Already at a disadvantage? ICT in the home and children's preparation for primary school. (ICT Research Bursaries 2004 - Final Report)

The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of socio-economic disadvantage on pre-school children's development of competences in information and communications technologies (ICT). The study focuses on children's experiences of ICT in the home and in pre-school settings in the year before they begin formal education, and seeks to investigate concepts of advantage and disadvantage in this context. The study also aims to investigate teachers' perceptions of children's ICT competences on entry to school

“Carbon literacy practices”: textual footprints between school and home in children’s construction of knowledge about climate change

This paper examines the notion of “carbon literacy practices” through reporting on a small research project aimed at understanding how children make sense of climate change, and their subsequent related practices at school, at home, and in the community. Drawing on a background in New Literacy Studies (e.g. Barton et al 2000; Satchwell & Ivanic 2009 and 2010), the paper explores the relationships among children’s understanding of climate change, their literacy practices in relation to climate change, and their environmental social practices. Data is included from a project involving children and their families from three primary schools – with and without “eco-school” status, which asked: What and how do children learn about climate change at school? What and how do they learn at home and outside of school? How do these kinds of learning relate to each other, and how is what they learn put into practice? Put simply, how might children become “carbon literate” citizens? This article will report on the methodological challenges of the project and the use of some innovative methods to address these using mobile technologies. In addition, the paper interrogates the notion of children as agents of change. The concept of children influencing the behaviour of others sounds convincing, but is based on a straightforward model, described by Shove (2010) as the ABC model – which is considered an effective strategy in health care (stopping parents smoking) and in marketing (persuading parents to buy certain products), but is not necessarily transferable to other contexts. Further, it is clear from work in literacy studies and education (Ivanic et al 2009; Gee 2003; Reinking et al 1998; Tuomi-Grohn and Engestrom 2003) that the transfer of linguistic and semiotic signs is by no means equivalent to the transfer of knowledge, values or functions. In other words, a school lesson or a computer game about climate change and its effects does not automatically mean that a child will turn the lights off at home. The paper considers these issues with reference to qualitative data collected from observations, conversations on “Twitter”, focus groups, and individual interviews

Children's media cultures in comparative perspective

This handbook offers a comprehensive overview of the complexity and diversity of audience studies in the advent of digital media

Family Mediating Practices and Ideologies: Spanish and Portuguese Parents of Children Under Three and Digital Media in Homes

This chapter seeks to gain an understanding of how parents accompany their very young children aged under three into ‘digital society’ by examining their mediating practices and ideologies regarding the children’s digital activities. It draws on diverse data (observations/video-recordings and interviews with parents at home) from cases of five middle-class family children in Spain and Portugal. The data was collected in 2017 following the protocol developed for A Day in the Digital Lives of 0-3 Year-Olds [Gillen et al. 2019 A day in the digital lives of children aged 0-3. Full report: DigiLitEY ISCH COST Action 1410 Working Group 1: Digital Literacy in Homes and Communities. http://www.research.lancs.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/-(19b42af9-7828-4950-afca-69fdce62702e).html.]. We problematise the complex relationship between parental beliefs, self-perceptions and actual practices regarding the place of digital technologies in children’s lives and development. We do so by examining mediation as an emergent process in which family members co-create the interactional ecologies [Kyratzis and Johnson (Linguistics and Education 41:1–6, 2017); Erickson (Discourse, learning, and schooling. Cambridge University Press, 1996)], and by seeing mediation as a set of strategies within family routines [Livingstone (Computers in Human Behavior, 23:920–941, 2007)]. Specifically, we analyse mediation at the levels of the digital media ecology/environment in the home [Plowman (Interacting with Computers 27:36–46, 2015)], the actual digital media activities and mediation practices, and the parents’ broader media ideologies and beliefs on technologies [Gershon (Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 20:283–293, 2010)], to explore the relations and contradictions between these levels

A hidden world of song: Spontaneous singing in the everyday lives of three- and four-year-old children at home

This study explores the spontaneous singing of three- and four-year-old children at home, with emphasis on how young children use singing in their everyday lives. Spontaneous singing pervades the everyday lives of young children and can provide insights into a child's musical and extra-musical experience at home. Although several studies have examined spontaneous singing in educational settings, young children's musical lives at home are rarely studied in detail. The home is a difficult space to access, and data collection methods often rely on parental reporting. As a result, some types of singing have been overlooked. Located within the sociocultural theoretical tradition, this thesis draws on and develops theories of musical agency to explore how children act musically to engage with others and manage their own experience. Audio data were collected using LENA all-day recording technology supplemented by semi-structured parental interviews. Over 183 hours of audio recording were collected from 15 children (7 boys, 8 girls), aged between 3:0 and 4:10 years (average age 3:8). The children were recorded for continuous periods during their normal everyday routines. The recordings contained more than nine hours of spontaneous singing in total. The data were analysed using qualitative thematic analysis with an element of embedded numerical analysis. Interpretive analysis indicated that the children sang to act on themselves and manage social interactions. Spontaneous singing was used as a tool through which the children could realise personal and social agency and influence themselves and others. The children used different modes of singing in social and solitary contexts, demonstrating knowledge of culturally meaningful ways of singing. The home musical environment, and particularly parental singing, appeared to influence the way young children use singing in their everyday lives. This research used an innovative methodology to access young children’s singing in the home. The findings contribute to a greater understanding of young children’s musical behaviours and the home musical lives of young children. Further, the thesis provides an original contribution to the understanding of how young children use spontaneous singing as musical agents acting in and on the world around them. This research has educational implications relating to the way young children’s musicality is understood and encouraged and the importance of music in young children’s lives