'Knowers' in early years literacy education
Submitted by:
Arne Olav Nygard
Abstract:
This paper examines how 2nd grade students are positioned as 'knowers' in early years literacy instructions (Maton, 2013). Drawing on a large case-study of 47 L1 lessons in year two across 6 different classrooms, we analyze the data to explore the extent to which student participation is encouraged and supported, and the ways in which students are positioned in relation to disciplinary knowledge.
Using a model of practice that consists of four interrelated elements - roles, activities, setting, and resources - we conceive of the classroom as a social field in which students are positioned according to their epistemic and social relations to knowledge (Ivanic, 2009; Van Leeuwen, 2008). We also draw on the specialization dimension from Legitimate Code Theory (LCT) to further explore how students are positioned in relation to their social and epistemological relations to knowledge (Maton, 2013; Maton & Doran, 2017; Doran, 2020).
Our findings suggest that there is limited room for student participation in the classrooms, but we find some opportunities for dialogue around texts. We focus on one example that illustrates both the dominance of traditional teaching practices and the potential for small adjustments to position students as 'knowers' in the disciplinary field (Doran, 2020; Maton, 2013)
Through our analysis, we demonstrate that students can be positioned as knowledgeable participants in disciplinary classroom talk. However, this requires a shift in the traditional teaching practices that dominate many classrooms, and a greater focus on encouraging and supporting student participation and engagement with disciplinary knowledge.
Overall, this paper contributes to our understanding of how students are positioned in the classroom, and highlights the importance of creating opportunities for students to engage with and develop disciplinary knowledge. In particular, we discuss various entrances to different but equally valid knowledge positions in the field of disciplinary knowledge through the various types of relations to knowledge in L1 Norwegian (Doran, 2020; Maton, 2013).
References
Doran, Y. J. (2020). Cultivating values: Knower-building in the humanities. Estudios de Lingüística Aplicada, 37(70), 169-98.
Ivanič, R. (2009). Bringing literacy studies into research on learning across the curriculum. I M. Baynham & M. Prinsloo (Red.), The future of literacy studies. Palgrave Macmillan.
Maton, K. (2013). Knowledge and knowers: Towards a realist sociology of education. Routledge.
Maton, K., & Doran, Y. J. (2017). Systemic functional linguistics and code theory. In The Routledge handbook of systemic functional linguistics (pp. 629-642). Routledge.
Van Leeuwen, T. (2008). Discourse and practice: New tools for critical discourse analysis. Oxford university press.