The millennium generation: Teacher-researchers exploring new forms of literacy

Abstract

This article describes a collaborative teacher-researcher project exploring how 4—8-year-old children understood and worked with new forms of literacy at home and at school. Twenty-five teacher-researchers investigated young children’s home based multimodal funds of knowledge and then planned school or preschool curriculum based on these findings. The project revealed that children, independent of geographic location, had access to and could use information technologies far in advance of teachers’ expectations and had access to equipment beyond that available in many of the schools and preschools. In response to children’s use of and engagement with new literacies the teacher-researchers developed a framework known as the Multiliteracies Map. This framework was used in a state-wide early years professional learning programme to support curriculum planning for new forms of literacy. The teacher-researchers became the facilitators of the professional learning programme that took place in local districts and regions. A case study of one teacher-researcher shows how this literacy framework was used to plan and assess children’s learning with new forms of literacy.