Multimodality in Children's Socially Situated Learning in Haiti: A Video-Based Ethnographic Analysis

Using perspectives drawn from recent work in the anthropology of learning as socially situated practice, alongside attention to multimodality as a lens for exploring learning, this article analyzes patterns of meaning-making among children engaged in small group learning during an after-school Creole literacy program in Haiti. Ethnographic analysis of an extensive corpus of video data reveals a powerful role for embodiment, wide attention, and distributed participation in children's learning, processes that in turn channel wider systems of meaning in Haitian society and culture. The article suggests that attention to the multiple affordances and cultural resources children use during engagement in socially situated learning offers a resource for thinking more deeply about education as social practice, especially in contexts where schools and society are shaped by social inequalities.