Chapter 1
Digital-Age Literacies in High School Esports
In: The Literacies of the Esports EcosystemSearch for other papers by Luis E. Pérez Cortés in
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Abstract
This chapter explores esports in high schools through a lens of multiliteracies and digital-age literacies. I asked the overarching question: How are digital-age multiliteracies taking place in high school esports contexts? Specifically, I focused on the digital-age literacy practices, demands, and perspectives in high school esports. Guided by research questions on these three topics, I carried out a study of two high school esports clubs for 22 weeks between September 2020 and February 2021. This study was guided by qualitative, interpretive, naturalistic, ethnographic, and case study research designs. My findings describe six assertions: (1) literacy practices were used to engage with each other in communal and competitive ways; (2) the social functions of esports’ literacy practices take precedence over scholastic goals; (3) literacy demands of esports emphasize unambiguous and timely multimodal communication for managing teams and scheduling events; (4) literacy demands of high school esports focus on multidimensional fluencies between what is on and what is around screens; (5) participants characterize the engagement with esports as positively contributing to “belonging”, of a “safe space”, and of opportunities for “critical thinking”; and (6) participants characterize their engagement with high school esports as contributing to future occupational or educational preparedness and health.