Making spaces in professional learning for democratic literacy education in the early years

Abstract

Literacy instruction in Canadian classrooms is entangled in neoliberal discourses that can limit teachers’ professional learning opportunities, pedagogical options, and children’s literacy options. And yet, there is hope. This chapter provides illustrations from one first grade classroom that participated in a multiple-case study of professional learning in literacy. The learning was designed to support teachers of children aged 3.8-8 years in creating multimodal literacy pedagogies. Data were collected through ethnographic and narrative methods. Analysis focused on mapping the network that produced classroom change, the children’s responses to the lesson, and the relationship to the professional learning activities. The findings suggest that the professional learning helped to create more connected literacies, joyful engagement in learning, and new relationships between children, teachers, materials, and meaning-making. The findings suggest how democratic literacy education can be fostered through professional learning spaces where teachers can exercise professional discernment and focus on children as pedagogical informants.