Responsive play: Creating transformative classroom spaces through play as a reader response

2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 385-410 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tori K Flint
Keyword(s):  
Reader Response ◽  
Funds Of Knowledge ◽  
Research Question ◽  
First Grade ◽  
Literacy Learning ◽  
Academic Learning ◽  
Language And Literacy ◽  
Learning Context ◽  
Sociocultural Resources ◽  
Grade Classroom

This eight-month study, conducted in a first-grade classroom in the southwestern United States, analyzed young children's playful responses to literature. It focuses on framing a theory that underpins play as a form of reader response, which I term ‘responsive play’. It further aims to answer the overarching research question and the sub-question: What are the affordances of play for responding to text in a first-grade classroom? What are the sociocultural resources that children use to respond to and make meaning with text? Findings suggest that the children in this study created a space for learning and understanding, through their responsive play, that allowed them to think through, demonstrate, and share their experiential knowledge, their funds of knowledge, and their intertextual knowledge – as sociocultural resources – and to connect these to their literacy learning as they cooperatively transacted with and responded to various books. These findings suggest that children's play, language, and literacy are complementary, that children's responsive play should be encouraged in the classroom setting, and that children's experiences and funds of knowledge should be valued as additive to the academic learning context. Implications of this study include that responsive play can be viewed as a generative source of academic learning and that the notion of reader response, in research and practice, can be reconceived to include responsive play.

scholarly journals A Gender Gap in Literacy? Exploring the Affective Im/materiality and “Magic” of Allure with/in a First Grade Classroom

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 330-355 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bessie P. Dernikos
Keyword(s):  
Gender Gap ◽  
First Grade ◽  
Literacy Learning ◽  
Male Students ◽  
Reading Practices ◽  
Grade Classroom

Within this article, I think with (Jackson & Mazzei, 2012) posthumanist theories of affect and assemblage (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987) to argue that literacy learning within a first grade classroom (NYC) involved allure (Thrift, 2008), or more-than-human technologies of public intimacy that were affectively contagious and seemed to take on a life of their own. By doing so, I contribute a new dimension to literacy-gender debates by exploring how the im/material practices of allure emerge to produce entanglement, bliss, and even violence. While male students’ entangled reading practices disrupted popular assumptions of “failing boys,” thereby making new gendered and literate subjectivities possible, these practices, at times, further reinforced rigid heteronormativities. Ultimately, attending to literacy learning as alluring invites more ethically response-able (Barad, 2007) considerations that take seriously how the forces of gender, sexuality, and race work to animate/contain bodies, spaces, and things, as well as shape the un/making of students as “successfully literate.”

“Hey, Black Child. Do You Know Who You Are?” Using African Diaspora Literacy to Humanize Blackness in Early Childhood Education

2020 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 406-431
Author(s):  
Kamania Wynter-Hoyte ◽  
Mukkaramah Smith
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
African Diaspora ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Teacher Educator ◽  
First Grade ◽  
Early Childhood Curriculum ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Black Critical Theory ◽  
Grade Classroom

This article examines the partnership between a teacher and teacher educator disrupting a colonized early childhood curriculum that fosters a dominance of whiteness by replacing it with the beauty and brilliance of Blackness. We explore the following research question: “What are the affordances of teaching from an Afrocentric stance in a first-grade classroom?” We employ Afrocentrism, which includes African cultural principles as the paradigm, and our theoretical lenses are Critical Race Theory and Black Critical Theory. Our Sankofa methodology revealed that African Diaspora literacies fostered (a) positive racial and gender identities, (b) community, and (c) positive linguistic identities in the work to help children to love themselves, their histories, and their peoples. We close with implications.

Leadership and school self-evaluation in Irish-medium immersion: A roadmap for success

2021 ◽  
pp. 174114322110152
Author(s):  
TJ Ó Ceallaigh ◽  
Aoife Ní Shéaghdha
Keyword(s):  
Quality Indicators ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Evaluation Process ◽  
Successful Implementation ◽  
Language And Literacy ◽  
Evaluation Tool ◽  
Self Evaluation ◽  
Individual Interviews

While research on Irish-medium immersion education (IME) has heralded benefits such as cognitive skills, academic achievement and language and literacy development, many studies have also identified challenges to its successful implementation. Immersion-specific research-validated tools can help school leaders navigate the school self-evaluation journey, critically review and evaluate the quality of aspects of their school’s provision and plan for improvement. This paper reports on one theme, leadership, from a larger study, Quality indicators of best practice in Irish-medium immersion (Ó Ceallaigh and Ní Shéaghdha, 2017). Qualitative in nature, the study was guided by the following research question: What are IME educators’ perceptions of best practices in IME?. The study explored 120 IME educators’ perceptions of best practice in IME to inform the development of IME quality indicators. Individual interviews and focus group interviews were utilised to collect data. Data analysis revealed particular themes related to best IME leadership practices. Findings in turn informed the design of an evidence-informed school self-evaluation tool for IME settings. The various functions of the tool will be explored with a particular emphasis on building teaching and leadership capacity in IME through the school self-evaluation process.

“Airplanes Not Walls”: Broaching Unauthorized (Im)migration and Schooling in Mexico

2020 ◽  
Vol 122 (8) ◽  
pp. 1-40
Author(s):  
Sarah Gallo ◽  
Andrea Ortiz
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
School Teacher ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Video Recording ◽  
The United States ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Fifth Grade ◽  
Educational Practices ◽  
Academic Year ◽  
Grade Classroom

Background/Context This article builds on U.S.-based research on undocumented status and schooling to examine how an elementary school teacher in Mexico successfully integrates transnational students’ experiences related to unauthorized (im)migration into the classroom. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study Drawing on a politicized funds of knowledge framework, we focus on an exceptional fifth-grade teacher's curricular, pedagogical, and relational decisions to provide concrete examples of how educators on both sides of the border can carefully integrate students’ politicized experiences into their classrooms. Setting This research took place in a semirural fifth-grade classroom in Central Mexico during the 2016–2017 academic year, when Donald Trump was elected president of the United States. Population/Participants/Subjects This article focuses on the routine educational practices within a single fifth-grade classroom in a highly transnational Central Mexican town. Participants included a binational student who had recently relocated to Mexico because of U.S.-based immigration policies, her peers from transnational families with ties to the United States, and their fifth-grade teacher. Research Design This school-based ethnographic study involved weekly participant observation and video recording of routine activities in Profe Julio's fifth-grade classroom during the 2016–2017 academic year. Observations were triangulated with additional data sources such as interviews (with educators, binational students, and binational caregivers) and artifacts (such as homework assignments and student writing). Findings/Results Through a close examination of a fifth-grade classroom in Mexico, we illustrate how the teacher brought students’ (im)migration experiences into school by leveraging openings in the curriculum, developing interpersonal relationships of care, and engaging in a range of pedagogical moves. Conclusions/Recommendations We discuss how this teacher's educational practices could be carefully tailored to U.S. classrooms within the current anti-immigrant context. These practices include building relationships of care, looking for openings in the curriculum, providing academic distance, prioritizing teachers as learners, and working with school leadership for guidance on navigating politicized topics under the current U.S. administration.

Measuring Funds of Knowledge: Contributions to Latina/o Students’ Academic and Nonacademic Outcomes

2010 ◽  
Vol 112 (8) ◽  
pp. 2209-2257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cecilia Rios-Aguilar
Keyword(s):  
Academic Achievement ◽  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Funds Of Knowledge ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Household Survey ◽  
The United States ◽  
Economic Research ◽  
Achievement Data ◽  
Social Reciprocity

Background/Context The educational performance of Latina/o students in the United States is becoming a central concern in education policy and reform. In an attempt to explain variation in the academic achievement of Latina/o students, considerable sociological and economic research has emerged. Even though the contributions of these studies are of great benefit, there remain important knowledge gaps. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study The purpose of this study is to offer an alternative explanation for the variation in Latina/o students’ academic and nonaca-demic outcomes by using an integrated theoretical framework—funds of knowledge— that takes into consideration the many resources, skills, and knowledge inherent in Latino households. Research Design This study uses quantitative methods to examine the relationship between funds of knowledge and Latina/o students’ academic and nonacademic outcomes. A random sample of 212 Latina/o students enrolled in grades K through 12 was selected to examine the association between funds of knowledge and Latina/o students’ academic outcomes—reading and academic achievement, and nonacademic outcomes—literacy practices. The data for this study were drawn from the survey responses to the Latino/Hispanic Household Survey and from student achievement data. Findings/Results Results obtained from the factor analysis suggest the emergence of six theoretically relevant factors: social reciprocity, household frequent activities, parental educational philosophy, parental language acquisition, English literacy-oriented activities, and Spanish literacy-oriented activities. Multiple regression analyses indicated the existence of a significant association between some components of funds of knowledge and students’ academic and nonacademic outcomes. Conclusions/Recommendations This study's findings suggest that Latina/o students and families do engage in many different activities that contribute to students’ academic and nonacademic outcomes. So, instead of viewing Latino families as needing remediation services and lacking resources to support students’ learning, it is critical to build on their life experiences, knowledge, and skills. It is also clear that there is need to refine the approaches and methodologies used to explain and understand the academic and nonacademic outcomes of Latina/o students.

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