Undoing the Digital

Cathy Burnett is Professor of Literacy and Education at Sheffield Hallam University where she leads the Language and Literacy in Education Research Group. Her research focuses on relationships between literacy and technology in and beyond educational settings. She is President of the United Kingdom Literacy Association.Guy Merchant is Professor of Literacy and Education in the Institute of Education at Sheffield Hallam University. He specialises in research on children and young people’s uses of digital communication. He is a founding editor of the Journal Early Childhood Literacy and co-author with Cathy Burnett of New Media in the Classroom (2018).

"In Undoing the Digital, Burnett and Merchant make a clear and compelling case for taking up sociomaterial perspectives and relational ontologies in literacy research and practice. Starting from the belief that "literacy is always emergent," Burnett and Merchant develop powerful conceptual tools and frameworks that shift sociocultural literacy theory and research in significant ways. This is an immensely readable and important book."Michelle A. Honeyford, University of Manitoba, Canada"In this welcome and clear-sighted exploration of this tangled area, Burnett and Merchant bring their characteristic close observation and deep knowledge of children, classrooms, literacy and the digital to analyse the interweaving of technology and meaning making from a socio-material perspective. An outstanding contribution from two of the leading figures in the field."Catherine Beavis, Deakin University, Australia

• List of tablesAcknowledgementsIntroduction Undoing the Digital The Instability of Things Making new sense of literacy In the Event Approaching Method from a Sociomaterial Perspective An ethic of caring Enchantment Rethinking literacy and educationIndex