are important as we try to reread the contemporary situation.
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Literacy researchers across various perspectives have demonstrated a notable agility in responding to the emergence of digital technologies and their impacts on literacy practices. As digital technologies permeate human existence, writing... more
Literacy researchers across various perspectives have demonstrated a notable agility in responding to the emergence of digital technologies and their impacts on literacy practices. As digital technologies permeate human existence, writing and other literacy practices occur in postdigital literacy ecologies. Examining how literacy is bound up postdigitally in everyday life offers opportunities to comprehend the complex relationships between technology, society, and individuals. It also reflects ongoing efforts in Literacy Studies to understand the social, epistemological, and ideological nature of mediatized representation as occurring at the level of everyday literacy.
Cite as:
Bhatt, I. (2023). Postdigital Literacies. In: Jandrić, P. (eds) Encyclopedia of Postdigital Science and Education . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35469-4_15-1
Cite as:
Bhatt, I. (2023). Postdigital Literacies. In: Jandrić, P. (eds) Encyclopedia of Postdigital Science and Education . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35469-4_15-1
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This article examines how international shifts in research writing, including performance policies and competitive research evaluation regimes, are creating a new set of expectations upon academics in Indonesia. Utilising a social... more
This article examines how international shifts in research writing, including performance policies and competitive research evaluation regimes, are creating a new set of expectations upon academics in Indonesia. Utilising a social practice approach to literacy, and with a cross-disciplinary sample of twenty-two academics at both private and public universities, we explore how earlycareer academics in Indonesia transition to research productivity. We investigate the tools and resources academics draw upon, and how academic success, prestige, and internationalism are conceptualised. We note that academics must amalgamate new literacy practices to contend with multiple and conflicting demands on time, abilities, allegiances, the double-bind of local versus international research impact, as well as inequalities of experience constituting peripheries within an already existing periphery.
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Higher education's 'Language Problem' Globalisation, for which language is a pivotal instrument, is defined by Giddens (1990) as the 'intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities' (64). Though it is a... more
Higher education's 'Language Problem' Globalisation, for which language is a pivotal instrument, is defined by Giddens (1990) as the 'intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities' (64). Though it is a contested terrain, of globalisationsfrom above and from below (Torres 2009), there are both negative and positive effects on any society. The globalisation of higher education has elevated the international status of colonial languages, such as English, to the status of a global academic lingua franca, with universities today both collaborating and competing on a worldwide scale in the pursuit of knowledge production. In many international contexts, English has emerged as the language of choice for those undertaking and offering university education, and, subsequently, has become not only a valuable commodity in the global economy (O'Regan 2021), but also a language associated with reproducing certain epistemological stances and worldviews (Santos 2014). The imposition of a powerful language as a medium of instruction is far from a 'neutral' pedagogical decision. Rather, it is a profoundly political and cultural dilemma for people who are compelled to learn it and use it for teaching within higher education. Its imposition can also elicit sentiments of cultural erasure, occupation, and identity loss (Skuttnabb-Kangas et al. 2009), and lead to linguistic and cultural displacements (Phillipson 2017). Language, therefore, carries much more than communicative value. It creates mechanisms of symbolic power (see Badwan 2020), and can act as a tool for symbolic violence (Bourdieu 1991). This brings to the fore what we refer to in this editorial as higher education's 'Language Problem'.
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In this chapter, we take our cue from Machiavelli to explore whether deceit by those who govern us is good for the polity. We argue that it is not: all forms of deception carry great risks that infect social and political relations. It is... more
In this chapter, we take our cue from Machiavelli to explore whether deceit by those who govern us is good for the polity. We argue that it is not: all forms of deception carry great risks that infect social and political relations. It is particularly harmful when these deceits are conducted in online platforms, given the speed at which lies, fake news, misinformation, disinformation, and other such epistemic vices spread. Bad faith and bad politics lead to bad consequences: polarisation, mis/distrust, and anger, which opportunistic politicians ruthlessly exploit in social and mass media. To help us argue why the suspension of ethical conduct in politics and online media can rarely be justified, and why deceit is corrosive of trust, we draw on a number of analyses: strategic disinformation campaigns; the consumption of mass and social media driven by dis/mistrust; Arendt's analysis of totalitarianism and Bok's examination of lies; and the 'polariser's toolkit'. We suggest that an alternative to the tactics of the polariser is the humanist toolkit: humanising propaganda based on empathy, and, naturally enough, an education that critically and extensively engages in digital epistemologies.
To be cited as:
MacKenzie, A. & Bhatt, I. (2021) ‘Bad Faith, Bad Politics, Bad Consequences: The Epistemic Harms of Online Deceit’, in MacKenzie, A., Rose, J. & Bhatt, I. (Eds.) The Epistemology of Deceit in a Postdigital Era: Dupery by Design, Springer [Postdigital Science & Education Book Series]. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-72154-1
To be cited as:
MacKenzie, A. & Bhatt, I. (2021) ‘Bad Faith, Bad Politics, Bad Consequences: The Epistemic Harms of Online Deceit’, in MacKenzie, A., Rose, J. & Bhatt, I. (Eds.) The Epistemology of Deceit in a Postdigital Era: Dupery by Design, Springer [Postdigital Science & Education Book Series]. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-72154-1
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In this paper we examine digital literacy and explicate how it relates to the philosophical study of ignorance. Using data from a study which explores the knowledge producing work of undergraduate students as they wrote course... more
In this paper we examine digital literacy and explicate how it relates to the philosophical study of ignorance. Using data from a study which explores the knowledge producing work of undergraduate students as they wrote course assignments, we argue that a social practice approach to digital literacy can help explain how epistemologies of ignorance may be sustained. If students are restricted in what they can know because they are unaware of exogenous actors (e.g. algorithms), and how they guide choices and shape experiences online, then a key issue with which theorists of digital literacy should contend is how to educate students to be critically aware of how power operates in online spaces. The challenge for Higher Education is twofold: to understand how particular forms of digital literacy practices pave the way for the construction of ignorance, and to develop approaches to counter it.
This is the accepted manuscript (author version), to appear in a special issue of Teaching in Higher Education on “Experts, knowledge and criticality in the age of ‘alternative facts’: re-examining the contribution of higher education” [February 2019].
Cited as:
Bhatt, I. & MacKenzie (2019) Just Google it! Digital literacy and the epistemology of ignorance, Teaching in Higher Education (special issue on “Experts, knowledge and criticality in the age of ‘alternative facts’: re-examining the contribution of higher education”), Vol. 24
Permanent link: https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2018.1547276
This is the accepted manuscript (author version), to appear in a special issue of Teaching in Higher Education on “Experts, knowledge and criticality in the age of ‘alternative facts’: re-examining the contribution of higher education” [February 2019].
Cited as:
Bhatt, I. & MacKenzie (2019) Just Google it! Digital literacy and the epistemology of ignorance, Teaching in Higher Education (special issue on “Experts, knowledge and criticality in the age of ‘alternative facts’: re-examining the contribution of higher education”), Vol. 24
Permanent link: https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2018.1547276
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Authors: Ms Sadia Khan, University of South Carolina (Columbia, SC, USA) sadiak@email.sc.edu Dr Ibrar Bhatt, Queen’s University Belfast (Northern Ireland, UK) i.bhatt@qub.ac.uk Abstract: As modes and types of information have evolved in... more
Authors:
Ms Sadia Khan, University of South Carolina (Columbia, SC, USA) sadiak@email.sc.edu
Dr Ibrar Bhatt, Queen’s University Belfast (Northern Ireland, UK) i.bhatt@qub.ac.uk
Abstract:
As modes and types of information have evolved in the digital age, the umbrella term of curation has come to cover increasing types of information management practices—from the technical work of museum specialists and scientists, to everyday online search tasks and social media use. This chapter examines curation as a practice of harnessing existing information, filtering and contextualizing it through the application of criteria which assess and promote belief, and then re-presenting it. Regardless of whether curation is performed by humans or algorithmically by machines, it is the intentional justifications made in the filtering process which link information to knowledge and make curation an act of agentive meaning-making. Since curators hold the power to change narratives through the (re-)contextualization of information, the filtering of information can be a source of controversy. Corporate-driven algorithmic filters, information ‘bubbles' and other potential sources of misinformation can all act as mediating agents in the curation process. Keen discernment over the reliability of text becomes critical to the outcome of its re-contextualization. As stewards of information and producers of knowledge, digital curators must cultivate discernment in their curation practices as a means of safeguarding information and advancing knowledge-creation.
To be cited as:
Khan, S. & Bhatt, I (forthcoming) ‘Curation’, chapter in International Encyclopedia of Media
Literacy, edited by Renee Hobbs and Paul Mihailidis, NY: Wiley-Blackwell.
Ms Sadia Khan, University of South Carolina (Columbia, SC, USA) sadiak@email.sc.edu
Dr Ibrar Bhatt, Queen’s University Belfast (Northern Ireland, UK) i.bhatt@qub.ac.uk
Abstract:
As modes and types of information have evolved in the digital age, the umbrella term of curation has come to cover increasing types of information management practices—from the technical work of museum specialists and scientists, to everyday online search tasks and social media use. This chapter examines curation as a practice of harnessing existing information, filtering and contextualizing it through the application of criteria which assess and promote belief, and then re-presenting it. Regardless of whether curation is performed by humans or algorithmically by machines, it is the intentional justifications made in the filtering process which link information to knowledge and make curation an act of agentive meaning-making. Since curators hold the power to change narratives through the (re-)contextualization of information, the filtering of information can be a source of controversy. Corporate-driven algorithmic filters, information ‘bubbles' and other potential sources of misinformation can all act as mediating agents in the curation process. Keen discernment over the reliability of text becomes critical to the outcome of its re-contextualization. As stewards of information and producers of knowledge, digital curators must cultivate discernment in their curation practices as a means of safeguarding information and advancing knowledge-creation.
To be cited as:
Khan, S. & Bhatt, I (forthcoming) ‘Curation’, chapter in International Encyclopedia of Media
Literacy, edited by Renee Hobbs and Paul Mihailidis, NY: Wiley-Blackwell.
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Chapter for: Knobel, M. and Lankshear, C. (eds.) Researching New Literacies: Design, Theory, and Data in Sociocultural Investigation. New York: Peter Lang. (Due to publisher April, 2016). To be cited as: Bhatt, I. (in press). Classroom... more
Chapter for:
Knobel, M. and Lankshear, C. (eds.) Researching New Literacies: Design, Theory, and Data in Sociocultural Investigation. New York: Peter Lang. (Due to publisher April, 2016).
To be cited as:
Bhatt, I. (in press). Classroom digital literacies as interactional accomplishments, In ‘Researching New Literacies: Design, Theory, and Data in Sociocultural Investigation’, Knobel, M. and Lankshear, C. (eds.), New York: Peter Lang (due April, 2016).
Knobel, M. and Lankshear, C. (eds.) Researching New Literacies: Design, Theory, and Data in Sociocultural Investigation. New York: Peter Lang. (Due to publisher April, 2016).
To be cited as:
Bhatt, I. (in press). Classroom digital literacies as interactional accomplishments, In ‘Researching New Literacies: Design, Theory, and Data in Sociocultural Investigation’, Knobel, M. and Lankshear, C. (eds.), New York: Peter Lang (due April, 2016).
Research Interests: Literacy, Educational Technology, Research Methodology, CAQDAS, Ethnography, and 12 moreDigital Literacy, Actor Network Theory, Educational Research, New literacy studies, Digital Media & Learning, New Literacies, Ethnomethodology, Digital Media And New Literacies, Multimodality, Classroom Interaction, Digital Literacies, and Sociomateriality
"de Roock, Bhatt, and Adams seek to bridge the gap between changing literacy practices and research methodologies in the field of Literacy Studies. Expanding the discussion of ‘digital methods’, they detail and discuss approaches to the... more
"de Roock, Bhatt, and Adams seek to bridge the gap between changing literacy practices and research methodologies in the field of Literacy Studies. Expanding the discussion of ‘digital methods’, they detail and discuss approaches to the collection, management, and analysis of their multimodal data of classroom literacy activities." [from the abstract]
Forthcoming (2015) chapter in Snee, H., Hine, C., Morley, Y., Roberts, S. & Watson, H. (eds.) 'Digital Methods for Social Sciences: An Interdisciplinary guide to research innovation', Hampshire: Palgrave MacMillan.
Forthcoming (2015) chapter in Snee, H., Hine, C., Morley, Y., Roberts, S. & Watson, H. (eds.) 'Digital Methods for Social Sciences: An Interdisciplinary guide to research innovation', Hampshire: Palgrave MacMillan.
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[Article for The Conversation]
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Success in educational programmes often depends on learners being able to negotiate and manage a variety of digital literacy practices commensurate with the literacy demands of their course. This paper reports on preliminary findings of a... more
Success in educational programmes often depends on learners being able to negotiate and manage a variety of digital literacy practices commensurate with the literacy demands of their course. This paper reports on preliminary findings of a multi-method PhD study which examines the digital literacy practices arising when an adult learner in a UK college completes writing assignments for her course. It explores whether she uses digital tools agentively and decisively in her personal life, in order to transform her classroom practice. Data show that mobilising personal digital literacy practices into classroom-based literacy events allows learners to successfully make the link between their own everyday digital literacy practices and the requirements of their course. It is argued that a “social practice” approach to digital literacies, along with actor-network theory sensibilities, allows researchers to observe the sensitivity of classroom-based digital literacy events to the layered multiplicity of their contexts.
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A literature review of technology-supported work-based learning in Higher Education
JISC WELL (Workforce Engagement in Lifelong Learning) Project
University of Bradford
January 2010
JISC WELL (Workforce Engagement in Lifelong Learning) Project
University of Bradford
January 2010
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This work-in-progress paper explores the intersection of technologies and software with the practices, of qualitative research and qualitative data analysis. Computer aided qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS) packages such as... more
This work-in-progress paper explores the intersection of technologies and software with the practices, of qualitative research and qualitative data analysis. Computer aided qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS) packages such as ATLAS.ti, NVivo and HyperRESEARCH are the focus of competing claims and critiques. We explore the positioning, continuities and disjunctures between manufacturers promoting their software, positioning in teaching and training materials and a range of views in the literature from critical to laudatory, as well as their prevalence in research on networked learning. The pre-eminence and influence of expository writing and paucity of empirical research underscore the relevance and potential contribution of this project, We argue that part of that contribution comes from drawing on insights from science and technology studies (STS) which offer a well-developed vocabulary and set of approaches for exploring the agencies and mediation of technologies in the practices of research. The initial stages of the research project are outlined including online participant recruitment via facebook, methods of screen-share remote interviewing to generate rich data exploring software use, and incorporating accounts of researchers' practices. Their transformation and mediation to become " data " through different software packages are briefly explored. Drawing on Latour's model of the two-faced Janus of science with which contrasts " science in the making" with " ready made science " we turn to consider ways in which this project can invert the usual trope of University education as research led, asking instead how a research project could become teaching-led. We briefly explore some of the initial approaches and opportunities this has created for opening up the black-box of research practices and shifting software training methods to engage learners in a process of discovery as " learning in the making " rather than being tasked with stepping through fixed frames of " ready made teaching " .
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This paper explores how changes in higher education are transforming academics’ writing practices and sense of professional identity. It reports on preliminary findings from an ERSC-funded project that involves interviewing a range of... more
This paper explores how changes in higher education are transforming academics’ writing practices and sense of professional identity. It reports on preliminary findings from an ERSC-funded project that involves interviewing a range of academics from three different disciplines across three contrasting higher education institutions in the UK about their literacy practices around research, teaching and admin-related writing. The data reveal that research-related writing and the creativity it entails lie at the core of what it means to be an academic, but that assessment exercises such as the research excellence framework and attendant pressures to publish in certain forums were influencing both people’s writing practices and their accounts of their academic identities. The implications of this for scholarship are discussed.
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This paper theorises the practices of curricular assignment writing. I approach the writing of assignments as an assemblage of digital literacies that emerge as learners use whatever tools – digital and otherwise – are to hand. Building... more
This paper theorises the practices of curricular assignment writing. I approach the writing of assignments as an assemblage of digital literacies that emerge as learners use whatever tools – digital and otherwise – are to hand. Building on recent work in literacy studies, and using a sociomaterial approach, I theorise learners’ complex digital literacy practices through their academic assignment writing. Importantly, some practices are in contrast to the digital demands imposed by normative classroom culture and policies, and others are related to how learners manage multitudes of resources, online and offline. I subsequently advance new directions in digital literacy theory as drawn from the data. One such idea is ‘curation’ as a digital literacy practice. I argue that understanding curation as a digital literacy practice adds value to current debates in the fields of digital literacy and educational technology, especially as researchers apply a more critical and fine-grained lens towards technologised learning practices.
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"This paper reports on the preliminary findings of a PhD study which examines the nature of the digital literacy practices that arise when an adult learner (Sara) in a UK Further Education college completes writing assignments for her... more
"This paper reports on the preliminary findings of a PhD study which examines the nature of the digital literacy practices that arise when an adult learner (Sara) in a UK Further Education college completes writing assignments for her course. Drawing on the concept of ‘literacy events’ and ‘literacy practices’ (Scribner and Cole, 1981; Heath, 1983; Street, 1984) to complement and subsume traditional ‘skills set’ notions of digital literacy, it explores whether she uses digital tools agentively and decisively in her daily life to transform her classroom practice, as success in programmes of study depends on learners being able to negotiate and manage a variety of digital literacy practices commensurate with the literacy demands of a course.
This research adopts a multi-method ethnographic approach involving classroom observations, a multimodal recording of a digital writing event in process, and finally a semi-structured interview to analyse Sara’s applications of digital literacy in her daily life.
Data show that Sara’s endeavour to mobilise her social digital literacy practices into a classroom-based literacy event allow her to successfully make the link between her own everyday digital literacy practices and the requirements of the course. The relationship, therefore, between domains and digital literacy practices is complex and messy as such enactments of ‘translations’ disrupt the college’s attempt to ‘stabilise’ institutional digital
literacy which it valorises in the classroom domain.
It is argued that a ‘social practice’ approach to digital literacies, along with Actor-Network Theory sensibilities, allows researchers to observe and the sensitivity of classroom-based digital literacy events to the layered multiplicity of their contexts. Finally, I contend that such research, when conducted in multiple case-study form, provides a basis for understanding how learners’ social digital literacy practices can be mobilised as resources for learning across increasingly porous institutional boundaries."
This research adopts a multi-method ethnographic approach involving classroom observations, a multimodal recording of a digital writing event in process, and finally a semi-structured interview to analyse Sara’s applications of digital literacy in her daily life.
Data show that Sara’s endeavour to mobilise her social digital literacy practices into a classroom-based literacy event allow her to successfully make the link between her own everyday digital literacy practices and the requirements of the course. The relationship, therefore, between domains and digital literacy practices is complex and messy as such enactments of ‘translations’ disrupt the college’s attempt to ‘stabilise’ institutional digital
literacy which it valorises in the classroom domain.
It is argued that a ‘social practice’ approach to digital literacies, along with Actor-Network Theory sensibilities, allows researchers to observe and the sensitivity of classroom-based digital literacy events to the layered multiplicity of their contexts. Finally, I contend that such research, when conducted in multiple case-study form, provides a basis for understanding how learners’ social digital literacy practices can be mobilised as resources for learning across increasingly porous institutional boundaries."
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White Rose Doctoral Training Centre Fourth Annual Spring Conference 2015: ‘Getting Published’ Date - Wed, 6th May 2015 (10:30 am - 4:00 pm, University of York)
http://prezi.com/odeeid-ab4lw/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy
http://prezi.com/odeeid-ab4lw/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy
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See Web page article:
http://ibrarspace.net/2014/12/09/seminar-at-the-open-university/
http://ibrarspace.net/2014/12/09/seminar-at-the-open-university/
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See Web page article:
http://ibrarspace.net/2014/11/12/under-the-hood-of-assignments-talk-at-lancaster-university/
http://ibrarspace.net/2014/11/12/under-the-hood-of-assignments-talk-at-lancaster-university/
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This study traces the choreography of assignments: how they got written, their trajectory from apparent start to finish in a classroom, the sociomaterial work that went into them, and the subsequent digital literacy practices enacted... more
This study traces the choreography of assignments: how they got written, their trajectory from apparent start to finish in a classroom, the sociomaterial work that went into them, and the subsequent digital literacy practices enacted through them.
http://www.srhe.ac.uk/events/details.asp?eid=130
http://www.srhe.ac.uk/events/details.asp?eid=130
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The deployment of digital media in classrooms contributes to new sociomaterial assemblages when investigating how student work is done in classroom activities. Exploration of these new assemblages enhances our understanding of 'digital... more
The deployment of digital media in classrooms contributes to new sociomaterial assemblages when investigating how student work is done in classroom activities. Exploration of these new assemblages enhances our understanding of 'digital literacies'.
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The deployment of digital media in classrooms contributes to new sociomaterial assemblages when investigating how student work is done in classroom activities. Exploration of these new assemblages enhances our understanding of 'digital... more
The deployment of digital media in classrooms contributes to new sociomaterial assemblages when investigating how student work is done in classroom activities. Exploration of these new assemblages enhances our understanding of 'digital literacies'.
To be cited as:
Bhatt, I. (2013). The sociomaterial workings of a college writing assignment, The Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE) Annual Research Conference 2013 (reviewed proceedings), ‘Experiencing higher education: Global Trends and Transformations’ (Dec, 2013).
To be cited as:
Bhatt, I. (2013). The sociomaterial workings of a college writing assignment, The Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE) Annual Research Conference 2013 (reviewed proceedings), ‘Experiencing higher education: Global Trends and Transformations’ (Dec, 2013).
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This paper outlines a guiding framework and multimodal methodology for capturing student writing activities as they unfold in real time. Building upon current advances in video analysis, I capture the entire procedure of on-screen... more
This paper outlines a guiding framework and multimodal methodology for capturing student writing activities as they unfold in real time. Building upon current advances in video analysis, I capture the entire procedure of on-screen composition.
To be cited as:
Bhatt, I. (2013). Multilayered and multimodal: capturing literacy events in classrooms, The Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE) Newer Researchers’ Conference 2013 (reviewed proceedings), Dec 2013.
To be cited as:
Bhatt, I. (2013). Multilayered and multimodal: capturing literacy events in classrooms, The Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE) Newer Researchers’ Conference 2013 (reviewed proceedings), Dec 2013.
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The purpose of this colloquium is to provide a forum for novice scholars to engage in a conversation on issues focusing on doctoral research and scholarly work. My session emphasises digital scholarly activities as part of this.
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The deployment of digital media in classrooms contributes to new sociomaterial assemblages, exploration and elucidation of which is key to understanding the kinds of digital literacy practices which irrupt. This study traces the... more
The deployment of digital media in classrooms contributes to new sociomaterial assemblages, exploration and elucidation of which is key to understanding the kinds of digital literacy practices which irrupt. This study traces the choreography of assignments: how they got written, their trajectory from apparent start to finish in a classroom, the sociomaterial work that went into them, and the subsequent digital literacy practices enacted through their completion. I attend to the ecology of these practices (their impasses, breakthroughs, surreptitious workarounds, and bricolage) by problematising the impact of cyberspace in the classroom, as students write their assignments using whatever digital media is at their disposal. Findings reveal that there is little which is exclusively ‘academic’ or ‘vernacular’ in the way of digital literacies for the assignments, serving to reinforce the view that student engagement with technologies is too complex to fit neatly into a monolithic or taxonomic understanding of ‘digital literacy’ skills.
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Bhatt, I (2014) A sociomaterial account of assignment writing in Further Education classrooms, PhD thesis (submitted: Nov 2014), School of Education, University of Leeds. This PhD research explores assignment writing tasks in three... more
Bhatt, I (2014) A sociomaterial account of assignment writing in Further Education classrooms, PhD thesis (submitted: Nov 2014), School of Education, University of Leeds.
This PhD research explores assignment writing tasks in three separate Further Education classroom contexts. I approach the assignments as practical controversies as learners navigate their way through a course of study. Specifically, I attend to the ecology of digital literacy practices which emerge through the completion of the assignments by problematising the impact of cyberspace on classroom activities, as the learners undertake their work assisted by whatever digital media are to hand. I argue that connectivity of the Internet and deployment of digital media in classrooms contribute to emergent sociomaterial assemblages, or ‘actor-networks’, exploration and elucidation of which are key to understanding the literacy practices which instantiate them. This research addresses what these new sociomaterial assemblages look like, and the types of digital literacy practices arising from them.
Drawing on recent work in Literacy Studies and actor-network theory, I uncover the complex and close relationship between the personal/informal literacy practices of learners and the digital demands imposed by normative classroom culture and policies. More broadly, I show that an assignment is an ‘assemblage’ which is tied together by political and managerial decisions, economic imperatives, teachers’ aims and practices, learner habits of use, material artefacts and their properties, etc. All of these agencies shape a certain choreography of digital literacy practices arising during classroom tasks; practices which can instantiate a tension between a normative classroom dramaturgy and a more anarchic learner bricolage.
Findings of this research will inform policies on digital learning and benefit educational practice through in depth accounts of the digital habits and practices of learners’ life worlds, and how they align with classroom assignment tasks. By understanding learner practices it is possible to better understand digital innovations in education, the extent to which learners embrace or avoid imposed technologies, and how such practices re-shape assignments as evolving pedagogic forms.
This PhD research explores assignment writing tasks in three separate Further Education classroom contexts. I approach the assignments as practical controversies as learners navigate their way through a course of study. Specifically, I attend to the ecology of digital literacy practices which emerge through the completion of the assignments by problematising the impact of cyberspace on classroom activities, as the learners undertake their work assisted by whatever digital media are to hand. I argue that connectivity of the Internet and deployment of digital media in classrooms contribute to emergent sociomaterial assemblages, or ‘actor-networks’, exploration and elucidation of which are key to understanding the literacy practices which instantiate them. This research addresses what these new sociomaterial assemblages look like, and the types of digital literacy practices arising from them.
Drawing on recent work in Literacy Studies and actor-network theory, I uncover the complex and close relationship between the personal/informal literacy practices of learners and the digital demands imposed by normative classroom culture and policies. More broadly, I show that an assignment is an ‘assemblage’ which is tied together by political and managerial decisions, economic imperatives, teachers’ aims and practices, learner habits of use, material artefacts and their properties, etc. All of these agencies shape a certain choreography of digital literacy practices arising during classroom tasks; practices which can instantiate a tension between a normative classroom dramaturgy and a more anarchic learner bricolage.
Findings of this research will inform policies on digital learning and benefit educational practice through in depth accounts of the digital habits and practices of learners’ life worlds, and how they align with classroom assignment tasks. By understanding learner practices it is possible to better understand digital innovations in education, the extent to which learners embrace or avoid imposed technologies, and how such practices re-shape assignments as evolving pedagogic forms.
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Research Interests: Art and The Conversation
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What we in this article describe as “Sino-Muslim heritage literacies” have existed in China for as long as there have been Muslims in the region (since the 7th century according to the best evidence). The community’s religious and... more
What we in this article describe as “Sino-Muslim heritage literacies” have existed in China for as long as there have been Muslims in the region (since the 7th century according to the best evidence). The community’s religious and heritage literacy practices can incorporate a systematic Arabic representation of Chinese, systems of Chinese characters representing Arabic pronunciation, and more contemporary digitalised manifestations of heritage literacy in everyday life. Using a social practice approach to literacy, this paper reports on multi-generational interviews, artefact collection, and ethnographic observations with two families in Xi’an (Shaanxi, China) to explore how heritage literacy practices maintain a presence in Sino-Muslim life through traditional systems of community and religious education and contemporary social and material networks. We discuss what these empirical cases reveal about literacies in Sino-Muslim religious life, with respect to how heritage is adapted ...
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Research into the ‘Digital University’ necessitates decidedly digital methodologies. However, much of the recent discussion surrounding digital methods in education, including Higher Education, places more emphasis on quantitative... more
Research into the ‘Digital University’ necessitates decidedly digital methodologies. However, much of the recent discussion surrounding digital methods in education, including Higher Education, places more emphasis on quantitative approaches and the affordances of learning analytics (e.g. Sclater et al., 2016). There therefore remains a need to theorise and problematise the use and usability of new and digital methods to augment qualitative and ethnographic approaches to research. I argue that this is particularly pertinent for research on writing activities. In this paper I discuss how my research team approached the study of the writing and knowledge producing work of academics. I reflect upon how we conducted in situ observations of the writing practices of our participants as part of a broader ethnographic and multi-method study. I argue that our theoretical and methodological ideas have the potential to open up new possibilities and opportunities for writing research in the con...
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Higher education's 'Language Problem' Globalisation, for which language is a pivotal instrument, is defined by Giddens (1990) as the 'intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant... more
Higher education's 'Language Problem' Globalisation, for which language is a pivotal instrument, is defined by Giddens (1990) as the 'intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities' (64). Though it is a contested terrain, of globalisationsfrom above and from below (Torres 2009), there are both negative and positive effects on any society. The globalisation of higher education has elevated the international status of colonial languages, such as English, to the status of a global academic lingua franca, with universities today both collaborating and competing on a worldwide scale in the pursuit of knowledge production. In many international contexts, English has emerged as the language of choice for those undertaking and offering university education, and, subsequently, has become not only a valuable commodity in the global economy (O'Regan 2021), but also a language associated with reproducing certain epistemological stances and worldviews (Santos 2014). The imposition of a powerful language as a medium of instruction is far from a 'neutral' pedagogical decision. Rather, it is a profoundly political and cultural dilemma for people who are compelled to learn it and use it for teaching within higher education. Its imposition can also elicit sentiments of cultural erasure, occupation, and identity loss (Skuttnabb-Kangas et al. 2009), and lead to linguistic and cultural displacements (Phillipson 2017). Language, therefore, carries much more than communicative value. It creates mechanisms of symbolic power (see Badwan 2020), and can act as a tool for symbolic violence (Bourdieu 1991). This brings to the fore what we refer to in this editorial as higher education's 'Language Problem'.
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This article examines how international shifts in research writing, including performance policies and competitive research evaluation regimes, are creating a new set of expectations upon academics in Indonesia. Utilising a social... more
This article examines how international shifts in research writing, including performance policies and competitive research evaluation regimes, are creating a new set of expectations upon academics in Indonesia. Utilising a social practice approach to literacy, and with a cross-disciplinary sample of twenty-two academics at both private and public universities, we explore how early-career academics in Indonesia transition to research productivity. We investigate the tools and resources academics draw upon, and how academic success, prestige, and internationalism are conceptualised. We note that academics must amalgamate new literacy practices to contend with multiple and conflicting demands on time, abilities, allegiances, the double-bind of local versus international research impact, as well as inequalities of experience constituting peripheries within an already existing periphery.
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This paper theorises the practices of curricular assignment writing. I approach the writing of assignments as an assemblage of digital literacies, emerging as learners use whatever tools – digital and otherwise – are to hand. Building on... more
This paper theorises the practices of curricular assignment writing. I approach the writing of assignments as an assemblage of digital literacies, emerging as learners use whatever tools – digital and otherwise – are to hand. Building on recent work in literacy studies, and using a sociomaterial approach, I theorise learners’ complex digital literacy practices emerging through their assignment writing. Importantly, some practices are in contrast to the digital demands imposed by normative classroom culture and policies, and others are related to how learners manage multitudes of resources, online and offline. I subsequently advance new directions in digital literacy theory as drawn from the data. One such idea is ‘curation’ as a digital literacy practice. I argue that understanding curation as a digital literacy practice adds value to current debates in digital literacy and educational technology, especially as researchers apply a more critical and fine-grained lens towards practice...
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This paper reports on the first phase of an ESRC-funded research project aimed at exploring how knowledge is produced and distributed through the writing practices of academics, and how these are shaped by the contemporary context of... more
This paper reports on the first phase of an ESRC-funded research project aimed at exploring how knowledge is produced and distributed through the writing practices of academics, and how these are shaped by the contemporary context of higher education, including managerialism, and research assessment. As part of the Research Excellence Framework (REF) and to secure funding from research councils, academics are expected to demonstrate that their work has economic or social impact beyond academia. This 'impact agenda' is one of the ways in which scholarly research may engage with the notion of social justice. However, impact may be more complex in nature than is accounted for in research assessment exercises, and may be interpreted in different ways across different disciplines, with some lending themselves to social justice more readily than others. The data presented in this paper draws on interviews with academics at three different universities and in three disciplinary are...
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[Article for The Conversation]
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Research Interests: Cognitive Science, Literacy, Language Education, Educational Technology, Social Research Methods and Methodology, and 11 moreResearch Methodology, Ethnography, Digital Literacy, Digital Media, Ethnomethodology, Linguistics, Technology Enhanced Learning, Digital Literacies, Digital methods, Curriculum and Pedagogy, and Digital Media Learning
This paper discusses a method of collecting and analysing multimodal data during classroom-based digital literacy research. Drawing on reflections from two studies, the authors discuss theoretical and methodological implications... more
This paper discusses a method of collecting and analysing multimodal data during classroom-based digital literacy research. Drawing on reflections from two studies, the authors discuss theoretical and methodological implications encountered in the collection, transcription and presentation of such data. Following an ethnomethodological framework that co-develops theory and methodology, the studies capture digital literacy activities as real-time screen recordings, with embedded video recordings of participants’ movements and vocalisations around the tasks during writing. The result is a multimodal rendition of digital literacy events on- and off-screen, allowing linguistic and multimodal transcriptions to capture the complexity of the data in a format amenable to analysis. Acquiring such data allowed for the development of detailed analyses of digital literacy events in the classroom, including interaction that would otherwise have escaped standard ethnography and video analysis, th...
Research Interests: Computer Science, Research Methodology, Ethnography, Digital Literacy, Actor Network Theory, and 12 moreLearning Technology, Video Games and Learning, Workplace Studies, New literacy studies, New Literacies, Ethnomethodology, Multimodality, Digital Literacies, Digital methods, Video Analysis, Sociomateriality, and Literacy Studies
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This article is a collective response to the 2020 iteration of The Manifesto for Teaching Online. Originally published in 2011 as 20 simple but provocative statements, the aim was, and continues to be, to critically challenge the... more
This article is a collective response to the 2020 iteration of The Manifesto for Teaching Online. Originally published in 2011 as 20 simple but provocative statements, the aim was, and continues to be, to critically challenge the normalization of education as techno-corporate enterprise and the failure to properly account for digital methods in teaching in Higher Education. The 2020 Manifesto continues in the same critically provocative fashion, and, as the response collected here demonstrates, its publication could not be timelier. Though the Manifesto was written before the Covid-19 pandemic, many of the responses gathered here inevitably reflect on the experiences of moving to digital, distant, online teaching under unprecedented conditions. As these contributions reveal, the challenges were many and varied, ranging from the positive, breakthrough opportunities that digital learning offered to many students, including the disabled, to the problematic, such as poor digital network...
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This work-in-progress paper explores the intersection of technologies and software with the practices, of qualitative research and qualitative data analysis. Computer aided qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS) packages such as... more
This work-in-progress paper explores the intersection of technologies and software with the practices, of qualitative research and qualitative data analysis. Computer aided qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS) packages such as ATLAS.ti, NVivo and HyperRESEARCH are the focus of competing claims and critiques. We explore the positioning, continuities and disjunctures between manufacturers promoting their software, positioning in teaching and training materials and a range of views in the literature from critical to laudatory, as well as their prevalence in research on networked learning. The pre-eminence and influence of expository writing and paucity of empirical research underscore the relevance and potential contribution of this project, We argue that part of that contribution comes from drawing on insights from science and technology studies (STS) which offer a well-developed vocabulary and set of approaches for exploring the agencies and mediation of technologies in the pr...
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This article examines how international shifts in research writing, including performance policies and competitive research evaluation regimes, are creating a new set of expectations upon academics in Indonesia. Utilising a social... more
This article examines how international shifts in research writing, including performance policies and competitive research evaluation regimes, are creating a new set of expectations upon academics in Indonesia. Utilising a social practice approach to literacy, and with a cross-disciplinary sample of twenty-two academics at both private and public universities, we explore how early-career academics in Indonesia transition to research productivity. We investigate the tools and resources academics draw upon, and how academic success, prestige, and internationalism are conceptualised. We note that academics must amalgamate new literacy practices to contend with multiple and conflicting demands on time, abilities, allegiances, the double-bind of local versus international research impact, as well as inequalities of experience constituting peripheries within an already existing periphery.