Space and Materiality in Early Literacy Pedagogies: Examples of Practice in Kindergarten Classrooms
Submitted by:
Stavroula Kontovourki
Abstract:
Space and Materiality in Early Literacy Pedagogies: Examples of Practice in Kindergarten Classrooms
In this paper, we explore the ways in which material objects and physical spaces can be central in the design and enactment of early literacy pedagogies. We specifically aim to discuss how objects, spaces and materials may be utilized to create conditions that destabilize and re-construct established conceptualizations of early literacy learning and re-define the ways young literacy learners contribute in the learning process. To do so, we provide examples of practice from kindergarten classrooms of teachers who had participated in a professional development (PD) program that aimed to familiarize them with a newly introduced early years curriculum that relied on notions of play, inquiry, and communication. Against this background, we organize the presentation in two sections: (a) the presentation of the theoretical grounding of the PD program in sociocultural and sociomaterial approaches to early literacy, and (b) a sociomaterial analysis of classroom practice that affords the recognition of early literacy practices as open, intra-actional meaning-making processes.
The theoretical grounding of the paper in sociocultural and sociomaterial approaches to literacy allows us to extend beyond language (in its oral and written form) and conceptualize literacy classrooms as spaces where practice emerges at the assemblage of humans, material objects and immaterial forces, including established understandings of literacy and literate identities (e.g., Anders et al., 2016· Beucher et al., 2019· Burnett, Merchant & Neumann, 2020· Author1, 2022). In this view, objects-artifacts, spaces, and human actors not only interact but, simultaneously, shape literacy, regardless of imbalances in the extent to which each contributes to such shaping (Burnett et al., 2020· Ehret & Leander, 2019). We, Authors 1 and 2, had drawn on such understandings to design the PD program we implemented. Namely, teachers were encouraged to notice and capitalize upon the materiality of artefacts and human bodies, and to redesign classroom spaces to make room for varied literacy enactments. In this presentation, examples of practices are shared by Authors 3 and 4, who present how “kidwatching” (Oworcki & Goodman, 2002) of children’s clothing and play with everyday materials and pop culture media provided the basis for the expansion of inquiry-based curricula and for the physical transformation of their classrooms.
We analyze thematically photographs from the teachers’ classrooms, reflective notes and notes from anecdotal conversations among the Authors in order to identify how texts, objects and materials were used to delineate particular notions of literacy; how children and adults utilize language, as well as texts, materials, and spaces to present themselves as literate beings; and how such re-presentations reestablished and/or destabilized long-held assumptions about early literacy learning. Based on this analysis, we conclude that a focus on materiality expands the pedagogical resources we can use to transform practices, spaces, as well as humans as acting/active subjects in early literacy classrooms. The presentation thus invites researchers, scholars, and practitioners into a discussion of the potentialities of early literacy in school given that it foregrounds how (new) meanings and identities emerge in the mundane everydayness of classroom practice.
References
• Anders, P. L., Yaden, D. B., & Da Silva Iddings, A. C. (2016). Entanglements, intensities, and becoming: Non-representational perspectives on literacy research. Journal of Literacy Research, 48(3), 255-257.
• Author 1
• Beucher, R., Handsfield, L. & Hunt, C. (2019). What matter matters? Retaining the critical in new materialist literacy research. Journal of Literacy Research, 51(4), 444-479, https://doi.org/10.1177/1086296X19876971.
• Burnett, C., Merchant, G., & Neumann, M.M. (2020). Closing the gap? Overcoming limitations in sociomaterial accounts of early literacy. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 20(1), 111-133. DOI: 10.1177/1468798419896067.
• Ehret, C., & Leander, K. M. (2019). Introduction. In K. M. Leander & C. Ehret (Eds.), Affect in literacy learning and teaching: Pedagogies, politics and coming to know (pp. 1-19). Routledge.
• Owocki, G., & Goodman, Y. (2002). Kidwatching: Documenting children’s literacy development. Heinemann.
Contact information:
Stavroula Kontovourki, University of Cyprus, kontovourki.stavroula@ucy.ac.cy
Theoni Neokleous, University of Cyprus, neokleous.theoni@ucy.ac.cy
Stelia Demetriou, University of Cyprus, dstelia@yahoo.com
Andri Aristodemou, Ministry of Education, Sports, and Youth, aristodemou.androulla@ucy.ac.cy