The Digital Crucible: A Practitioner Inquiry Examining Misinformation Engagement, Identity, and Critical Digital Literacy among Middle-Aged Adult Multilingual Learners in an English for Academic Purposes Class
Year: 2026
Type: dissertation
Abstract: This study addresses a critical gap in digital literacy education by focusing on Middle-Aged Adult Multilingual Learners (MAMLs) enrolled in an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) program. This population faces compounded vulnerability to information disorder in digital media, particularly when content intersects with their cultural identity, religious beliefs, or prior educational experiences. The research prioritizes competencies that move beyond technical skills to account for the affective and cultural dimensions of information evaluation.The study employed a qualitative practitioner inquiry design framed by a Critical Digital Literacy (CDL) lens, centered on a five-week integrated Media and Information Literacy (MIL) intervention within an EAP course. The intervention drew theoretically from the Multiliteracies framework (New London Group), Critical Pedagogy, Sociocultural Theory, and Potter's seven-step media literacy process. Data were collected from 21 multilingual adults through diagnostic assessments, student work samples, surveys, and post-intervention interviews. Four research questions examined: (RQ1) how MAMLs engage with misinformation on visual platforms like TikTok; (RQ2) how they make sense of MIL instructional activities; (RQ3) how their cultural and social capital impacts engagement with misinformation; and (RQ4) how emotional states influence evaluation of belief-confirming misinformation. Analysis combined constructivist grounded theory and Critical Discourse Analysis. The integrated MIL curriculum proved highly effective in several areas. MAMLs successfully acquired and applied CDL skills, demonstrating particular strengths in credibility and format analysis. The Multiliteracies framework lowered barriers to entry by encouraging engagement with multimodal texts. Analysis of cultural capital (RQ3) revealed that MAMLs possess rich experiential knowledge they actively leverage analytically, effectively compensating for developing linguistic abilities. The most significant finding concerned emotional states (RQ4): MAMLs struggled to deploy analytical skills when content aligned with their ideological or religious commitments — a phenomenon known as motivated reasoning. This produced identity-protective cognition when confronting belief-challenging material, exposing a tension between religious identity and scientific evidence evaluation. The study concludes that while the MIL curriculum successfully taught the mechanics of analysis, sustainable critical literacy requires pedagogy that explicitly addresses both technical skills and the sociocognitive processes of identity maintenance and emotional response.
Source: TSpace (University of Toronto)
Author: Haidar, Rana
Institution: University of Toronto
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7204018153