Ethnographic Research: A Significant Context for Engaging Young Children in Dialogues about Writing

Deborah Albon, Ruth Barley

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Abstract

Much has been written about young children’s literacy practices and how educators might support children’s literacy development in early childhood settings and schools. But there has been less focus on what might be learned through children’s engagement with researchers and their research writing. In order to address this gap, this paper brings together socio-cultural theorising about language and literacy learning as well as work which explores ethical issues associated with young children’s participation in research in order to interrogate unplanned discussions between researchers and young children about research writing. The data discussed were derived from two separate ethnographic research projects conducted in English early childhood settings. We argue that dialogues between child participants and adult-researchers are replete with opportunities for learning about literacy and constitute an important ethical research practice in itself.

© 2018, The Author(s), published by Sage. This is an author produced version of a paper published in JOURNAL OF CHILDHOOD LITERACY uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self- archiving policy. The final published version (version of record) is available online at the link below. Some minor differences between this version and the final published version may remain. We suggest you refer to the final published version should you wish to cite from it.
Original languageEnglish
JournalJournal of Early Childhood Literacy
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 23 Oct 2018

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