shelfies

Alone-Together: Shelves as Intergenerational Maps of Sense-Laden, Relational, Multimodal Pedagogies

Alone-Together: Shelves as Intergenerational Maps of Sense-Laden, Relational, Multimodal Pedagogies

Written by:
Mark Shillitoe, International School Delft, Netherlands
Harriet Hand, University of Bristol, United Kingdom
Jennifer Rowsell, University of Bristol, United Kingdom

Abstract: Engaging with the concept of sensory shelfies, this essay exhibits howchildren and adults move across and between sounds, images and objectsto make meaning and to tell stories. We glance beyond boundaries and imagine the notion of the shelf as an ongoing mapping of self where layers of experience enmesh and superimpose, and where our sense of self unfolds in the in-between, liminal spaces. These twelve shelves multimodally depict the porosity and fissures that opened up as we moved fluidly between online-offline spaces alone-together. Putting into practice an experimental and speculative approach to our research (Truman et al, 2020; Springgay and Truman, 2018), we argue for these methods as pedagogies that engage with the dynamic complexity of spaces of self.

Keywords: mapping, multimodality, multisensory, shelfies, relational, pedagogy

Link to soundscape essay

Dis/Comforting Shelfies: Travelling Literacies Other-Wise in Disrupted Times

Dis/Comforting Shelfies: Travelling Literacies Other-Wise in Disrupted Times

Written by:
Fiona Scott, The University of Sheffield, United Kingdom
Amélie Lemieux, University of Montreal, Canada
Kelly C. Johnston, Baylor University, United States

Abstract: COVID-19 is reshaping working arrangements in traditionally office-based professions. For scholars, these disruptions emphasise the need to examine how literacies travel other-wise (Lemieux et al., forthcoming) through Zoom meetings, shelfie tweets, and bookshelf photographs. Here, we evoke the altered paths that bodies, objects, and ideas are travelling as workers curate, negotiate, and become implicated in ‘zoomentities’. This posthuman, trioethnographic (Breault et al., 2012) piece attempts to map these altered paths.

Keywords: shelfies, literacies, reading', ethnography, collaboration, Zoom

Framing Identities using Shelfies: Bridging Private and Professional Spaces

Framing Identities using Shelfies: Bridging Private and Professional Spaces

Written by:
Yasemin Allsop, UCL Institute of Education, United Kingdom
Ekaterina Rzyankina, University of Cape Town, South Africa
Natalia Kucirkova, University of Stavanger, Norway
Jennifer Rowsell, University of Bristol, United Kingdom
Janina Wildfeuer, University of Groningen, Netherlands
Sumin Zhao, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Abstract: This visual essay investigated how material objects frame and represent our self and identity, specifically focusing on curating different parts of identity through objects on bookshelves in online spaces. For the purpose of this study, a mixed method methodology was adopted where data was collected through semi-structured interviews and visual analysis (audio/video). There were six participants in this study who are academics from different higher education institutions with a wide range of research interests. The interviews were administered by the participants in pairs via an online platform and the video calls were recorded for data analysis purposes. The data analysis showed that shelfies reveal a specific place of our working environment in very concrete materiality, yet they also contain references to the invisible non-representational side of the social spaces that we interact with. It was clear from the findings that both parts of our identities (personal and professional) were portrayed in shelfies through the use of different materials and objects which were arranged in different styles.

Keywords: shelfies, visual analysis, personal and professional identities; materiality; social space

DOCUMENTING WHAT’S ON THE SHELF: FRAMING EDUCATORS’ IDENTITIES

DOCUMENTING WHAT’S ON THE SHELF: FRAMING EDUCATORS’ IDENTITIES

Written by: Carol Doyle-Jones, Niagara University, United States

Abstract: During the beginning of an online class in a teacher education program, an exchange about a holiday and the associated family traditions prompted the author to share the haphazard pieces of her family’s lives as they were framed through the screen. Favouring the frameworks of New Literacy Studies and New Literacies, this essay showcases the connections made between what is on our shelves when teaching, while in dialogue with a fellow educator. As dialogic partners we contemplate what Pahl and Rowsell (2020) share through living literacies, what literacies and identities could be among the complexities of influencing semiotic factors. While exploring the social practices of everyday life we see our changing roles through the multimodal and multifaceted ways we frame ourselves as educators. This visual essay explores “what’s on the shelf”, how shelfies and identities intersect, and the everyday life of the shelf through the frame of the screen.

Keywords: shelfies, dialogic partners, educator identities, digital spaces, semiotics, pandemic pedagogy