Teacher Beliefs and Pedagogical Practices of Integrating Multimodality into First-Year Composition

•The teachers are willing to conceptualize writing and literacy in a multimodal way.•The teachers seem to pursue different pedagogical agendas in teaching multimodal writing.•The teachers generally lack the coping mechanism against students’ negative responses to multimodal assignments.•Beliefs about students have a profound impact on teachers’ decisions to implement multimodal teaching.•Other influencing factors include teachers’ knowledge, individual differences, and institutional environment. The study intends to provide insights into First-year Composition (FYC) instructors’ beliefs and practices of integrating multimodal writing into the curriculum. Of particular interest is how the beliefs are translated into practices and how such process is mediated by various factors. The study was conducted with nine graduate teaching assistants at one of the largest public universities in the United States. Data were collected through online surveys, face-to-face interviews, and teaching materials. The study has identified four categories of pedagogical agendas on teaching multimodal writing. In addition, teachers generally lack the coping mechanism against students’ negative affective responses, even if such attitudes were acknowledged as an impediment to learning. We find that different aspects of the belief system have a reciprocal and profound impact on teaching practices and that the supportive institutional culture serves as a positive factor. The article concludes with suggestions for future research and professional development.