Pub Date : 2025-11-25DOI: 10.1177/14687984251403055
Günseli Yıldırım, Cemil Türk, Endam Düzyol-Türk
In this study, we aimed to examine the effect of using both creative drama and direct narration methods with the story The Bremen Town Musicians on the story comprehension of children aged 60–72 months, as well as their views on the creative drama application and the story itself. We employed an embedded mixed-methods design, combining quantitative and qualitative research. To investigate the effect of creative drama on story comprehension, we used the Solomon Four-Group Design with a pre-test and post-test control group. To support the quantitative data, we collected qualitative data on children’s views regarding the creative drama process, reinforcing the findings. The study group consisted of 96 children (24 in each of the four groups) attending independent preschools in İzmir’s Buca district during the 2024–2025 academic year. We used a knowledge test on The Bremen Town Musicians and a semi-structured interview form. The Mann–Whitney U and Kruskal–Wallis H tests were applied. The pre-test results did not influence the post-test scores of the experimental group. Findings showed that children who experienced the story through creative drama had higher post-test scores than those who received direct narration. Analysis of children’s views on the creative drama process and the story revealed themes of “enactment,” “acquisitions,” “emotions,” and “changes.” Enactment included imitation, singing, wearing costumes, and coming up with a title. Acquisitions involved new friendships, emotions, helping others, collaboration, and problem solving. Emotions reflected enjoying the fairy tale, feeling happy, excited, sad, or afraid. Changes included adding different animals, robbers turning good or not being present, the police showing up, owners treating them well, and having the animals be younger. The results highlight the effectiveness of creative drama in enhancing young children’s story comprehension.
{"title":"The effect of the creative drama method on preschool Children’s fairy tale comprehension: The case of “The Bremen Town Musicians”","authors":"Günseli Yıldırım, Cemil Türk, Endam Düzyol-Türk","doi":"10.1177/14687984251403055","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14687984251403055","url":null,"abstract":"In this study, we aimed to examine the effect of using both creative drama and direct narration methods with the story The Bremen Town Musicians on the story comprehension of children aged 60–72 months, as well as their views on the creative drama application and the story itself. We employed an embedded mixed-methods design, combining quantitative and qualitative research. To investigate the effect of creative drama on story comprehension, we used the Solomon Four-Group Design with a pre-test and post-test control group. To support the quantitative data, we collected qualitative data on children’s views regarding the creative drama process, reinforcing the findings. The study group consisted of 96 children (24 in each of the four groups) attending independent preschools in İzmir’s Buca district during the 2024–2025 academic year. We used a knowledge test on The Bremen Town Musicians and a semi-structured interview form. The Mann–Whitney U and Kruskal–Wallis H tests were applied. The pre-test results did not influence the post-test scores of the experimental group. Findings showed that children who experienced the story through creative drama had higher post-test scores than those who received direct narration. Analysis of children’s views on the creative drama process and the story revealed themes of “enactment,” “acquisitions,” “emotions,” and “changes.” Enactment included imitation, singing, wearing costumes, and coming up with a title. Acquisitions involved new friendships, emotions, helping others, collaboration, and problem solving. Emotions reflected enjoying the fairy tale, feeling happy, excited, sad, or afraid. Changes included adding different animals, robbers turning good or not being present, the police showing up, owners treating them well, and having the animals be younger. The results highlight the effectiveness of creative drama in enhancing young children’s story comprehension.","PeriodicalId":47033,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Early Childhood Literacy","volume":"90 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-11-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145593580","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-10-31DOI: 10.1177/14687984251388333
Sandra Marie El Gemayel, Rosie Flewitt, Janet Goodall
Research on young children’s use of digital media has increased over recent decades but less is known about the digital language and literacy practices at home of children aged under 3 years. This scoping review was conducted to map knowledge on this phenomenon to inform the ESRC-funded study Toddlers, Tech and Talk. Fifty-two papers published from January 2000 to June 2024 were identified from six databases: Australian Education Index, British Education Index, ERIC (EBSCO), ERIC (ProQuest), SCOPUS and Web of Science, as well as Google and Google Scholar. The literature was synthesised into the following categories: child language and TV-viewing; video calls; technology and musicality, mark making and book-reading; joint media engagement and the home digital literacy environment. Although child ‘screentime’ has been associated with delayed language development, research suggests these effects can be mediated by the context of technology use, parent co-viewing and interaction. Many extant studies are dependent on parental reports of very young children’s digital activity and/or on simulated contexts. To deepen knowledge on this topic, there is rich scope for observational studies conducted in family homes, co-produced research with parents and children, and longitudinal studies of babies’, infants’ and toddlers’ digital language and literacy practices at home.
近几十年来，关于幼儿使用数字媒体的研究有所增加，但对3岁以下儿童在家中的数字语言和识字实践知之甚少。本综述的目的是绘制这一现象的知识图谱，为esrc资助的幼儿、技术和谈话研究提供信息。从澳大利亚教育索引、英国教育索引、ERIC （EBSCO）、ERIC （ProQuest）、SCOPUS和Web of Science以及谷歌和谷歌Scholar等6个数据库中检索2000年1月至2024年6月发表的52篇论文。这些文献被归纳为以下几类：儿童语言和看电视；视频通话;技术与音乐性，标记与阅读；联合媒体参与和家庭数字素养环境。虽然儿童的“屏幕时间”与语言发育迟缓有关，但研究表明，这些影响可以通过技术使用、父母共同观看和互动来调节。许多现有的研究都依赖于父母对非常年幼的孩子的数字活动和/或模拟环境的报告。为了加深对这一主题的了解，可以在家庭中进行观察性研究，与父母和孩子共同进行研究，以及对婴儿、婴幼儿在家中的数字语言和识字实践进行纵向研究。
{"title":"0-3-Year-old children’s digital language and literacy practices at home: A scoping review of the literature","authors":"Sandra Marie El Gemayel, Rosie Flewitt, Janet Goodall","doi":"10.1177/14687984251388333","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14687984251388333","url":null,"abstract":"Research on young children’s use of digital media has increased over recent decades but less is known about the digital language and literacy practices at home of children aged under 3 years. This scoping review was conducted to map knowledge on this phenomenon to inform the ESRC-funded study Toddlers, Tech and Talk. Fifty-two papers published from January 2000 to June 2024 were identified from six databases: Australian Education Index, British Education Index, ERIC (EBSCO), ERIC (ProQuest), SCOPUS and Web of Science, as well as Google and Google Scholar. The literature was synthesised into the following categories: child language and TV-viewing; video calls; technology and musicality, mark making and book-reading; joint media engagement and the home digital literacy environment. Although child ‘screentime’ has been associated with delayed language development, research suggests these effects can be mediated by the context of technology use, parent co-viewing and interaction. Many extant studies are dependent on parental reports of very young children’s digital activity and/or on simulated contexts. To deepen knowledge on this topic, there is rich scope for observational studies conducted in family homes, co-produced research with parents and children, and longitudinal studies of babies’, infants’ and toddlers’ digital language and literacy practices at home.","PeriodicalId":47033,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Early Childhood Literacy","volume":"380 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-10-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145424200","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-10-15DOI: 10.1177/14687984251388516
Victoria Damjanovic, Stephanie Branson
The fundamental right of every child to access books and materials with diverse perspectives is recognized globally. This right not only supports cognitive and academic development but also contributes significantly to social and emotional well-being, fostering active participation in society. However, integrating social justice topics into early childhood education remains a challenge. This article argues that failing to address these topics not only marginalizes children but also perpetuates a deficit perspective. This study explores how an inquiry-based environment empowers agentic literacies. We used a case study approach to examine children’s literacy practices and their engagement with social justice concepts. Data sources include teacher-created storyboards with children’s work samples and dialog, transcripts from planning meetings, and a researcher journal. Data were analyzed using line-by-line coding for transcripts, storyboard dialog, and the researcher’s journal. Visual analysis was used to investigate children’s work samples. The findings illustrate a progression from agentic learners to advocates and eventually activists, with children actively participating in decision-making processes throughout. Two vignettes offer narrative snapshots of the project, demonstrating children’s agentic literacy practices and how children’s wonderings drove discussions and actions around social justice issues in a contextualized meaningful way.
{"title":"Empowering agentic literacies: A case study on advocacy and activism in a preschool classroom","authors":"Victoria Damjanovic, Stephanie Branson","doi":"10.1177/14687984251388516","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14687984251388516","url":null,"abstract":"The fundamental right of every child to access books and materials with diverse perspectives is recognized globally. This right not only supports cognitive and academic development but also contributes significantly to social and emotional well-being, fostering active participation in society. However, integrating social justice topics into early childhood education remains a challenge. This article argues that failing to address these topics not only marginalizes children but also perpetuates a deficit perspective. This study explores how an inquiry-based environment empowers agentic literacies. We used a case study approach to examine children’s literacy practices and their engagement with social justice concepts. Data sources include teacher-created storyboards with children’s work samples and dialog, transcripts from planning meetings, and a researcher journal. Data were analyzed using line-by-line coding for transcripts, storyboard dialog, and the researcher’s journal. Visual analysis was used to investigate children’s work samples. The findings illustrate a progression from agentic learners to advocates and eventually activists, with children actively participating in decision-making processes throughout. Two vignettes offer narrative snapshots of the project, demonstrating children’s agentic literacy practices and how children’s wonderings drove discussions and actions around social justice issues in a contextualized meaningful way.","PeriodicalId":47033,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Early Childhood Literacy","volume":"10 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-10-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145311026","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-10-15DOI: 10.1177/14687984251385361
Vahide Yigit-Gencten, Rabia Ozen Uyar
This qualitative case study explores preservice teachers’ perceptions of readiness, instructional strategies, and implementation of early literacy activities. Data were collected through a short-form, open-ended questionnaire, lesson plans, and classroom observation notes during a 12-week internship program. Using Saldana’s (2013) open coding framework, we employed descriptive, thematic, and cross-case analyses to provide a comprehensive understanding. Findings revealed that PSTs perceived themselves as moderately confident and prepared to teach literacy; their instructional aims reflected a preference for oral communication-based and play-based methods, and classroom practice showed a tendency to structured literacy activities and several barriers to implementation.
{"title":"Ready, set, action! Preservice preschool teachers’ journey from preparation to implementation of literacy activities","authors":"Vahide Yigit-Gencten, Rabia Ozen Uyar","doi":"10.1177/14687984251385361","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14687984251385361","url":null,"abstract":"This qualitative case study explores preservice teachers’ perceptions of readiness, instructional strategies, and implementation of early literacy activities. Data were collected through a short-form, open-ended questionnaire, lesson plans, and classroom observation notes during a 12-week internship program. Using Saldana’s (2013) open coding framework, we employed descriptive, thematic, and cross-case analyses to provide a comprehensive understanding. Findings revealed that PSTs perceived themselves as moderately confident and prepared to teach literacy; their instructional aims reflected a preference for oral communication-based and play-based methods, and classroom practice showed a tendency to structured literacy activities and several barriers to implementation.","PeriodicalId":47033,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Early Childhood Literacy","volume":"77 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-10-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145311027","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This manuscript examines how the Children’s Creativity Museum (CCM) in San Francisco supports the development of multimodal literacy and creative confidence through the Build the Change exhibit. Multimodal literacy emphasizes children’s ability to communicate across visual, spatial, tactile, oral, and digital modes, while creative confidence reflects dispositions of risk-taking, persistence, and valuing one’s ideas. The manuscript uses a vignette-based qualitative design to analyze children’s engagement during self-directed drop-in visits and structured field trips (N = 709 students across 30 visits). Data sources included archival artifacts, participation records, and educator interviews. Four illustrative vignettes show how CCM’s open-ended environment fosters multimodal expression and creative confidence through hands-on building, collaborative design, sustained focus, and cross-exhibit integration. Findings suggest that children’s museums uniquely support meaning-making and creative risk-taking by combining engaging spaces, manipulable materials, open-ended facilitation, and autonomy in movement and choice. Within its defined scope, this manuscript contributes to scholarship on how informal learning environments cultivate the skills and dispositions children need to navigate and shape their futures.
{"title":"Fostering creative confidence and multimodal literacy in practice at the Children’s Creativity Museum","authors":"Olivia Cornfield, Bertha Rodriquez Vazquez, Kelsey Holtaway","doi":"10.1177/14687984251382045","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14687984251382045","url":null,"abstract":"This manuscript examines how the Children’s Creativity Museum (CCM) in San Francisco supports the development of multimodal literacy and creative confidence through the Build the Change exhibit. Multimodal literacy emphasizes children’s ability to communicate across visual, spatial, tactile, oral, and digital modes, while creative confidence reflects dispositions of risk-taking, persistence, and valuing one’s ideas. The manuscript uses a vignette-based qualitative design to analyze children’s engagement during self-directed drop-in visits and structured field trips (N = 709 students across 30 visits). Data sources included archival artifacts, participation records, and educator interviews. Four illustrative vignettes show how CCM’s open-ended environment fosters multimodal expression and creative confidence through hands-on building, collaborative design, sustained focus, and cross-exhibit integration. Findings suggest that children’s museums uniquely support meaning-making and creative risk-taking by combining engaging spaces, manipulable materials, open-ended facilitation, and autonomy in movement and choice. Within its defined scope, this manuscript contributes to scholarship on how informal learning environments cultivate the skills and dispositions children need to navigate and shape their futures.","PeriodicalId":47033,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Early Childhood Literacy","volume":"56 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-10-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145246715","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-09-30DOI: 10.1177/14687984251384396
Jill Castek, Shiloe Fontes
This article explores immersive learning experiences for young learners in a planetarium setting. These experiences open new learning possibilities and ignite children’s inquiry and imagination. The authors describe a naturalistic observational study that examines two immersive planetarium programs for young children. Data was collected as observational reflections that captured children’s interactions and questions. By analyzing reflections alongside our observations, insights were revealed about expansive literacy process associated with immersive learning. Implications surface the benefits and drawbacks of immersive learning experiences in planetariums and offer design considerations museum for programming specifically aimed at young children in all ages museums and science centers.
{"title":"Immersive planetarium and science center experiences as catalysts for literacy learning","authors":"Jill Castek, Shiloe Fontes","doi":"10.1177/14687984251384396","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14687984251384396","url":null,"abstract":"This article explores immersive learning experiences for young learners in a planetarium setting. These experiences open new learning possibilities and ignite children’s inquiry and imagination. The authors describe a naturalistic observational study that examines two immersive planetarium programs for young children. Data was collected as observational reflections that captured children’s interactions and questions. By analyzing reflections alongside our observations, insights were revealed about expansive literacy process associated with immersive learning. Implications surface the benefits and drawbacks of immersive learning experiences in planetariums and offer design considerations museum for programming specifically aimed at young children in all ages museums and science centers.","PeriodicalId":47033,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Early Childhood Literacy","volume":"97 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145188463","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-09-24DOI: 10.1177/14687984251380969
Anne Burke, Benjamin Boison
This study explores how mapmaking, as an arts-based and culturally responsive pedagogical practice, supports young children’s voice, agency, and identity construction within classroom and public gallery contexts. We focus on 22 children (ages 6–7) in the early years of primary school, situated within the early childhood education life phase, whose multimodal mapping activities culminated in a curated exhibition at The Rooms —Newfoundland and Labrador’s provincial art gallery. Data included video transcripts of children’s narrative map sharing, teacher interviews, and field observations. Using reflexive thematic analysis informed by sociomaterial and multimodal literacy frameworks, we found that children’s maps functioned as cultural texts, expressing personal geographies through images, spatial arrangement, gesture and narration. Public exhibition recontextualized these artifacts as civic texts, validating children’s knowledge and affirming cultural identities—particularly for newcomer families. This study contributes to early childhood literacies and public pedagogy scholarship, illustrating how gallery curation can foster cultural affirmation, relational pedagogy, and civic participation within early education.
{"title":"Cartographies of voice: Children’s multimodal literacies, agency, and identity in public pedagogy","authors":"Anne Burke, Benjamin Boison","doi":"10.1177/14687984251380969","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14687984251380969","url":null,"abstract":"This study explores how mapmaking, as an arts-based and culturally responsive pedagogical practice, supports young children’s voice, agency, and identity construction within classroom and public gallery contexts. We focus on 22 children (ages 6–7) in the early years of primary school, situated within the early childhood education life phase, whose multimodal mapping activities culminated in a curated exhibition at <jats:italic>The Rooms</jats:italic> —Newfoundland and Labrador’s provincial art gallery. Data included video transcripts of children’s narrative map sharing, teacher interviews, and field observations. Using reflexive thematic analysis informed by sociomaterial and multimodal literacy frameworks, we found that children’s maps functioned as cultural texts, expressing personal geographies through images, spatial arrangement, gesture and narration. Public exhibition recontextualized these artifacts as civic texts, validating children’s knowledge and affirming cultural identities—particularly for newcomer families. This study contributes to early childhood literacies and public pedagogy scholarship, illustrating how gallery curation can foster cultural affirmation, relational pedagogy, and civic participation within early education.","PeriodicalId":47033,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Early Childhood Literacy","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-09-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145127680","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-09-22DOI: 10.1177/14687984251380651
Lisa Kervin, Jessica Mantei, Maria Clara Selina Rivera, Lois Peach
This paper shares an account of our wonderings, happenings, and learnings emerging from encounters between children, iPads, digital microscopes and found natural materials (and bugs!) in a series of workshops at a children’s museum. Our intention is to build on and disrupt established theories about children’s museums by thinking differently and creatively about new ways of seeing, knowing, and understanding children’s literate practices in these spaces. We have written before about children’s interactions as social practices where material (human and non-human), discursive, and spatial resources come together through physical and virtual interactions. Building on that work, we consider the complex interplay between the emerging identity of the place, the children’s engagement with the experiences, and the connections the children made through their play. The playgroups at this children’s museum have offered us new perspectives on and learnings about young children’s literate practices through digital experiences and the unique opportunities for playing, learning and connecting with technologies.
{"title":"Looking more closely at the Children’s Technology Play Space: Bringing space, bodies, materials and knowing together through investigation with microscopes","authors":"Lisa Kervin, Jessica Mantei, Maria Clara Selina Rivera, Lois Peach","doi":"10.1177/14687984251380651","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14687984251380651","url":null,"abstract":"This paper shares an account of our wonderings, happenings, and learnings emerging from encounters between children, iPads, digital microscopes and found natural materials (and bugs!) in a series of workshops at a children’s museum. Our intention is to build on and disrupt established theories about children’s museums by thinking differently and creatively about new ways of seeing, knowing, and understanding children’s literate practices in these spaces. We have written before about children’s interactions as social practices where material (human and non-human), discursive, and spatial resources come together through physical and virtual interactions. Building on that work, we consider the complex interplay between the emerging identity of the place, the children’s engagement with the experiences, and the connections the children made through their play. The playgroups at this children’s museum have offered us new perspectives on and learnings about young children’s literate practices through digital experiences and the unique opportunities for playing, learning and connecting with technologies.","PeriodicalId":47033,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Early Childhood Literacy","volume":"17 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145116356","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-09-18DOI: 10.1177/14687984251380967
Tarah Connolly
Children’s museums are delightful, whimsical, and joyful places, but they are undertheorized. This limits our capacity to fully leverage children’s museums as spaces for expansive visions of literacy learning. It also limits our examination of the potential harms enacted by children’s museums. To theorize the children’s museum, I take Ash’s framework for reculturing museums as a starting point. Using Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) plus critiques of neoliberalism and deficit logics, I argue that children’s museums are complex activity systems that aim to negotiate the literacy-related objectives of families, schools, and other sites of learning. Neoliberal ideologies and deficit logics inform these negotiations. I analyze two contradictions: (1) between the mediational means of play and the objective of learning, and (2) between the rules/norms of children’s museums and the diverse communities they serve. To close, I reflect on potential pathways for reculturing children’s museums toward more justice-oriented practices.
{"title":"Theorizing the Children’s Museum: CHAT, literacies, and the family-centered children’s museum","authors":"Tarah Connolly","doi":"10.1177/14687984251380967","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14687984251380967","url":null,"abstract":"Children’s museums are delightful, whimsical, and joyful places, but they are undertheorized. This limits our capacity to fully leverage children’s museums as spaces for expansive visions of literacy learning. It also limits our examination of the potential harms enacted by children’s museums. To theorize the children’s museum, I take Ash’s framework for reculturing museums as a starting point. Using Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) plus critiques of neoliberalism and deficit logics, I argue that children’s museums are complex activity systems that aim to negotiate the literacy-related objectives of families, schools, and other sites of learning. Neoliberal ideologies and deficit logics inform these negotiations. I analyze two contradictions: (1) between the mediational means of play and the objective of learning, and (2) between the rules/norms of children’s museums and the diverse communities they serve. To close, I reflect on potential pathways for reculturing children’s museums toward more justice-oriented practices.","PeriodicalId":47033,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Early Childhood Literacy","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-09-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145084273","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-09-16DOI: 10.1177/14687984251381502
Lisa Kervin, Lois Peach, Nicola Wallis, Jill Castek
{"title":"Curating childhood—literacy, play, and meaning-making in museum spaces","authors":"Lisa Kervin, Lois Peach, Nicola Wallis, Jill Castek","doi":"10.1177/14687984251381502","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14687984251381502","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47033,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Early Childhood Literacy","volume":"53 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145072763","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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