An expanded view of literacy for knowledge creation: How do students read, write and interact to build scientific knowledge across classrooms?

Purpose This study aims to identify features of content area literacy for knowledge creation in science classrooms that engage in collaborative inquiry. Such dialogically oriented literacy is essential for students to work with diverse information, engage in sustained inquiry and discourse and build shared understandings that address core issues in/across disciplinary areas. Design/methodology/approach Using an interactional ethnography approach, this study analyzes student literacy practices in two Grade 5 / 6 science classrooms. Using a collaborative knowledge building approach, students studied human body systems for 10 weeks with the support of Knowledge Forum. While students conducted the collaborative inquiry in each classroom, a shared meta-space was available for cross-classroom collaboration. Findings Analysis of classroom observations, interviews and online discourse elaborated five core features of literacy for knowledge creation, which integrates reading, writing and dialogue across multiple sources and media, multimodal inquiries and discourse spaces to sustain knowledge building. Originality/value This study contributes to reframing content-area literacy from a means of comprehending disciplinary knowledge to a dynamic system for creating it, demonstrating how reading, writing and dialogue operate together as epistemic drivers of knowledge co-creation in science classrooms. Such literacy is essential for students in the era of artificial intelligence with rapidly expanding knowledge flows.