Incorporating digital animation in a school play: multimodal literacies, structure of feeling and resources of hope

In this study, we reflect on our work with 10- and 11-year-olds in an inner London primary school developing a multimodal school play that integrated digital animation into a more conventionally structured Year 6 production. We are media literacy, drama and cultural studies researchers and teachers, arguing for more inclusive, holistic and multimodal schooled literacy practices. We explore roles and opportunities for enactment that the multimodal school play offers, while looking at pupil empowerment through the mobilisation of pupils' existing capabilities and sensitivities. We present a case study that employs semi-structured interviews and observations from which we construct visual and analytic narratives with a focus on participants' practices and responses. Raymond Williams's ‘structure of feeling’ and ‘Resources of Hope’ help us make sense of our data. In particular, we note the emergence of new roles through literacy practices that incorporate the tools and artefacts of animation. We highlight the affective dimension and inclusive nature of emergent literacy practices that integrate interactive drama and meaning-making with digital media and look at how these practices have the potential to disrupt entrenched classroom hierarchies and tackle inequalities, particularly for children who are disenfranchised by schooling and traditional school literacy practices.