Croasdale, Alison Jane;
(2025)
Immersion and Engagement as Concepts and Pedagogy.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
In English secondary schools, after 2013's significant curriculum revisions, teachers of subject-English found themselves leading students towards qualifications that disregarded Media texts, failed to recognise the multiple literacies demanded by the world outside of the classroom, de-emphasised ‘speaking and listening’ skills, and offered set literary text choices limited in scope and diversity. This thesis, written from the perspective of a teacher-researcher, explores ways in which teachers can adapt their pedagogy to account for digital media texts, multiple literacies, and visual creative work, whilst still meeting the demands of the existing English Literature and English Language GCSE qualifications, with a particular interest in resistant learners. Reformulating the terms ‘immersion’ and ‘engagement’ as the theoretical framework for this project, as well as considering the idea of ‘third texts’ as a means by which students can access challenging literary texts, the work completed here attempts to account for positive classroom interactions with different kinds of text, and reflects on what conditions can foster ‘immersion’ and ‘engagement’ for students of different backgrounds and abilities, working towards positive examination outcomes in terms of writing quality. There are two case studies discussed through this framework: one refers to an extra-curricular club running over two school terms, involving 13–15-year-old male and female students exploring the text of Beowulf, whilst the second discusses a day-long workshop with thirty four 14-15-year-old girls, exploring the text of Macbeth, with both studies occurring in the same East London secondary school where the researcher was employed as an English and Media teacher. The case studies explore digital and creative methods acting as ‘third text’ proxies to enable students to access challenging GCSE texts, and the conditions required for students to become ‘immersed’ or ‘engaged’ in their studies of these texts, with a specific focus on amateur videogame design as the creative method.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | Immersion and Engagement as Concepts and Pedagogy |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2025. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Culture, Communication and Media |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10204325 |
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