Multiliteracy and media literacy: Making sense of the complex contemporary world

Media literacy is seen as an essential competence throughout the Finnish educational system from early childhood education and care to adult education and non-formal education. Media education is an integrated part of teaching and learning of all subjects. The transversal competences included in the core curriculum of primary and lower secondary education, especially “Multiliteracy” and “ICT competence” are strongly promoting and developing media and information literacy. There are several ways to promote media literacy in studies. Media literacy is often needed as it is common to use current topics and authentic materials in teaching, for example disinformation or fake news.

Finland is well known for achieving good results in the international PISA-surveys over several years. The connection between basic literacy and media literacy is obvious and important to understand. In Finland there has been increasing concern about the signs of declining or changing skills also in literacy. The situation is similar in most countries. At the same time, it has been reported that children and young people in Finland are feeling quite fine and they are satisfied with their lives. Of course, the severe current situation has had an impact also on the wellbeing of young people. Wellbeing is an obvious corner stone also of literacy, as with all learning. 

With the increasing use of internet and social media, there is still need for basic, profound literacy, but the need for expanding the concept of literacy is strong. The skills of reading and examining critically the texts around us are more and more important every day. That is why media literacy is promoted in many ways in the Finnish core curricula and education as a whole. The National Audiovisual institute in Finland has published “National Media Education Policy” paper to support lifelong media education in Finland. 

The role of media and media literacy has to be considered very seriously nowadays. We have to make sense of the complex contemporary world around us. Education policies, national and local curricula and educators at different school levels have a significant role in the way media literacy is taught and learned during formal education. In Finnish education, media education is seen as a part of a larger concept of multiliteracy, which supports the teaching of media literacy in many ways.   

Media literacy is seen as an essential competence throughout the Finnish educational system from early childhood education to adult education and non-formal education. The basic contents and guidelines of media literacy teaching are almost the same from early childhood education and care to general upper secondary education, and media literacy is strongly integrated in education in every core curricula implemented during the past ten years. Core curricula are prepared in the Finnish National Agency for Education, and education providers base and prepare their own local curriculum according to the core curriculum. 

The current core curriculum of basic education has been implemented since 2016 and some of its features strongly support the importance of promoting media literacy in teaching. For example, the core curriculum supports students’ participation, learning outside the classroom (also non-formal learning), use of ICT and multidisciplinary learning modules, which are combining different subjects. Transversal competences were introduced for the first time and combined in the objectives of teaching in all subjects. The aim is to build a school culture and a learning community that promotes learning, interaction, participation, well-being and a sustainable way of living. School is seen as a learning community which provides opportunities for experimentation, exploration, active learning, physical activity and play. Cultural diversity and language awareness are also considered. The purpose of the curriculum is to enable a reform of school culture and school pedagogy and to improve the quality of the learning process and enhance learning outcomes. 

In primary and lower secondary education, there are 20 core subjects which are combined with 7 transversal competences. Core subjects are mother tongue and literature, second national language, foreign languages, mathematics, environmental science, biology, geography, physics, chemistry, health education, religion, ethics, history, social studies, music, visual arts, crafts, physical education, home economics and guidance counselling. Objectives and contents described for the subjects are connected to underlying values, the conception of learning and school culture.  

The main tools to promote a holistic educational approach in Finnish basic education are these seven cross-curricular, transversal competences: 

  • thinking and learning to learn 

  • cultural competence, interaction and self-expression 

  • taking care of oneself and others and managing daily life 

  • multiliteracy 

  • ICT competence 

  • working life competence and entrepreneurship 

  • participation, involvement and building a sustainable future 

The concept of transversal competence refers to an entity consisting of knowledge, skills, values, attitudes and will. Competence also means an ability to apply knowledge and skills. The manner in which the students will use their knowledge and skills is influenced by the values and attitudes they have adopted and their willingness to take action. These competencies have been taken into account in the definition of the objectives and key content areas of every subject in basic education. For example the objective number 4 of compulsory social studies (in grades 7–9)  to guide the pupil to deepen and update his or her knowledge and skills related to the society, the functioning of economy, and private finances as well as to critically evaluate the role and significance of the media is connected to transversal competences Taking care of oneself and others, managing daily activities, safety (T3), Multiliteracy (T4) and ICT-competence (T5). 

Media literacy is not included separately as one of the transversal competences. Instead, it is included in several transversal competences. Especially competences “Multiliteracy” and “ICT competence” are strongly promoting and developing media and information literacy. Also other transversal competences include aspects of media literacy. 

In the Finnish curriculum multiliteracy is described as competence based on a broad text concept. Text means here information produced by systems of verbal, visual, auditive, numeric and kinaesthetic symbols and their combinations, for example verbal books, news, articles, presentations and graphs and statistics, pictures, films and podcasts. This description can differ from those in some educational studies internationally where multiliteracy is seen more as a pedagogical approach. 

Multiliteracy is not only needed for interpreting texts, but also producing and valuing various kinds and forms of text. The focus is on promoting students’ capacity to read and interpret the multicultural and diverse world around them, and to influence it by producing texts themselves. The aim is to improve critical and cultural reading competence as well as ethical thinking and aesthetic understanding. Multiliteracy is often needed when dealing with current affairs in teaching – like climate change.  

 

The Development of Reading and Writing Skills
Multiliteracy
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Multiliteracy is developed in teaching through studies in all school subjects and with the help of their specific language and discourses and their different modes of presentation. Language awareness should be considered. “Subject specific languages” are also important when trying to understand the language of media, which often uses the specific discourse of different specialist fields, for example when writing about medical or economical themes. Also the media has an important role in interpreting the discourse of specialist fields for people who do not know anything about the field. 

Multiliteracy is promoted in teaching by different kinds of pedagogical approaches. As the tasks should be meaningfull for students and as tasks should encourage active participation and producing of own texts, students can, for example, use the phone camera as a pen: by taking photos or videos students can create ideas and promote thinking and learning.  Also using new kinds of text genres and social media material (memes, blogs, vlogs, emojis) can support meaningfulness in learning, when the text worlds of students are recognized and present in learning. Multiliteracy is also supported by extending learning environments to digital environments, as well as to museums and libraries. Naturally, art studies and art based methods can promote multiliteracy in teaching, for example making art, literary art and drama. 

In general upper secondary education, there is a possibility to make a general upper secondary school diploma in media studies. The diploma gives students the opportunity to show particular competences and hobbyism in subjects and subject groups. The diploma comprises a versatile description of the students’ goal-oriented work, advanced skills, and in-depth knowledge. The general upper secondary school diploma is a manifestation of the students’ thinking, production, interpretation, and evaluation skills and their personal interests.  

Finnish Matriculation Exams at the end of the general upper secondary education are nowadays digital. In many exams there are various kinds of materials to be observed, analysed or interpreted. Actually, multiliteracy is quite strongly incorporated in the exams. For example, the exam for Finnish Language 1 uses texts like short stories, poems, newspaper articles, essays, extracts of films or advertisements. The aim in Finnish L1 exam is to assess students’ cultural and critical literacy with the help of tasks of analysing, interpreting and producing texts. 

There are several theme weeks annually supporting media literacy in education: Media Literacy Week and News Week in February, and Magazine Week and Literacy Week in April. Also, School Cinema program offers information how films can be used in education. 

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Some ongoing projects are supporting multiliteracy and media literacy in particular. A large CRITICAL project aims at supporting students’ (10 to 17 years) critical reading by investigating students’ critical reading skills and factors supporting them. In the project, they are going to create a Competence Ladder for Critical Online Reading to support teachers’ work and students’ skill development across educational levels. They are also developing and testing research-based and engaging teaching methods that support students’ development of critical reading skills. A teacher education course will be developed and tested to prepare forthcoming teachers to support their students’ critical reading development. 

At the National Agency for Education there are two large projects dealing with multiliteracy: The National Literacy Program and The New Literacy program. The National Literacy Program (former Literacy Movement) is calling everyone to take part in supporting literacy in Finland, at all levels of education and also in non-formal environments, like homes and hobbies! Literacy is considered in Literacy Movement widely as multiliteracy. The literacy movement has prepared the policy paper of National Literacy Strategy (2021), which defines the Guidelines and goals of promoting literacy in Finland to year 2030.  

The New Literacy program (2020-2023) helps in the implementation of core curricula for early childhood education and care and preprimary and basic education in fields of ICT competence, media literacy and programming skills. The program has prepared descriptions for required ICT competence, media literacy and programming skills, and produces additional materials and content which can be used in education and teaching. The program also has allocated grants for development projects by education providers. In this program there are three partners: The Ministry of Education and Culture, the National Agency for Education and the National Audiovisual Institute. The program continues its work as a permanent in EDUFI as the Finnish Framework of Digital Competence is being developed further. 

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