Multiple Literacies, New Literacies, and Teacher Education

Overview & Synopsis

The authors consider the role that multiple literacies and new literacies might play in shaping preservice education. They review existing literature on multiple and new literacies in preservice education and examine in-school and out-of-school enactments of new and multiple literacies to answer the question, What can we do in preservice teacher education to take these understandings about literacy and guide future teachers to enact them in projects, practices, and pedagogies in their classrooms? The article concludes with a set of 5 recommendations for shaping teacher education programs that, taken together, provide a blueprint for ensuring that new teachers enter the classroom prepared to take advantage of the multiple literacies that students will bring to the classroom and to guide students in developing even richer portfolios of multiple literacy tools and understandings.