Literacy as social practice

In this chapter, I explore the concept of literacy as social and cultural practice and apply its relevance and significance to early childhood educators. Young children's understandings about literacy develop within their sociocultural and linguistic communities. As children move across these communities, they encounter a variety of literacies and literacy practices. Many of these literacies are multimodal technologically based, requiring simultaneous and combined uses of visual, audio and critical meaning systems. The discussion that follows examines literacy as a social construction by drawing attention to the historical, social, cultural and political factors that affect our use of and understandings about literacy. In addition, by drawing on post-structual and critical theoretical frameworks, the connections between literacy, power and inequality in early childhood education are highlighted. Children's experiences with these new literacies bring them into contact with globalisation and the narratives of popular culture, which have a significant impact on their identity in everyday life. In order for early childhood and primary educators to maximise children's early literacy learning, a range of implications for practice are presented.]]