1st Edition

Child Cultures, Schooling, and Literacy Global Perspectives on Composing Unique Lives

Edited By Anne Haas Dyson Copyright 2016
    212 Pages 15 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    212 Pages 15 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    Through analysis of case studies of young children (ages 3 to 8 years), situated in different geographic, cultural, linguistic, political, and socioeconomic sites on six continents, this book examines the interplay of childhoods, schooling, and, literacies. Written language is situated within particular childhoods as they unfold in school. A key focus is on children’s agency in the construction of their own childhoods.

    The book generates diverse perspectives on what written language may mean for childhoods. Looking at variations in the complex relationships between official (curricular) visions and unofficial (child-initiated) visions of relevant composing practices and appropriate cultural resources, it offers, first, insight into how those relationships may change over time and space as children move through early schooling, and, second, understanding of the dynamics of schools and the experience of childhoods through which the local meaning of school literacy is formulated. Each case—each child in a particular sociocultural site—does not represent an essentialized nation or a people but, rather, a rich, processual depiction of childhood being constructed in particular local contexts and the role, if any, for composing.

    Acknowledgements

    SECTION 1

    Stories of Composing in Childhoods

    1 Introduction: Gathering Textual Children

    Anne Haas Dyson

     

    2 The Situated Cases: Child Agency, Cultural Resources, Language

    Anne Haas Dyson and case study authors

    Prologue

    I. CASES FEATURING CHILD AGENCY: GARETH AND TA’VON

    Gareth: The Reluctant Writer

    Jackie Marsh

    Ta’Von: Negotiating Inclusion in a Stratified World

    Anne Haas Dyson

    II. CASES FEATURING CULTURAL RESOURCES: DANTI, GUS, AND SHEELA

    Danti: Glocalizing Dora the Explorer in Indonesia

    Sophie Dewayani

    Gus: "I Can’t Write Anything"

    Barbara Comber and Lyn Kerkham

    Sheela: Finding her Voice

    Urvashi Sahni

    III. CASES FEATURING LANGUAGE: MIGUEL, NATALIA, AND RAFIKI

    Miguel the Artista: A Case of Mismatch and Misguided "Reform"

    Celia Genishi

    Natalia: "I want to speak Tata’s Language!" Learning and Awakening the Local Language

    Iliana Reyes

    Rafiki: A Teacher-Pupil

    Esther Mukewa Lisanza

    Toward Knitting Together Tangled Cases

    Anne Haas Dyson

    SECTION 2

    Thematic Threads of Continuity and Contrast

    3 The Relevance of Composing: Children’s Spaces for Social Agency

    Barbara Comber

    4 Resources for Composing

    Peggy J. Miller and Urvashi Sahni

    5 The Powers of Language: Toward Remixing Language Policy, Curricula, and Child Identities

    Celia Genishi

    SECTION 3

    On Composing Childhoods

    6 Making Space for Missing Childhoods: Implications for Theory, Policy, and Pedagogy

    Anne Haas Dyson

    Concluding Commentary

    Peggy J. Miller

    Biography

    Anne Haas Dyson is Faculty Excellence Professor, College of Education, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA and American Educational Research Fellow.

    "It is a book that brings together an impressive combination of experts with understanding drawn from a wide range of contexts. The global inclusiveness of this text will speak to and attract a wide audience and push thinking in the field. The wisdom within this text is exciting and I love the respect demonstrated towards children." - Martine Horvath, EYE