Finding out about children's literacies in family contexts: Vignettes from Wadestown Kindergarten

Abstract

Between 2006 and 2009 Wadestown Kindergarten, as a designated Centre of Innovation, investigated multimodal literacies and their roles in communicative competence and meaning making (Simonsen et al., 2009). This focus links with the Communication strand of Te Whariki (Ministry of Education, 1996), which refers to a number of possible modes of expression: images, art, dance, drama, mathematics, movement, rhythm and music (p. 72). We came to define literacies broadly within our study as modes of communication, conceptualisation and meaning making (Simonsen et al. , 2009). Hence the term literacies included traditional print-based and verbal literacies; nontraditional literacies, such as the visual and new information and computer technology (ICT) literacies; and what some would regard as nonliteracies, such as spatial and motor. In common, these literacies represented significant features of children's ways of knowing and communicating. The three research questions for this study were: 1. What does multimodal communicative competence mean in an early childhood setting? 2. How do multimodal literacies interact and support each other at individual, interpersonal and community levels? 3. What is the role of people, places and practices in mediating children's use of multimodal literacies? Our study was exploratory, in the sense that we held an open attitude and genuinely did not know where the investigation would lead. We drew on a range of research methods and perspectives to try to find out about and understand children's favoured literacy modes. In this article, we discuss the immense value of input from parents and whanau in interpreting and analysing data about children's literacies, and the resources and experiences offered in family contexts. We also highlight deepening family engagement in the education programme and more responsive pedagogy that seemed to go hand in hand with our focus on multiple literacies and teachers learning from parents. We argue that as teachers became more open to learning from the insights and experiences of parents and whanau and more appreciative of the multiple ways in which children communicate, they also became more open-minded about parent contributions to the education programme. Method In our Centre of Innovation project we used multiple methods of data collection, including: photographs, videotape recordings and field notes of curriculum events where multiple literacies were evident; case studies of six children; semistructured interviews with participants (parents, children, teachers and research associates); and focus group discussions with kindergarten parents and whanau. Data gathered for the case studies included pedagogical documentation used in the children's assessment portfolios, and video recordings of curriculum events featuring children's literacies. This documentation was gathered over 18 months of the Centre of Innovation project. Parents of case study children were interviewed at the initial and final phases of the project about their child's strengths and preferences as a communicator and family values, strengths and activities. Both these interviews began with us asking parents their views of a video recording of their child, and then of their child's portfolio. Children were asked about their work and portfolios. This article draws primarily on these case study data from children, parents and families. Families: Interpretations of pedagogical documentation, experiences and values Gonzalez and Moll (2002) have argued for a funds of knowledge approach to teachers working with families. Such an approach is based on a premise that people are competent and have knowledge, and their life experiences have given them that knowledge. They argue that through first-hand research experiences with families, we can document this competence and knowledge, and that this engagement leads to many possibilities for positive pedagogical actions (p. …