Introduction to 5th ESRC Research Seminar on Children s Literacy and Popular Culture: Popular Culture in Homes and Scho

1. Introduction to 5th ESRC Research Seminar on Children�s Literacy and Popular Culture: Popular Culture in Homes and Schools Dr Jackie Marsh 4th November 2003

2. Popular culture in the home: a review of the literature (Marsh, 2003a) - 4 key themes identified Wide range of popular cultural texts in many young children�s homes Popular cultural texts integral to daily life in the home Parents� generally hold positive attitudes towards these texts Dissonance between home/ school in terms of texts encountered and attitudes of parents/ teachers towards popular cultural and media texts

3. Theme 1 Range of popular cultural texts in the home

4. Range of popular cultural texts in homes (identified in studies in which popular culture/ media were not the main focus of research)

5. Other studies with similar patterns: Cairney et al (1996) Rodriguez (1999) Xu (1999) Kenner (2000) Nutbrown and Hannon (2003)

6. Studies which have focused on identifying range of popular cultural texts in homes Marsh and Thompson (2001) Marsh (2004)

8. Range of texts identified in Marsh and Thompson (2001) and Marsh (2004)

9. Theme 2 Popular cultural texts integral to daily life in the home

10. Young children identified as drawing from popular cultural texts in their literacy practices in the home in the following studies Barrs (1988) Weinberger (1996) Rodriguez (1999) Anning and Ring (1999) Xu (1999) Orellana (1999) Kenner (2000) Pahl (2001; 2002) Hicks (2001) Carrington and Luke (2003) Nutbrown and Hannon (2003)

11. In Marsh (2004) study: There were a range of purposes identified for techno-literacy practices in the home. These could be mapped on to Cairney and Ruge�s (1998) categories of purposes for literacy in the home�

13. Theme 3 Parents� attitudes to popular cultural and media texts

15. Recognising impact� (Marsh, 2004) JM: Do you worry about the amount of TV he watches? Parent: No, because he learnt all his alphabet off the telly. You know, from watching Wheel of Fortune, he just picked up the letters and it came to the point when he knew every letter, and he knows the adult alphabet, not child�s �and he knows all his colours, shapes and the lot. JM: How old was he when he started watching the Wheel of Fortune? Parent: Oh, about 2 and by the time he went to nursery at 3, Dale went to nursery at 3 and he knew all his alphabet.

16. Theme 4: Dissonance between home/ school

17. Lack of congruency between home-school with regard to popular cultural texts Makin et al (1999); Arthur et al. (2001) -2 staff members at each of the 79 sites interviewed. Only 13% acknowledged place of popular culture/ media texts in home, with many staff expressing concerns. Marsh (2003b) -18 families completed literacy diaries for 1 month, nursery staff mapped literacy practices in nursery. Lack of continuity noted. Hicks (2001) -ethnographic study of one child over a 4 year period (between ages of 4 and 7). Lack of congruence between home and school noted.

18. Future research agendas in this field: Very little work undertaken which maps out young children�s home literacy practices in relation to popular culture and media � more work in relation to older children (e.g. Livingstone and Bovill, 1999). This needs to be addressed. The impact of family members on these literacy practices need to be examined more closely. More detailed analyses of home-school transitions in relation to popular culture, media and literacy need to be undertaken.

19. References Anning, A. and Ring, K. (1999) The influence of socio-cultural context on young children�s meaning-making, Paper presented at the British Educational Research Association Annual Conference, Brighton, September, 1999. Arthur, L. (2001) Popular Culture and Early Literacy Learning, Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, Vol. 2, 3, pp295 � 308. Barrs, M. (1988) �Maps of Play� in M. Meek and C. Mills (eds) Language and Literacy in the Primary School, London: Falmer Press. Cairney, T.H. and Ruge, J. (1998) Community Literacy Practices and Schooling: Towards Effective Support for Students. Canberra: DEET. Cairney, T.H.., Lowe, K., Munsie, L., Ruge, J. & Buchanan, J. (1996). Developing partnerships: The home, school and community interface (Vols 1-3). Canberra: DEET (560 pages). URL:http://www.nepean.uws.edu.au/uws/uwsn/admin/research/pvc_research/html/dev_partner.html Accessed on 2.7.00. Carrington, V. and Luke, A. (2003) �Reading, Home and Families: From Postmodern to Modern?� In A. van Kleek, S.A.Stahl & E.B. Bauer (eds) On Reading to Children: Parents and Teachers, Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Hicks, D. (2001) Literacies and masculinities in the life of a young working-class boy, Language Arts, Vol. 78, 3, pp217-226. Kenner, C. (2000) Home Pages: Literacy Links for Bilingual Children, Staffordshire: Trentham Books. Livingstone, S. and Bovill, M. (1999) Young People, New Media, London: London School of Economics. Makin, L., Hayden, J., Holland, A., Arthur, L., Beecher, B., Jones Diaz, C. & McNaught, M. (1999) Mapping Literacy Practices in Early Childhood Services, Sydney: NSW Department of Education and Training and NSW Department of Community Services. Marsh, J. (2004) The Techno-literacy practices of young children, Journal of Early Childhood Research, 2, 1: 51-66. Marsh, J. (2003a) Early Childhood Literacy and Popular Culture in N.Hall, J.Larson and J.Marsh (eds) Handbook of Early Childhood Literacy, London, New Dehli, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

20. References (continued) Marsh, J. (2003b) One-way traffic? Connections between literacy practices at home and in the nursery, British Educational Research Journal, 29, 3.pp369-382. Marsh, J. and Thompson, P. (2001) Parental Involvement in Literacy Development: Using Media Texts, Journal of Research in Reading, Vol.24, 3, pp266 � 278. Moss, G. (2001) Seeing with the camera: analysing children�s photographs of literacy in the home, Journal of Research in Reading, Vol.24, 3, pp279-292. Nutbrown, C. and Hannon, P. (2003) Children's Perspectives on Family Literacy: Methodological Issues, Findings and Implications for Practice, Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 3, 2: pp115-146. Orellana, M.F. (1994) Appropriating the Voice of the Superheroes: Three Preschoolers� Bilingual Language Uses in Play, Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 9, pp171-193. Pahl, K. (2001) Texts as artefacts crossing sites: map making at home and school, Reading, Literacy and Language, pp120-125. Pahl, K. (2002) �Ephemera, mess and miscellaneous piles: texts and practices in families�, Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 2(2):145-166. Purcell-Gates, V. (1996) Stories, coupons and the TV Guide: Relationships between home literacy experiences and emergent literacy experiences. Reading Research Quarterly, 31, 4, pp406-428. Rodriguez, M.V. (1999) Home literacy experiences of three young Dominican children in New York City, Educators for Urban Minorities, Vol.1, 1, pp19 � 31. Weinberger (1996) Literacy Goes to School: the Parents' Role in Young Children's Literacy Learning. London: Paul Chapman. Xu, S.H. (1999) Young Chinese ESL children�s home literacy experiences, Reading Horizons, Vol. 40, 1, pp47 � 64.