ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I argue that the increasingly complex nature of literacy in the 21st century requires rethinking current literacy research methodologies. I make a case for using visual methodologies and multimodal ethnography to gain access to the accretive layers of literacy practices in the everyday worlds of individuals, families, and communities. I use visual examples taken from collaborative literacy as social practice research that brings together ethnographic methods with multimodality in a series of studies that I have conducted in Uganda over the past 10 years. Taken together, the vignettes demonstrate the potential of visual methodologies for accessing the emic in literacy studies in a range of contexts. The vignettes unravel some of the different constructs, issues, and emerging questions associated with studying literacy in diverse community settings, opening broader dialogues on literacy that move beyond more traditional methods of data collection and analysis.
