Beyond transparency: more‐than‐human insights into the emergence of young children's language

HACKETT, Abigail (2022). Beyond transparency: more‐than‐human insights into the emergence of young children's language. Literacy, 56 (3), 244-252.

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Official URL: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/lit.12...
Open Access URL: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/l... (Published version)
Link to published version:: https://doi.org/10.1111/lit.12297

Abstract

This paper draws on 3 years of ethnographic research with young children and their families in a northern English town, employing a more-than-human lens to pay attention to what, beyond humans, might be involved in the emergence of children's literacies. The paper focuses on the role of the body and place in the emergence of young children's vocalisations and talk. In particular, the paper rethinks the dominant assumption that children's language is primarily for the purpose of transparently conveying meaning. It does this by drawing on posthuman and decolonial scholarship on childhood and language, and particularly on the work of Glissant on opacity and difference, in order to interrogate the relationship between expression, understanding and power. Thus, the paper outlines how an understanding of the relationship between body, place and talk might inform pedagogy by highlighting the need for space to embrace divergent, complicated, irrational, playful and non-functional language practices in early childhood, rather than looking for rapid, straight line development.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: Education; 1301 Education Systems; 1302 Curriculum and Pedagogy; 1303 Specialist Studies in Education
Identification Number: https://doi.org/10.1111/lit.12297
Page Range: 244-252
SWORD Depositor: Symplectic Elements
Depositing User: Symplectic Elements
Date Deposited: 26 Sep 2022 12:12
Last Modified: 12 Oct 2023 10:01
URI: https://shura.shu.ac.uk/id/eprint/30744

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