Learning to teach contemporary literacies: Pre-service teachers accounts of working with school age students to co-construct multimodal texts

Pre-service Teachers (PsTs) begin their teacher education courses with their own understandings of what constitutes literacy, and how it should be taught. These do not always align with contemporary understandings of literacies despite the fact that many PsTs come from the generation that has grown up with smart devices and social media. PsTs need effective opportunities to learn about literacies and practice literacy teaching. This paper is informed by the close examination of a task, which involves PsTs and students in schools, in the co-construction of multimodal texts. Data were gathered from PsTs and examined through a practice architectures lens. Findings suggest the tasks examined are highly successful in extending PsTs’ understandings of on temporary literacies and how these may be taught.