R#6 Research on educational media

 

By Susanne Knudsen

 

In my most recent research I have been interested in shedding light on ways that media and genres intertwine. The article “Breaking the borders of genres and genders: new technologies and new literacies” is adressing: How the media break down the borders of genres and genders, and how genres and gender constructions break down the borders of different media. The article presents how breaking the borders in media, genres and genders is manifested in media research and pedagogic initiatives. I present and discuss a youth TV programme from 2001 produced in Denmark. The programme is part of the boom of reality shows, and combines several media. Furthermore, the programme breaks down genders and heterosexuality.

                     

“Genres in Recycling” is the working title of a research project on digital media (in cooperation with Bente Aamotsbakken). The starting point is e-mail as medium that can be distinguished from e-letters as genre. The project discusses the ways new genres seem to be developed from old genres. Other examples are the homepage, chat, sms, web novels, web short stories and digital learning resources for schools. The project explains how different theories and methods may handle digital genres; verbal and visual rhetorics, semiotics, new historicism, post-structuralism. In teaching I have presented netbank/ing as an educational text; the production, representation, language and style, the model-user in the verbal and visual constructions.

 

In studying youth cultures I have introduced the concept of remnant capital. Remnant capital is inspired by Bourdieau’s “cultural capital” which I applied to the established or normal school culture. The remnant capital is a symbolical representation of what we do when we hear a piece of music and exclaim: “I do not know how to explain it”. Remnant capital can be viewed as meaningless, superficial, staged, fragmented, barrier-breaking and pleasure. The article “Dancing with and without Gender – Reflections on Gender, Textbooks and Textbook Research” introduces different perspectives on gender in textbook analysis: gender as a category, gender as construction and gender as deconstruction. These perspectives may as well be used on educational media. Latest I have elaborated on the concept of gender to include sexuality, ethnicity, nationality and disability. Theoretically I have been inspired by the concept of intersectionality. My examples are also from textbooks, but may as well inspire research on media.

 

References

Knudsen, Susanne V. 2002. Learning process with//in//against Youth Culture – Theoretical Thoughts around Voices in Education. In: Staffan Selander et al. (eds.): New educational media and textbooks. Stockholm: Stockholm Institute of Education Press.  A longer version of the article is in Danish: “Om ikke-pædagogiske tekster i pædagogiske                       kontekster” (About non-pedagogical texts in pedagogical contexts). In: Utmaninger för en kritisk ämnesdidaktik. Rapport från symposium 29 april 1999. Stockholm: HLS Förlag.

 

Knudsen, Susanne V. 2005. Breaking the borders of genres and genders; new technologies and new literacies. In: Maj Asplund Carlsson et al. (eds.): Multimodality: Text, Culture and Use. Kristiansand: Høyskoleforlaget. Forskningsserien nr. 50. Høgskolen i Agder.

 

Knudsen, Susanne V. 2005. Dancing with and without Gender – Reflections on Gender, Textbooks and Textbook Research. In: Mike Horsley et al. (eds.): ‘Has Past Passed?’ Textbooks and Educational Media for the 21th Century, Stockholm: Stockholm Library of Curriculum Studies 15.

 

Knudsen, Susanne V. 2006, in print. “Deconstructing the Nuclear Family in Norwegian Textbooks”. In: Eva Matthes (ed.): Die Familie in Schulbuch. Augsburg.

 

Knudsen, Susanne V. 2006, in print. “Intersectionality – A Theoretical Inspiration in the Analysis of Minority Cultures and Identities in Textbooks”. In Caught in the Web or lost in the Textbook, eds. Eric Bruillard, Mike Horsley, Susanne V. Knudsen and Bente Aamotsbakken. Paris: IUFM de Caen.

 

 

 

Susanne V. Knudsen is Professor in educational texts and media at

Vestfold University College, Norway. E-mail: susanne.knudsen@hive.no