Zine-Making as a Pedagogical Practice: A Phenomenographic Study of Teachers’ Experiences

Authors

Diana Levy, Florida International UniversityFollow

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Major/Program

Teaching and Learning

First Advisor's Name

Joyce Fine

First Advisor's Committee Title

Committee Chair

Second Advisor's Name

Sarah Mathews

Second Advisor's Committee Title

Committee Member

Third Advisor's Name

Laura Dinehart

Third Advisor's Committee Title

Committee Member

Fourth Advisor's Name

Haiying Long

Fourth Advisor's Committee Title

Committee Member

Keywords

zines, zine-making, critical text production, student voice, participatory literacy

Date of Defense

6-22-2020

Abstract

A zine (pronounced zeen) is a short, self-created and self-published booklet filled with a combination of writing, drawing, poetry, collage, and other text and images that create a message. Historically, zines have been associated with an underground, activist or radical literary subculture. Zines embody a breadth of literacies and have the potential to create critical readers, writers, and thinkers; however, minimal scholarly research exists on school zines. The purpose of the current study was to explore the experiences of educators using zine-making in elementary, middle, and high school classrooms. Phenomenographical analysis of nine, in-depth, semi-structured interviews revealed that participants described the content, process, product and purpose of zine-making in four qualitatively different ways: The Author, The Artist, The Activist, and The Academic. The categories of experience represent a phenomenographic outcome space that can be useful in understanding teachers’ experiences with classroom zine-making. Additionally, the data revealed six common themes that influence a teacher’s disposition and ability to introduce a zine-making project in the classroom: experience, inspiration, mindset,resources, support, and setting. The results of my study provide insight into teachers’ experience with zine-making in the classroom and hope to contribute to the existing zine pedagogy by identifying the literacy benefits as well as challenges. The results of the study may be significant in its potential contributions to the understanding of the educational significance of zines, the development of usable zine pedagogy and the understanding of zine-making as a classroom literacy practice that promotes literacy, learning and student voice.

Identifier

FIDC009148

Recommended Citation

Levy, Diana, "Zine-Making as a Pedagogical Practice: A Phenomenographic Study of Teachers’ Experiences" (2020). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 4485.
https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/4485