Sacha Powell
Formerly Professor of Early Childhood Care and Education at Canterbury Christ Church University. Chief Executive Officer, The Froebel Trust, England
Address: Clarence Lodge
Clarence Lane, Roehampton, London SW15 5JW
Address: Clarence Lodge
Clarence Lane, Roehampton, London SW15 5JW
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The project was monitored by the Froebel Research Committee, which peer reviews publications prior to dissemination.
in five Local Authorities in England, also sought to build new relationships with parents and families and to explore the concept of a ‘‘Reading Teacher (RT):
a teacher who reads and a reader who teaches’ (Commeyras et al., 2003). The research design was multilayered; involving data collection at individual, school and LA levels, and using a range of quantitative and qualitative data research methods
and tools. This paper provides an overview of the Phase II research. It suggests that teachers need support if they are to develop children’s reading for pleasure, and enhance their involvement as socially engaged and self-motivated readers.
In the light of wide recognition that the traffic between home and school is traditionally one-way, this paper reports on a year-long project which was deliberately counter-cultural and involved teachers researching children’s everyday literacy practices and ‘funds of knowledge’ (Gonza´lez et al., 2005). The project sought to explore whether and in what ways teachers, positioned as researchers, developed new understandings which challenged their assumptions about children and families, and the extent to which any new understandings about the learners’ literacy lives had consequences with regard to the curriculum and home-school relations. Eighteen primary teachers from ten schools in five local authorities in England were involved; this article focuses on two of the practitioners’ experiences. Drawing on data from interviews, transcripts of their Learner Visits to homes, data analysis meetings with the teachers and the practitioners’ portfolios, it is argued that the project challenged teachers’ perceptions and beliefs about children and families, prompting dispositional shifts and new understandings of difference and diversity. It also reveals that creating responsive curricula that connect to the lived social realities of the children represented a considerable professional challenge. The paper highlights the affordances of collaborative research partnerships, and suggests that considerable time, space and support is needed in order for teachers to appreciate and understand children’s and families’ funds of knowledge and blur the boundaries between home and school.
Keywords: teachers as researchers, diversity, funds of knowledge, home-school relations; everyday literacy lives.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09575146.2012.687865
The project was monitored by the Froebel Research Committee, which peer reviews publications prior to dissemination.
in five Local Authorities in England, also sought to build new relationships with parents and families and to explore the concept of a ‘‘Reading Teacher (RT):
a teacher who reads and a reader who teaches’ (Commeyras et al., 2003). The research design was multilayered; involving data collection at individual, school and LA levels, and using a range of quantitative and qualitative data research methods
and tools. This paper provides an overview of the Phase II research. It suggests that teachers need support if they are to develop children’s reading for pleasure, and enhance their involvement as socially engaged and self-motivated readers.
In the light of wide recognition that the traffic between home and school is traditionally one-way, this paper reports on a year-long project which was deliberately counter-cultural and involved teachers researching children’s everyday literacy practices and ‘funds of knowledge’ (Gonza´lez et al., 2005). The project sought to explore whether and in what ways teachers, positioned as researchers, developed new understandings which challenged their assumptions about children and families, and the extent to which any new understandings about the learners’ literacy lives had consequences with regard to the curriculum and home-school relations. Eighteen primary teachers from ten schools in five local authorities in England were involved; this article focuses on two of the practitioners’ experiences. Drawing on data from interviews, transcripts of their Learner Visits to homes, data analysis meetings with the teachers and the practitioners’ portfolios, it is argued that the project challenged teachers’ perceptions and beliefs about children and families, prompting dispositional shifts and new understandings of difference and diversity. It also reveals that creating responsive curricula that connect to the lived social realities of the children represented a considerable professional challenge. The paper highlights the affordances of collaborative research partnerships, and suggests that considerable time, space and support is needed in order for teachers to appreciate and understand children’s and families’ funds of knowledge and blur the boundaries between home and school.
Keywords: teachers as researchers, diversity, funds of knowledge, home-school relations; everyday literacy lives.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09575146.2012.687865
This book is a collection of chapters by international scholars.
Providing a detailed overview of key concepts, debates and practical challenges, the handbook combines theoretical acumen with specific examples to show how philosophies and theories have evolved over the centuries and their impact on policy and society. It examines the ways in which societies define and make sense of childhood and the factors that influence the development of philosophies about young children and their learning.
The collection offers an insight into the key theorists and considers how the economics and politics of their time and personal ideology influenced their ideas about childhood. It looks at curricula and provision which have proved inspirational and how these have impacted on policy and practice in different parts of the world. The handbook also explores alternative and perhaps less familiar philosophies and ideas about babies and young children, their place in society and the ways in which it might be appropriate to educate them
Bringing together specially commissioned pieces by a range of international authors, this handbook will enable academics, research students, practitioners and policy-makers to reflect on their own understandings and approaches, as well as the assumptions made in their own and other societies.
Examining the interplay between the ‘will and the skill’ to read, the book distinctively details a reading for pleasure pedagogy and demonstrates that reader engagement is strongly influenced by relationships between children, teachers, families and communities. Importantly it provides compelling evidence that reciprocal reading communities in school encompass:
•a shared concept of what it means to be a reader in the 21st century;
•considerable teacher and child knowledge of children’s literature and other texts;
•pedagogic practices which acknowledge and develop diverse reader identities;
•spontaneous ‘inside-text talk’ on the part of all members;
•a shift in the focus of control and new social spaces that encourage choice and children’s rights as readers.
Written by experts in the literacy field and illustrated throughout with examples from the project schools, it is essential reading for all those concerned with improving young people’s enjoyment of and attainment in reading.
Eve Bearne, Cambridge University, UK
In this new media age the potential for mismatch between children’s literacy practices at home and at school is considerable. Tensions exist between school conceptions of literacy as a set of self-contained skills and competences, and literacy as social practice. In indicating what families can do to support school literacy, schools often fail to recognise or build upon children’s lived experience of literacy, or available parental support for wider learning in the home and community.
Based on the findings of a research project developed in partnership busy schools, Researching Literacy Lives explores how teachers, positioned as researchers, developed an understanding of the cultural, linguistic and social assets that children bring with them from home. It examines how the practitioners widened their conceptions of literacy, built new relationships with parents and children and sought to develop two-way communication between homes and schools. Key ideas and challenges explored include:
◦positioning teachers as learners and researchers;
◦understanding children’s everyday literacy lives and funds of knowledge;
◦examining teachers’ own literacy histories, practices and identities;
◦creating culturally responsive curricula;
◦contesting implicit assumptions and deficit discourses about children and families;
◦developing less school-centric ways of working with parents;
◦constructing more equivalent, personal relationships with parents, families and children.
Illustrated throughout with examples and case studies of the project teachers, Researching Literacy Lives challenges the profession to think more critically about children’s out-of school literacy lives and funds of knowledge, and to invest in cultural change such that curriculum and pedagogy build upon children’s assets for learning and new home-school communities are created.
Canterbury, England 17 and 18 May 2019
https://www.canterbury.ac.uk/education/our-work/research-knowledge-exchange/research-centre-for-children-families-communities/baby-room/10th-baby-room-conference.aspx