ERIC Number: EJ1019384
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2013-Oct
Pages: 29
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0741-0883
EISSN: N/A
The Case of the Missing Childhoods: Methodological Notes for Composing Children in Writing Studies
Dyson, Anne Haas
Written Communication, v30 n4 p399-427 Oct 2013
Writing studies has been an intellectual playground dominated by the "big kids." If we are to understand how writing becomes "relevant" to children as children, then we must study them, not for who they are becoming, but for who they are in life spaces shared with other children. This essay on the methodology entailed in studying writing in young school children's worlds rests on a cultural studies perspective on childhoods and plays with a sociocultural perspective on literacy development. The methodological challenges entail (a) researcher positionality that allows a dynamic, multilayered view of classroom contexts; (b) data collection decisions allowing one to trace the trajectories of official and unofficial (child-controlled) communicative practices and their interplay; (c) a socially embedded view of the semiotics and functionality of literacy; and (d) a global consciousness that constrains a long-standing rush to generalization based on observational studies of Western, often privileged children.
Descriptors: Writing (Composition), Childrens Writing, Researchers, Data Collection, Research Methodology, Social Influences, Ethnography, Peer Influence, Sociocultural Patterns, Global Approach, Child Development, Literacy, Student Diversity, Educational Research, Early Childhood Education, Elementary Education
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Opinion Papers; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Early Childhood Education; Elementary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A