Keynote Speakers
Dr Csilla WENINGER
Associate Professor and Head of the English Language and Literature Department at the National Institute of Education
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Biography
Csilla WENINGER is Associate Professor and Head of the English Language and Literature Department at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Her research examines the imprint and impact of ideologies on the conduct of schooling, including its material dimensions such as textbooks as well as everyday literacies and literacy pedagogies. Her most recent work has explored digital literacies both conceptually and as pedagogic practice, working from the traditions of New Literacies and a critical social semiotics. Her publications have appeared, among others, in Discourse, TESOL Quarterly, Literacy, Language in Society and ELT Journal. Csilla is also Co-Lead Editor of Linguistics & Education.
“Researching critical digital literacies”
Abstract:
Digital literacy has become a central educational and policy concern across the world in recent years, with scholars from diverse disciplines engaged in research to conceptualize and implement frameworks for developing learners’ digital competencies. In this talk, my purpose is to elucidate what it means to research digital literacies from a socio-cultural point of view. I do so by first situating digital literacies theoretically within the tradition of New Literacy Studies which highlights the inherent plurality of literacies as forms of contextualized social practice. I then draw on two empirical research studies I have conducted recently to suggest how key tenets of digital literacies as social practice may inform the questions we ask empirically. The studies are both situated within students’ practices of engaging with LLM-powered GenAI chatbots and will be discussed to highlight how we may think about context and criticality when researching within such settings. Ultimately, researching critical digital literacies must be anchored by a strong theoretical foundation of what it means to be literate, which cannot be reduced to individual cognitive competence.
