Abigail Hackett, David Ben Shannon, Christina MacRae, Maggie MacLure
{"title":"A little thing that returns: Refrains and young children’s sense making in museum spaces","authors":"Abigail Hackett, David Ben Shannon, Christina MacRae, Maggie MacLure","doi":"10.1177/14687984251379605","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14687984251379605","url":null,"abstract":"This paper describes a research collaboration with Humber Museums Partnership, which explored family museum visiting and early language. Drawing from ethnographic observations and continuous audio recordings, this article examines how very young children make sense in museum spaces. We activate Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of the refrain (originally expressed in French as ritournelle, a little return) to analyse vignettes of children’s vocalisations and interactions across galleries, gardens, and play spaces. Counter to the dominant view of early language as relying on a linear “serve and return” between adult and child, we argue that refrains create fragile, rhythmic, and emplaced territories of sense making that exceed conventional meaning and representation. We propose that museums can foster an attention to these affective, embodied dimensions of expression as an important aspect of young children’s museum literacies.","PeriodicalId":47033,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Early Childhood Literacy","volume":"314 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-09-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145072773","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Museums as sites of belonging, empowerment, and multimodal literacies for immigrant and racialized families","authors":"Nidhi Menon","doi":"10.1177/14687984251380649","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14687984251380649","url":null,"abstract":"This paper explores how museums can serve as transformative spaces for early childhood literacy, identity formation, and belonging, particularly for racialized immigrant children. Moving beyond print-centric definitions of literacy, it positions museums as multimodal environments where young learners engage with language, sound, image, and movement to make meaning. Drawing on a personal vignette of visiting the Royal Ontario Museum with my children, I illustrate how these encounters become acts of literacy, cultural affirmation, and identity negotiation. For children navigating multiple languages and cultures, museums offer spaces of imaginative play and embodied learning that resist deficit narratives and assimilationist expectations. Through a social justice lens, this paper frames museums as pedagogical counterspaces that center the cultural and linguistic assets of marginalized communities. It highlights the power of everyday museum interactions to support intergenerational connection, affirm cultural identities, and foster agency. By recognizing racialized immigrant children as active meaning-makers and co-creators of knowledge, museums can evolve into relational spaces that reflect and respond to the diverse communities they serve. This work calls for a reimagining of early childhood literacy education, one that honors the lived experiences, cultural wealth, and epistemologies of racialized immigrant families.","PeriodicalId":47033,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Early Childhood Literacy","volume":"70 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-09-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145072769","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Parents’ utilisation of the literacy-based text message program Kindytxt","authors":"Amanda Binns","doi":"10.1177/14687984251370974","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14687984251370974","url":null,"abstract":"Text messaging programs have emerged as effective tools for enhancing parental engagement in children’s home-based literacy development, as substantiated by a growing body of research. This paper presents findings from a doctoral study that examined parental experiences and perceptions of a literacy-based text messaging program, with particular emphasis on how such initiatives inform and shape literacy practices in families with kindergarten-aged children. Rooted in the frameworks of social constructivism and interpretivism, the research privileges participants’ unique perspectives to explore the varied meanings parents construct around their use of the Kindytxt program. The study was theoretically informed by Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory, which underscores the influence of familial and cultural contexts on children’s literacy growth, as well as Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory, which situates family environments as critical to early literacy outcomes. Employing hermeneutic phenomenology, the research adopted a mixed-methods approach to capture the lived experiences of parents engaged with the Kindytxt program, enabling a nuanced analysis of how text messaging might bridge potential gaps between home-based and school-based literacy learning practice. Key findings indicate that text message-based programs like Kindytxt hold the potential in mitigating common barriers identified in educational literature, including limited access to school literacy information, challenges in initiating literacy activities at home, and perceptions relating to the practical benefits of early literacy engagement. Parents reported that the prompt, accessible, and easily understood messages empowered them to integrate literacy-rich practices into daily routines. These results underscore the potential of literature-informed text messaging programs to foster stronger home-school aligned literacy learning and to improve literacy outcomes for children.","PeriodicalId":47033,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Early Childhood Literacy","volume":"14 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-08-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144898757","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Storying worlds: Thinking and doing otherwise in young children's story pedagogy.","authors":"Kimberly Lenters, Anne Cloarec, Ronna Mosher","doi":"10.1177/14687984251367651","DOIUrl":"10.1177/14687984251367651","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Children's storied play, or in other words, their fictive world-building, has much to teach us with regard to understanding story and how story pedagogy might be otherwise shaped in curricular spaces. In this article, we explore this proposition by drawing on interconnected and entangled moments of children's outdoor storied play in a Canadian first-grade class. By mapping the children's movements within three storied-play encounters, we animate how what could appear as the most ordinary and mundane ways of composing story in outdoor, open-ended and make-believe play, offers a lively form of protestation to the predominant Western narrative paradigm of beginning-middle-end story structure. Bringing the three moments into conversation with literary theorist Marielle Macé's concept of narrative stylization, we attend to ways story lives and grows within children's storied and playful worldbuilding. Ultimately, we argue that limiting instructional methods to that which is centred around the objectification and rationalization of storying (i.e., typical beginning-middle-end story structure) can displace other pedagogical directions that recognize and extend the myriad ways in which stories are made, learned, and understood. We conclude the article with an exploration of how educators might promote and build upon the narrative stylizations - fiction-in-the-doing - that children are always already engaging in their storied play.</p>","PeriodicalId":47033,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Early Childhood Literacy","volume":"26 2","pages":"517-537"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-08-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13110078/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147785526","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"In memoriam: Nigel Hall and David B.Yaden, Jr.","authors":"","doi":"10.1177/14687984251357742","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14687984251357742","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47033,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Early Childhood Literacy","volume":"9 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144565723","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Qiu Chuane, Zhu Rong, M. Monjurul Islam, Ghadah Al Murshidi
{"title":"Parents’ perceptions on young children’s online English learning at home: A mixed-methods study","authors":"Qiu Chuane, Zhu Rong, M. Monjurul Islam, Ghadah Al Murshidi","doi":"10.1177/14687984251357774","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14687984251357774","url":null,"abstract":"This study examines parents’ perceptions and roles in supporting kindergarten children’s English language development through online learning platforms, highlighting the implications for future educational strategies. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach, the research surveyed 517 parents via questionnaires and conducted six focus group discussions with 60 participants. Quantitative data revealed parents’ active involvement in fostering language acquisition through structured routines and diverse digital tools, while qualitative insights underscored the challenges of balancing work, limited digital literacy, and teaching responsibilities. The findings indicate that parents employ strategies such as storytelling, singing, and interactive digital applications to develop listening, speaking, and reading skills. However, disparities in teacher-student interaction and parental proficiency highlight areas for improvement. This study emphasizes the critical role of parental engagement and collaborative teacher-parent efforts in optimizing digital education for young learners. The results inform policy and practice by advocating for targeted professional development, resource allocation, and inclusive strategies to enhance early childhood education in online environments.","PeriodicalId":47033,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Early Childhood Literacy","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144534075","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Digital literacies among infants and toddlers: Everyday engagement of digital media in the home environment","authors":"Ebba Sundin, Helena Sandberg, Ulrika Sjöberg","doi":"10.1177/14687984251350491","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14687984251350491","url":null,"abstract":"For many children, their home is where they first encounter digital media technologies. The aim of this study is to investigate how children 0 – 3 years old engage in digital media. We address digital literacies as a sociocultural mindset and a toolbox with attention to skills and comprehensions as well as how children express their agency. The overall research question is: What skills, comprehension, and agency children 0 – 3 years old perform and express when engaged in digital media? We have studied 16 families in Sweden and followed the methodology of “A Day in the Life” developed by <jats:xref ref-type=\"bibr\">Gillen et al. (2007)</jats:xref> . The study shows that children use technology in their interactions of play in for example video calls, and that dexterity skills are early developed in relation to touch screens. The study also shows that children express agency toward digital media in several ways, for example in taking actions and initiatives. The study concludes that although there is an increased interest in young children’s digital media practices there is still need for more studies with focus on the very young children.","PeriodicalId":47033,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Early Childhood Literacy","volume":"62 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-06-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144513354","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Christine McLean, Randi Cummings, Lyse Anne LeBlanc, Anne Briscombe, Dina Mohamed, Jessie-Lee D McIsaac
{"title":"Making numeracy and literacy learning visible in play-based publicly funded programs","authors":"Christine McLean, Randi Cummings, Lyse Anne LeBlanc, Anne Briscombe, Dina Mohamed, Jessie-Lee D McIsaac","doi":"10.1177/14687984251351202","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14687984251351202","url":null,"abstract":"There is an increased movement toward locating early childhood programs within school environments. However, there remains some tension between long-held perceptions of play and the realities of play-based pedagogies, resulting in increasing pressure for evidence of outcomes in academic skills, such as numeracy and literacy. This study seeks to provide pedagogical examples of how numeracy and literacy skills are operationalized and supported within a play-based early learning environment in Nova Scotia (Canada). Using a photo elicitation methodology, 17 early childhood educators working in Pre-primary Programs with children aged 4-5 years old participated in a series of six virtual focus groups that included information sharing, discussions of photos of the participants learning environments, and participant-led analysis. Participants across all groups shared photo examples of numeracy and literacy learning occurring during child-initiated play and discussed their perceptions of what supported and hindered their ability to support numeracy and literacy learning during play and their ability to share these beliefs and observations. The results provided a range of rich and diverse examples of numeracy and literacy learning through play and the crucial role of the early childhood educator within the context of the school-based early childhood programs.","PeriodicalId":47033,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Early Childhood Literacy","volume":"6 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-06-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144296117","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Reading picture books with infants and toddlers TorrJane. Reading Picture Books with Infants and Toddlers. London, New York: Routledge, 2023, p. 138, ISBN 9780367768911.","authors":"Anna Harrison","doi":"10.1177/14687984251352030","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14687984251352030","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47033,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Early Childhood Literacy","volume":"10 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-06-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144290154","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Kimberly Lenters, Ronna Mosher, Jennifer MacDonald
{"title":"Playing the story: Learning with young children's in/visible composing collaborations in outdoor narrative play.","authors":"Kimberly Lenters, Ronna Mosher, Jennifer MacDonald","doi":"10.1177/14687984221144231","DOIUrl":"10.1177/14687984221144231","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In this article, we examine young children's narrative play as posthuman, collaborative composing assemblages. Thinking with Tsing (2015), we re/consider collaboration as that which benefits from contamination and unruly edges as lively and generative places can help educators to notice and nurture that which easily goes unnoticed. We are guided by the question of what could be learned about generating literacy learning opportunities for young children in an outdoor program focused on setting up conditions for collaborative, narrative play. Posthuman perspectives deriving from the philosophical work of Deleuze and Guattari, often utilize the concept of the rhizome. However, following the scholarship of posthuman philosopher Anna Tsing and mycologist, Merlin Sheldrake, we turn to another more-than-human lifeform and introduce the construct of mycelial networks for posthuman literacy studies. For this study of children's collaborative composing, we work with Tsing's concepts of unruly edges and contamination as collaboration and introduce the concept of the in/visible. Taking up Tsing's invitation to think differently about the construction of knowledge practices, we map and examine children's collaborative storying by providing two vignettes, which together, comprise a rush of troubled stories. The troubled stories were part of an awakening for program facilitators, a space of four weeks in which they came to see that by attuning to the liveliness of the children's movements, their understanding of collaborative narrative play was transformed. As relations between the human children and facilitators and the more-than-human vividly animate in this study, the in/visible moments that erupt along the interface between the domesticated and the wild can guide educators in planning and enacting young children's literacy learning. To foster children's collaborative composing, we assert, it is necessary to trust that storying occurs, for many children, in the underground, in/visible spaces that underpin the stories they play.</p>","PeriodicalId":47033,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Early Childhood Literacy","volume":" ","pages":"308-335"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12083864/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48044120","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}