Questioning sociocultural approaches to young children's literacy learning in a global/local context : a photographic case study

Abstract

Sociocultural theory is becoming increasingly important in Early Childhood Education (ECE) for improving young children's literacy learning, especially for children in disadvantaged communities. Many studies about sociocultural theory have been undertaken in ECE. This study investigates young children's sociocultural literacy practices in a global/local context. The particular case that is the focus of this study is the Futuro Infantil Hoy (FIH) Program - "Children's future is today". The FIH Program is a transnational public-private educational intervention established by the Fundacion Minera Escondida (a social agency established by BHP Billiton) and the University of Western Sydney (Australia). As a community capacity building project in ECE, the FIH Program has been working to strengthen educational leadership and pedagogy in 20 early childhood centres (ECCs) in extremely poor communities in the city of Antofagasta (Northern Chile). This study focuses on the five pilot ECCs in the FIH Program. The research reported in this thesis draws on Ranciere's (2009, 2010) concepts to develop a theoretical framework to address the question of learning in terms of the debate over intellectual in/equality. This provides the basis for analysing primary evidence which enables the questioning of sociocultural approaches to young children's literacy learning in the global/local context of the Australian-Chilean program. Of course, it would be unreasonable to expect that the problems of poverty, inequality and education could be solved by the FIH Program. But as this thesis shows, it does provide insights into the opportunities children from disadvantaged communities need to learn. The thesis argues that more is likely to be achieved if such programs acknowledge - and engage with - the intelligence and conceptual knowledge of members of disadvantaged communities. Often this is unrecognised and undervalued.

Date of Award	2014
Original language	English