Abstract
In the last few years, public discourse on literacy has been constricted as politicians, publishers, and popular media have been trumpeting a singular, seemingly surefire, yet misleading way to teach reading to all children. “Emphasize phonics!” they proclaim and back up this decree with plans that can easily be mandated, packaged, and sold to schools (Compton-Lilly et al., 2023). This simplified, single-factor, “science of reading” approach, however, relies on a very narrow body of research targeting the needs of a specific student population and ignores decades of educational and literacy research that have demonstrated that reading is anything but a simple process (Alverman et al., 2018; Pearson et al., 2023). Indeed, in Literacies that Move and Matter: Nexus Analysis for Contemporary Childhoods, Karen Wohlwend employs this rich corpus of research and theory–and grounds it with numerous examples, explanations, and guidelines for conducting our own inquiries–to prove that literacy engagements are thoroughly complex and multilayered.
Literacies that Move and Matter provides a clear and comprehensive introduction to nexus analysis, a form of discourse analysis that takes a critical stance to spotlight the actions at the center of, surrounding, and emanating from sites of literacy engagements. In this stance, literacy is not one autonomous set of skills, but a convergence of expected and often unquestioned actions that encompass the literacy event. The central argument of the book, then, is that all action is mediated discourse; though it can be unaccompanied by language or traditional printed text, it nonetheless communicates volumes about what we assume, what we know, and what we hope for in social situations. Building upon her previous work on expanding what counts as literacy (e.g., Wohlwend, 2011), Wolhwend walks readers through the conceptual and theoretical landscape upon which nexus analysis draws, most notably Scollon’s (2001) work on mediated discourse, but also compatible frameworks of multimodal interaction analysis, geosemiotics, and actor network theory. She then takes our hands to guide us through the real-world terrain around us, in which literacy nexus occurs. This terrain includes elementary school playgrounds, art tables, digital tablets, and even coffee shops (where I worked to write this review), as well as the numerous places within the literacy classroom where children move and mobilize meaning with materials, bodies, and spaces.
Offering three lenses through which to apply nexus analysis, Wohlwend examines the interplay of text, discourse, and power relations at the heart of each of these sites of engagement. The first lens––historical body–considers the embodied sociocultural actions that have been so ingrained that they are almost automatic routines and expectations. Think: swiping on a mobile device to change the screen, raising one’s hand to speak or volunteer, self-selecting groups to play with at recess. Interaction order is another lens to apply to unearth the social relationships converging in a literacy engagement, such as the order of lining up to leave the classroom, the exchange between barista and customer, and the implied relationship between YouTuber and audience. Finally, discourses in place comprise the third lens, which looks specifically at the role of discourse in the moment and summons criticality in identifying how they wield power to influence that moment. In applying these three lenses to various literacy engagements, Wohlwend shows the flexibility and effectiveness of nexus analysis to reveal the layers of meaning operating and being constructed within a child’s day.
Ever the teacher, Wohlwend also structures the book as a methodological manual to explain each step of the analysis process. Each chapter begins with an overview of key scholars and concepts, as well as an outline of the analysis methods discussed, examples provided, and inquiry exercises to try. The book is divided into three main sections that trace the phases of nexus analysis. The first section, “Engaging Nexus,” helps to establish the principles and theories from which nexus analysis stems and orient readers to approach sites of engagement and data collection, much like the initial steps of conducting an ethnographic research study. “Navigating Nexus,” the second section, models the critical analysis process through a variety of theoretical lenses to demonstrate the range of methods with which to conduct nexus analysis. Each chapter in this section also hones in on an element of the nexus, covering materials, bodies, artifacts, places, and movements; the depth of inquiry in which that element is centered establishes once more the array of forces at play in literacy engagements. The third section, “Changing Nexus,” then moves readers and researchers toward their own action, exploring how rethinking perspectives of literacy into an expansive and inclusive understanding of literacies paves the way for change in everyday childhood interactions.
Indeed, the argumentative thrust of the third section is what takes this book beyond other volumes that discuss multiple and multimodal literacies. Wohlwend, however, stakes this claim from the beginning pages, advocating: “The primacy of action–both tracking action and taking action–is at the heart of reconstructive approaches, including nexus analysis, that work toward informed, critical, and on-the-ground engagement” (p. 11). While nexus analysis can work to deconstruct the layers of social positioning and power relations involved in commonplace practices, Wohlwend makes sure to emphasize the potential and possibility in literacy engagements for transformation and reconfiguration of those layers. Additionally, she cautions that transformation does not automatically mean improvement, justice, or equity; rather, it is the microanalysis of mediated action that allows for insight into the social assumptions and expectations involved. Moreover, she positions research participants, no matter what age, at front and center and as innate experts in their engagement: “Approaching the site as a learner recognizes that people here know more about their daily lives than you do. . . . Researching with participants requires us at least to engage issues that actually matter to people in this place” (p. 83, author’s italics). Thus, Wohlwend as well acknowledges the role of agency in literacy nexus. By highlighting the power of play, drama, remaking, and toyhacking in which young children readily immerse themselves, she proves that young children are realizing this potential and possibility every day.
Perhaps, though, the most compelling rationale for the importance of this book appears right in the middle of it. By concentrating her energies, not just in this book but in her entire oeuvre as a literacy scholar, on the small actions of young children while using texts, toys, and technologies, Wohlwend recognizes and respects the communicative acts for which they might not yet have words. She clearly asserts, “I argue that teachers and literacy researchers may overlook the meanings young children are creating because we are focused on fixed speech or print in a textual product, rather than the mobile meanings of actions in lived space” (p. 111). In other words, those textual products are not the only locus of meaning making in our everyday lives. Literacy practices reside in, are conveyed by, and are impressed upon us by an assemblage of the (non)discursive intra-action of people, environment, and things.
Wohlwend’s book is a reminder that any literacy engagement is never just an exercise in isolation. Nor is it a passive endeavor. Literacies are wrapped up in a nexus of agency, action, and movement that impart and reconstruct additional layers of meaning, not just about the text or situation at hand, but also about the world in which we exist. To reduce literacy solely to a single, measurable, and packageable component blatantly ignores the multiple sources that one uses to make sense and navigate of the world. In short, this book helps guide discussions about literacy away from sensationalized panic and back into the real world of children where all our literacies and modes of communication are constantly on the move and deeply matter.