Hybrid Identity Design Online
The pedagogy of multiliteracies aims to push our understanding of literacy beyond that of traditional reading and writing practices to include multiple practices of designing meaning that are often multimodal in nature. This chapter explores one of these multiliterate practices, that of hybrid identity design online. This process examines how native English speakers intermix local and global resources in strategic ways in a process the author has termed glocal appropriation. The chapter reviews the growing body of research on English Language Learners who utilize local and global resources to construct hybrid identities, which in turn allow for participation in English language literacy practices. To shift the focus to native English speakers, she presents a case study of one native English speaker’s use of local and global resources to design an online identity. She argues that through the hybrid identity practice of glocal appropriation, he is able to design new imaginaries of self, which promotes continued participation and, in turn, allows for literacy learning and spaces of civic pluralism.