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Finding a methodology to co-research the purposes of literacy at home and at school

with children achieving at below age-related expectations in national statutory tests.

Reflections on pilot study and implications for next steps

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FinRA 3rd Baltic Sea-17th Nordic Literacy Conference August 2016 1

Research questions (pilot study) • What forms of literacy do children who struggle with school literacy use

at home and how have they learnt these?

• What do they understand about the purpose and practice of literacy at school?

“The concept of literacy is embedded, then, in the ideological dispositions of those who use the concept, those who profit from it, and those who have the standing and motivation to enforce it as a social requirement.” (Knoblauch, 1990, p74). “the kind of minds we develop are profoundly influenced by the opportunities to learn that the school provides” (Eisner, 2004, p8)


Theoretical framework • New Sociology of Childhood

• Children have rights (UNCRC, 1989) • Children as autonomous beings (James, Jenks and Prout, 1998) • Children always ‘othered’ (Lahman, 2008)

• New Literacy Studies: • Literacy as historically, culturally and socially situated (Gee, 2004) • Embedded in power relations (Street, 1984) • Multimodality (Kress, 2010) • Mode and media inextricably linked with meaning; form of representation

shapes content and learning process (Jewitt, 2008 p241)

Exploring ‘literateness’


Methodology and methods • Qualitative • Interpretative • Social constructivist • ‘Interviews’: Mosaic approach (Clark and Moss 2011) • Pilot study: 2 x 2 children (one girl, one boy)

• 2 sets of 6 x weekly 20-30 minute meetings per pair:

Wks 1-6 Exploring children’s literateness Wks 7-12 Exploring children’s understanding of literacy lessons

• Video/audio transcribed for two stage analysis • coding

• Interpretation

• Multiple case study

FinRA 3rd Baltic Sea-17th Nordic Literacy Conference August 2016

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Participants: Criteria defined by the questions and research aims and questions:

aged 7-8 achieving at below age-related expectations in national statutory tests

• yr 3 of English primary school system

• 4th year of schooling

• English children start school younger than their peers in most of Europe (Sharp,

2002, p2)

• entering key stage 2: from ‘reading to learn’, to ‘learning to read’ (DfES, 2006)

• Early childhood defined as 0-8 by UNESCO: children on the cusp

• ‘Middle’ years of childhood (4-10) under researched (James et al 1998, p177)


Participants or co-researchers? • Ladder of participation (Hart, 1992)

• ‘knowledge production’ rather than ‘knowledge gathering’ (Veale, 2005, p254)

• ‘meanings and understandings’ rather than objective ‘proof’ (Cohen et al, 2011, p220)

8. Child-initiated, shared decisions with adults

7. Child-initiated and directed

6. Adult initiated shared decisions with children

5. Consulted and informed

4. Assigned but informed

3. Tokenism

2. Decoration

1. Manipulation

Degree

s of p

articipatio

n

No

n-p

articipatio

n


Participants or co-researchers? • Ladder of participation (Hart, 1992)

• Joint attention frame

8. Child-initiated, shared decisions with adults

7. Child-initiated and directed

6. Adult initiated shared decisions with children

5. Consulted and informed

4. Assigned but informed

3. Tokenism

2. Decoration

1. Manipulation

Degree

s of p

articipatio

n

No

n-p

articipatio

n

? ?


Definition difficulties

What is literacy? A working definition required.

• Exploring children’s literateness: children asked to bring texts to school

• Exploring children’s understanding of literacy lessons: children asked to choose a text made within school

• At both stages: children asked to make texts to about their texts

What is a text?

“intention, enduring, representation and purposive assigning of meaning" (Lawson et al 2012, p106)

“fixed as photographic images fixed prior to digital printing using chemicals” (Kress, 2003) FinRA 3rd Baltic Sea-17th Nordic Literacy Conference August 2016

8

Findings so far Although the children all respond in individual ways, they all:

• are enthusiastic when given opportunities to make their own texts;

• express their individual identity and ‘voice’ in their texts;

• use multimodal approaches to articulate their ideas;


Findings so far Although the children all respond in individual ways, they all:

• assimilate ideas from school literacy events and practices into their own texts but these reflect generic content and form rather than specific learning objectives;

• are keen to show work they have done but unable/unwilling to talk about literacy lessons or to describe what happens in them.


Implications Revised research questions:

• What do children think is the purpose of learning to write?

• What informs the way children learn to write?

Stage 1: Exploring children’s literateness: children as ‘being’ writers

• Researcher as participant, joint attention frame: children make texts using materials from a range provided

Revised stage 2: Exploring children’s understanding of literacy lessons: children as ‘becoming’ writers

• Observation of children in literacy lesson: follow up discussion with children

New stage 3: Exploring purposes assigned to writing: ‘children as researchers’

• Researcher and children interview teachers and parents about the purposes of learning to write


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Pilot study: gate keepers, access and obstacles • Knowledge of environment and use of space

• Awareness of context, organisation and routines

• Access to resources allows for flexibility

• Teachers select children using school data and facilitate access but can filter according to perceived ability of children to participate

• Parents provide consent but can interpret research activities within school context

• Children give assent but are used to expectation of compliance with adult instructions (Hill, 2005)

Relationships with gatekeepers and gatekeepers’ understanding of research process in general and specific terms is key


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References • Clark, A., Moss, P. and National Children's Bureau. (2011). Listening to young children the mosaic approach (2nd ed.). London: National Children's Bureau.

• Cohen, L., Bell, R., Manion, L., and Morrison, K. (2011). Research methods in education (7th ed.). London: Routledge.

• DfES (2006) Independent Review of the Teaching of Early Reading. London: DfES

• Eisner, E. (2004). What can education learn from the arts about the practice of education? International Journal of Education & the Arts, 5(4), 1-12.

• Flewitt, R. (2011) Bringing ethnography top a multimodal investigation of early literacy in a digital age. Qualitative Research 11(3) 293-310

• Gee, J. (2004). Situated Language and Learning: A Critique of Traditional Schooling (Literacies). Taylor & Francis Ltd - M.U.A.

• Hart, R. (1992) Children’s participation: from tokenism to citizenship. Florence: UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre

• Heath, S. (1983). Ways with words : Language, life, and work in communities and classrooms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

• Hill, M. (2005) Ethical considerations in researching children’s experiences in Greene, S. and Hogan. D. (eds) Researching children’s experience. London: Sage

• James, A., Jenks, Chris, & Prout, A. (1998). Theorizing childhood. Cambridge: Polity.

• Jewitt, C. (2008). Multimodality and literacy in school classrooms. What Counts As Knowledge In Educational Settings: Disciplinary Knowledge, A, 32, 241-267.

• Kress,G. (2009) Multimodality: Exploring Contemporary Methods of Communication. New York: Routledge

• Lahman, M. (2008). Always othered: Ethical research with children. Journal of Early Childhood Research, 6(3), 281-300.

• Lawson, H., Layton, L., Goldbart, J., Lacey, P. and Miller, C. (2012). Conceptualisations of Literacy and Literacy Practices for Children with Severe Learning Difficulties. Literacy, 46(2), 101-108.

• Sharp, C. (2002). School starting age: European policy and recent research. Paper presented at the LGA Seminar 'When Should Our Children Start School?', LGA Conference Centre, London, 1 November.

• Ofsted, (2002). The curriculum in successful primary schools : October 2002. (HMI 553). London: Ofsted.

• Street, B. (1984). Literacy in theory and practice (Cambridge studies in oral and literate culture ; 9). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

• Tomasello, M. and Farrar, M. (1986). Joint Attention and Early Language.Child Development, 57(6), 1454-63.

• United Nations (1989) Convention on the Rights of the Child. Accessed http://www.unicef.org.uk/UNICEFs-Work/UN-Convention

• Veale, A.(2005) Creative methodologies in participatory research with children in Greene, S. and Hogan. D. (eds) Researching children’s experience. London: Sage


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