![](bg3.png)
mode and modality, affordance for presence, social
participation, self-personalization, and user-
generated content, as explicated by Facebook,
Wikipedia, YouTube, and other forms of digital
media (See Green & Beavis, 2013). This new type of
communication mode gives birth to ‘online literacies,'
which is a “socially mediated ways of generating
meaningful content through multiple modes of
representation to produce digital texts for
dissemination in cyberspace” (Alvermann, 2008, p. 9
in Green & Beavis, 2013). The emergence of new
media and new literacies bring with them a new
challenge for literacy education as new media now
play a major place in students’ literacy practices.
Meanwhile, in the new capitalist world under the
philosophy of neoliberalism, education is seen as a
marketplace. Neoliberalism holds the idea that
people’s gain depends fully on people’s ability to
afford. In this case, schools, which are usually free or
subsidized, should only provide the basic skills (Gee,
2004) to maintain the stability of the market of
education. The ‘basic literacy skills’ refers to the
traditional literacy, namely the ability to
communicate using written form only. Hence, under
neoliberalism, there will be no room for new
literacies, consisting on the complex relationship
between various communication modes, to be
embedded in school curriculum.
The debate on literacy pedagogy in modern time
revolves around whether integrating new literacies in
school curriculum is possible, if not desirable.
According to Gee (2004), there are two options to
respond to this issue. First, we can accept schools’
neoliberal function by delivering “the basics” while
working outside school to provide activities and
experiences essential for students’ development, or
we can fight the neoliberal agenda by making schools
sites for creativity where students can gain skills and
experiencess suitable for success (p. 298).
The latter option is preferable as the primary
mission of education is to ensure that students can
participate fully in public, community, and economic
life (New London Group, 2000). Education has the
responsibility to create a literacy pedagogy that will
prepare students for their future. Hence, new
literacies should be taught at schools, adding to the
basic literacy skills that have been taught so far. The
issues on the inclusion of new literacies in school
curriculum can be categorized into three issues,
namely the relevance with current economic demand,
the pursuit of equity in education, and the issue on
practicality.
3.1 New literacies and Relevance to
Current Economic Demand
The dramatic economic change has replaced the
nature of work from the old top-down horizontal
chain of commands to the post-fordism, namely the
flattened-hierarchy emphasizing on collaborative
work and initiative. Hence, it requires individuals to
be an active participant (New London Group, 2000;
Gee, 2004; Kalantzis & Cope, 2012). In the new
capitalist world, “where knowledge goes out of date
rapidly, and technological innovation is common” (p.
284), there is a need for individuals to have the ability
to design identities, affinity groups, and networks
(Gee, 2004; Green & Beavis, 2013).
Additionally, in the new capitalist world, it is
important for an individual to be ready for shifting
their roles to respond to the unpredictable life
trajectories. One’s merit, which used to be based on
class, is now based on his or her portfolio, comprising
their experiences, skills, as well as their ability to
make use of their identities when needed (Gee, 2004).
The need for the mastery in new literacies becomes
undeniable as individuals can benefit from the nature
of new media, which allow them to present to
network and build social affinity with their peers.
New media allows people to “participate and create
content, rather than just ‘read’” (Green & Beavis,
2013, p. 46).
New literacies can enable individuals to represent
themselves through various modes and modalities.
Hence, the inclusion of new literacies in school
curriculum is the most relevant to the challenge that
students will face in this new capitalism, possibly in
the future economic demand. (New London Group,
2000; Gee, 2004; Green & Beavis, 2013; Mills,
2009).
3.2 New Literacies and Equity in
Education
According to Kalantzis & Cope (2012), equity is a
value that contributes to the fairness of society,
characterized by the availability of equal
opportunities for all people. In relation to literacies,
the emergence of new media and new literacies has
broadened the conception about literacy learning
through a wider discourse acquisition. The binary
distinction between school-based literacy practices
and home-based literacy practices has been
challenged, as scholars have acknowledged “the
permeability of the home in accessing literacy” (Pahl
& Burnett, 2013, p. 10). There is now a fine line
between schooling and education, of which the
CONAPLIN and ICOLLITE 2017 - Tenth Conference on Applied Linguistics and the Second English Language Teaching and Technology
Conference in collaboration with the First International Conference on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education
88