Envisioning Future Pedagogies of Multiliteracy Centers Introduction to the Special Issue: Envisioning Future Pedagogies of Multiliteracy Centers

摘要

When we sent out a call for the special issue of Computers and Composition focused on "Pedagogies of Multimodality and the Future of Multiliteracy Centers," we hoped to generate conversations that would draw fresh perspectives, research, and pedagogical approaches developed since the 2012 special issue of Praxis: A Writing Center Journal on multiliteracy centers. In reviewing and finally selecting contributions to this special issue, we believe this issue has achieved its primary objective; however, we also learned through the process of selecting, arranging, and editing that multiliteracy center pedagogy was more varied and complex than we previously imagined. For instance, the range of multiliteracy center contexts appears to be more radically diverse than the contexts of writing centers, leading to some distinctive pedagogies unique to the mission of these programs. In reviewing the articles presented in this special issue, readers will see the multiple identities of a "multiliteracy center." For example, some multiliteracy centers are developed from traditional writing centers with writing consultations as their core foundation, such as Ball State University's Writing Center. But there are also centers with different communication missions that may not have alphabetic composing at the center at all. This is true in Michigan State University's Language and Media Center, which focuses on providing resources for world language proficiency and media production. The differences in the mission of these institutions pose challenges to representing unified multiliteracy center work. In addition, the authors who contribute to this special issue remind us of varied stakeholders whose voices and perspectives are crucial to shaping multiliteracy center studies: voices of administrators or consultants as well as scholars whose work intersects with our areas of practice and research.