Snuggles, stories and parent power

1. Snuggles, stories and parent power Analysing discourses of children’s learning and development through texts and artefacts in cyber and social spaces Sue Nichols & Helen Nixon AARE 2008

2. Whatis circulating? Through what spaces? Parents’ networks: The circulation of knowledge about young children’s literacy learning & development With what effects? In what forms? How are connections made?

3. [T]he macro- as well as the micropolitics surrounding literacy alter the boundaries of social context, for in addition to the usual local participants such as students, teachers, parents, administrators, and employers, we also need to consider legislators, legislation, and legislative histories, not to mention the middle-level bureaucrats who administer funds ... [T]he people who make up the network involved in literacy programs, literacy education, literacy events and literacy research will not be evenly committed to any one definition of literacy, let alone its meaning and value to students. (Brodkey 1992 p. 295)

4. Project elements An environmental focus: Walk-about, mapping, visual documentation, artefact collection, and observation An organisational focus: Interviews with information workers, network tracing and artefact collection A family focus: Ethnographic participant observation, interviews and artefact collection A textual focus: Semiotic & discourse analysis, intertextual network tracing.

5. Identifying discursive formations Central subject Key discursive practice Parent role Representational motifs Claimed benefits Major sponsors

7. Early learning: Dominant discursive clusters

8. Early learning: Dominant discursive clusters

9. Early learning: Dominant discursive clusters

10. Early learning: Dominant discursive clusters

11. Early learning: Dominant discursive clusters

12. Early learning: Dominant discursive clusters

13. Early learning: Dominant discursive clusters

14. Early learning: Dominant discursive clusters

15. Early Learning World Website: A commercial entity defines children's learning and parenting List of parenting articles Your own relationship: A father’s perspective Play and your child’s development How your child can develop by having good toys Learning to talk Learning to read Handwriting … the basics Should your children learn the 3Rs before school? Science says yes! Discipline – what approach? Instead of spanking Hitting/biting – what do you do? Turning a hitter into a hugger

16. “How your child can develop by having good toys” The child develops according to a ‘strictly unchangeable sequence’. Parent is assumed to ‘worry’ about development when it ‘may seem very slow’. Parent may ‘influence the pace of your child’s development by giving them the right stimulation at the right time’. Young children need to acquire ‘basic skills’ including ‘reading, writing and counting proficiency’. They can acquire these skills by playing with educational toys.

17. Parents as consumers & providers Much of the work of caring for very young children “gets accomplished through the marketplace in the purchasing, preparing, gifting and provisioning of goods and services” (Cook 2008, p. 232). Much consumption in these contexts is ‘co-consumption’ in that the shopper “looks, desires, considers and reflects upon purchases” (p. 232) as part of a practice of care for the child for whom the product is intended, or with whom it will be shared. Cook, D.T. (2008). The missing child in consumption theory. Journal of Consumer Culture. 8(2). 219-243.

18. Images of book reading

19. Early learning: Dominant discursive clusters

20. Early learning: Dominant discursive clusters

21. Early learning: Dominant discursive clusters

22. Early learning: Dominant discursive clusters

23. Early learning: Dominant discursive clusters

24. Early learning: Dominant discursive clusters

25. Early learning: Dominant discursive clusters

26. Why stories are important Parenting SA Parent Easy Guide 57 Stories help children to cope with a lot of the feelingsand problems that they experience in their day. Story time can be a special caring time with you that your children will remember all their lives. Whether they are the stories you tell, or stories in books, stories are one of the ways that children learn to enjoy reading. Books, and the people they read about in books can become their friends. Reading and/or story time can be special time for both parents and children. If it’s a relaxed and happy time, it helps build good relationships between you and your child and helps your child develop a sense of security and good self-esteem. You can also learn to understand how your child feelswhen you see him respond to the feelings in the story, eg if he really likes a book it may be because it has special meaning for him and is helping him with his feelings. When you read a story to your child it can show that you understand how he feels. For example if you are reading a story about another child (or animal) who is frightened of the dark, it helps your child to know that you understandthat it is easy to be frightened of the dark when you are very young. Reading and telling stories to your child can become a very special sharing time which helps your children to learn to love books and to develop a sense of being a lovable person. Many children remember their story times for the rest of their lives.

27. Nostalgia & security Mother Goose? Run-of-the-mill as it might seem to some, there are more kids than you'd expect growing up these days without the benefit of exposure to wholesome children's literature. This attractive collection is the "standard" edition that has been delighting millions for 75 years. Mother Goose is a vital part of childhood. So sit down, take your one- or two-year-old on your lap, and begin. Your child will learn much more than the verses: rhyme, rhythm, new words, and the security of your attention.

28. Research & the production of the problem nexus: Attachment & literacy Bus (2003) compared ‘the book reading experiences of parent-child pairs how had a secure attachment relationship with those of pairs having an insecure one’ (4) Attachment was judged by the child’s reaction after experiencing a ‘strange situation’ (7). ‘Insecurely attached children appeared to be more often disengaged from their mothers or the book reading … as shown by measures of child attentiveness, maternal interventions to control the child’s behaviour and child responsiveness’ (5) “Insecurely attached” children could also be described as independent. This then becomes a different problem – how to attract independent and physically active children to books.

29. Hybrids Books are toys Toys are people

30. Books are toys This innovative board book with special 'jumping' mechanism that allows Peter Rabbit to pop up from all his favourite places This will delight your young ones !

31. Toys are people Commercial toys supposedly respond, talk, grow with children, become friends, provide fun, teach skills “A friendly set of pals with genuine magnetic appeal”; “encourages role-playing” Calcubot is a “playful friend” who “teaches” numeracy skills

32. Alternative messages also connect toys and people You are the toy that your newborn most enjoys. Your touch, the sound of your voice, being rocked in your arms and staring at your face is more than enough entertainment for a new baby. Once your baby is starting to move around and is more robust, more active play will be a winner – and you’re still the best toy he has! Your baby will love to clamber over you, exploring and trying out new movement skills. Raising Children Network Australia (2006-2008), ‘Play and Learning: How to play without paying’ http://raisingchildren.net.au/articles/play_without_paying.html/context/249

33. The story continued … • This presentation reports a work in progress. Stay tuned for more from the authors. We have papers coming out in forthcoming issues of the journals Early Years and Literacy. • Our symposium papers and ppts for AERA 2008 can be downloaded from http://www.unisa.edu.au/hawkeinstitute/cslplc/past.asp#AERA%20Conference%202008