The teachers' perspective on promoting children's learning opportunities in the area of multiliteracy

The different forms of creating, sharing and analysing information have globally evolved and expanded in meaning. Previous research suggests that teachers have found it challenging to integrate these new forms of communication into their teaching practices. The pedagogy of multiliteracy, which the new Finnish core curriculum emphasizes, has been one of the measures taken towards meeting these changes. The role of the teacher is central in promoting multiliteracy, as the given support and guidance affect the child's motivation, attitudes and interest in the learning process. The aim of the study is to explore how teachers in early childhood education, pre-primary and primary education (Year 1-2) define multiliteracy and how their understanding is reflected in different teaching practices, which aim to promote children's learning opportunities in the area of multiliteracy. The need for this study is important as little research exists on teachers' understanding of the concept of multiliteracy in their teaching. This study draws upon a research and development program The joy of learning multiliteracies (MOI), at the University of Helsinki. The theoretical framework of the study is based on the pedagogy of multiliteracy and the dynamic literacy theory. The qualitative research design was selected to get an insight into teachers' experiences and thoughts. The study has been conducted by using semi-structured interviews based on video-stimulated recall and a group interview to investigate seven teachers' definition on multiliteracy. The results of the study suggest that the teachers have formed their own views of the concept multiliteracy and that these interpretations are visible in their teaching practices. Multiliteracy was defined by the teachers as a wide multimodal ability to express oneself, which requires children to be able to analyse, interpret and apply diverse forms of information and communication. The children's curiosity and joy are perceived as the foundation for promoting multiliteracy. The teachers' own commitment and enthusiasm were considered crucial. Digital tools and implementing of media education were emphasized as one of the development areas regarding multiliteracy. The ability to take into account the cultural contexts of texts, were in accordance with the Finnish curriculum, yet the teachers did not recognise it as a part of multiliteracy. Cultural literacy is however an important part of the pedagogy of multiliteracy. The results of the study confirm that further reinforcement of teachers' expertise in developing multiliteracy is essential both in working life and in teacher education, especially regarding how to include and promote cultural literacy.Globalt sett har formerna för att skapa, behandla, tolka och sprida information utvecklats och förnyats. Tidigare forskning visar att pedagoger upplevt det som utmanande att inkludera mångfalden av kommunikationsmedel i den pedagogiska verksamheten. Multilitteracitet, som lyfts fram som ett skilt begrepp i de nya grunderna för läroplanen, har varit en åtgärd för dessa förändringar och utmaningar inom utbildningsväsendet. Pedagogens roll är central i främjandet av multilitteracitet, då hens stöd och handledning inverkar på barnets motivation, attityd och intresse för lärandeprocessen. Syftet med denna studie är att kartlägga hur pedagoger inom småbarnspedagogiken, förskoleundervisningen och nybörjarundervisningen (åk 1-2) uppfattar multilitteracitet som en del av den pedagogiska verksamheten samt hur detta avspeglas i olika pedagogiska verksamheters innehåll för att stöda multilitteracitet. Studiens fokus är betydelsefull, då det genomförts lite forskning om pedagogers syn på främjandet av multilitteracitet. Denna avhandling har gjorts i samarbete med Helsingfors universitets utvecklingsprogram Inlärning av multilitteracitet med glädje. Studiens teoretiska bakgrund baserar sig på teorin om multilitteracitet och teorin om dynamisk litteracitet. För att nå insikt i pedagogernas individuella upplevelser om att främja multilitteracitet valdes en kvalitativ forskningsdesign. Semi-strukturerade intervjuer med hjälp av intervjumetoden video-stimulated recall samt en gruppintervju användes som datainsamlingsmetod för att framhäva sju pedagogers upplevelser om att främja multilitteracitet. Resultaten av studien bekräftar att pedagogerna hade bildat en uppfattning om begreppet multilitteracitet och att denna uppfattning avspeglades i den pedagogiska verksamheten. Multilitteracitet beskrevs som en multimodal uttrycksförmåga, som förutsatte av barnen en förmåga att tolka och tillämpa mångfalden av kommunikationsmedel i det omgivande samhället. Barnens nyfikenhet och glädje ansågs höra till grunden för att främja multilitteracitet. Pedagogens engagemang och intresse uppmärksammades även som centrala. Ett utvecklingsbehov som pedagogerna betonade var implementering av digitala verktyg och mediefostran som en del av verksamheten. Pedagoger uppmärksammade i enlighet med finska läroplanen texters kulturella sammanhang. Trots detta uppfattade de inte kulturell läsförmåga som en del av multilitteracitet. Den kulturella läsförmågan är dock central inom multilitteracitetens pedagogik. Resultaten tyder helhetsmässigt på ett behov av att i fortsättningen erbjuda utbildning om främjandet av multilitteracitet både för pedagoger i arbetslivet samt inom lärarutbildning, speciellt gällande sambandet med att inkludera och främja kulturell läsförmåga

Children’s Augmented Storying in, with and for Nature

Drawing on a relational ontology and scholarship of new literacies, we investigate the materiality and performativity of children’s augmented storying in nature. Our study is situated in a Finnish primary school in which a novel, augmented reality application (MyAR Julle) was utilized as a digital storytelling tool for children (n = 62, aged 7–9), allowing them to explore, interact, and imagine in nature and to create/share their stories. The data corpus consists of their narrations of their augmented stories in nature, their augmented story artefacts, and video/observational data from their construction of such stories in nature. Narrative analysis reveals how the children’s augmented storying in nature was performed through playful, affective, and sensuous, identity, cultural, and critical literacies, which were imaginatively constructed into being at the nexus of their sensed reality and fantasy. These literacies make visible human–material–spatial–temporal assemblages during which the children played with/through the augmented character Julle, felt and sensed with/through Julle, and re-storied their experiences, cultural knowledge, and identities with/through Julle. They also engaged in critical thinking with/through Julle. The study contributes to knowledge on the meaning of materiality in children’s storying in, with, and for nature and the educational possibilities of augmented storying for children’s (eco)literacies

Children’s Augmented Storying in, with and for Nature

Drawing on a relational ontology and scholarship of new literacies, we investigate the materiality and performativity of children’s augmented storying in nature. Our study is situated in a Finnish primary school in which a novel, augmented reality application (MyAR Julle) was utilized as a digital storytelling tool for children (n = 62, aged 7–9), allowing them to explore, interact, and imagine in nature and to create/share their stories. The data corpus consists of their narrations of their augmented stories in nature, their augmented story artefacts, and video/observational data from their construction of such stories in nature. Narrative analysis reveals how the children’s augmented storying in nature was performed through playful, affective, and sensuous, identity, cultural, and critical literacies, which were imaginatively constructed into being at the nexus of their sensed reality and fantasy. These literacies make visible human–material–spatial–temporal assemblages during which the children played with/through the augmented character Julle, felt and sensed with/through Julle, and re-storied their experiences, cultural knowledge, and identities with/through Julle. They also engaged in critical thinking with/through Julle. The study contributes to knowledge on the meaning of materiality in children’s storying in, with, and for nature and the educational possibilities of augmented storying for children’s (eco)literacies

'I could smell the sound of winter' : Children's aesthetic experiences in their local forest through digital storying

Peer reviewe

Children’s emotional experiences in and about nature across temporal–spatial entanglements during digital storying

In this study, we investigate how digital storying creates opportunities for children to attend to their emotional experiences in and about nature. Following relational ontology and socio-cultural theorising, we focus our analysis on the temporal–spatial entanglements of children's emotional experiences. Our inquiry draws on a case study of two children at a Finnish primary school. Liam and Vera engaged in digital storying in their local forest using an augmented storycrafting app, MyAR Julle. The data were collected during two storying workshops by means of observational field notes, video recordings, interviews with the children and digital artefacts. The results illustrate how engaging in the narrative plot of a fictitious augmented character invited the children to create necessary open-endedness in the activity which further stimulated their storying. The children's experiences were imbued with emotions and distributed across human and non-human actors. The children's digital storying not only communicated their personal emotional experiences in local surroundings, but was also grounded in broader societal narratives, such as climate change and forest conservation, with considerations of the future of the planet. The results suggest how digital storying offers a pedagogical method for early environmental education that builds on children's emotional experiences.Peer reviewe

Mapping digital competence : Students' maker literacies in a school's makerspace

This study investigates and maps students' maker literacies as they relate to digital competence. The study builds on sociocultural theorizing and on the scholarship of digital literacy that defines maker literacies as social practices that entail making and remaking artifacts and texts using various materials and technologies. Through a detailed multimodal analysis of video data from an ethnographic case study of students' (N:11) interaction in an elementary school's makerspace in Finland, our study presents and applies a framework of analysis for maker literacies and discusses how the school's makerspace enhanced the students' digital competence across operational, cultural, and critical dimensions. The study shows how the makerspace context afforded the students ample opportunities to engage in the operational dimension of maker literacies. However, there was less engagement in cultural and critical literacies. The implications of these findings for students' digital competence in makerspaces are discussed.Peer reviewe

Empathetic encounters of children’s augmented storying across the human and more-than-human worlds

This study brings empathy to the centre of literacy practice by investigating children's augmented storying as it was related to empathetic encounters across the human and more-than-human worlds. The study applies sociomaterial theorising that defines empathy as relational and emergent across human-material-spatial-temporal assemblages. The empirical study was situated in a Finnish primary school in which children used an augmented story-crafting tool (MyAR Julle) to explore their local environment and to create and share their stories. The findings show how empathy emerged situationally across the children, other human beings, materials, technology and the natural world. The empathetic encounters of the children's narratives were more than romantic or smooth encounters, instead competing and in tension with one another, calling moral reasoning and agency. The study shows the potential of sociomaterial theorising to change the way we think about children's encounters with the world, using empathy as a framework.Peer reviewe

Kurittomat palaset : Monilukutaitoa opitaan ilolla

Denna bok är skapad för alla vuxna som är intresserade av att främja små barns multilitteracitet. Vi har gett den här boken namnet Bångstyriga bitar: Inlärning av multilitteracitet med glädje. ”Bångstyriga bitar” är ett bildligt uttryck och ett pedagogiskt verktyg som vi utvecklat för att efterlysa fantasi och kreativitet hos barn och vuxna i undervisningen och inlärningen av multilitteracitet. De material som baserar sig på Bångstyriga bitar är öppna till sin natur och kan tillämpas mångsidigt. Vi hoppas att de Bångstyriga bitarna vi utvecklat kommer till liv på många olika sätt i barns och vuxnas gemensamma verksamhet, och att nya former för undervisning och inlärning av multilitteracitet med glädje växer fram

Rådarens gåta

Rådarens gåta består av en samling lekfulla, multilitterära material. Målet med Rådarens gåta är att öka barns intresse och medvetenhet om miljöfrågor, samt kompetens i ekologisk litteracitet och multilitteracitet. Genom de pedagodiska materialen och en saga som kopplar till finska myter, kan barnen undersöka och reflektera över miljö- och klimatfrågor. Sagan börjar med att åskans rådare Ukko en dag tappar kontrollen över vädret. Barnens uppgift är att ta reda på vad detta kan bero på och att skapa fantasifulla lösningar för att hjälpa Ukko att bli glad igen och återfå kontrollen över vädret. Totalt består processen av sju pedagogiska aktiviteter, som utförs både i och utanför klassrummet, innefattande lärarens vägledning, barns explorativa lärande samt gruppdiskussioner. I materialet ingår instruktioner för aktiviteterna, exempelfrågor för gruppdiskussionerna, samt pysselrekvisita. Denna lärandeupplevelse bygger vidare på det tidigare materialet från Rådarens viskning. I Rådarens gåta möter vi åter åskans rådare Ukko, skogens rådare Tapio, vattnets rådare Vetehinen och den forntida Siaren

Riddle of the Spirit

Riddle of the Spirit is a set of playful multiliteracy materials designed to develop children's interest and understanding of issues related to climate change and the environment, as well as promoting children's ecological literacies and, more broadly, multiliteracies. With the material, children can discuss and reflect on themes related to climate change and the environment through a story based on Finnish myths. In the story, Ukko, the thunderstorm spirit, loses control of the weather. The children’s goal is to find out the reasons for this loss and to create imaginative solutions to help Ukko to be well and able to control the weather once more. In total, this learning journey consists of seven pedagogical activities to be realised in the classroom and/or outdoors. The activities are also suitable for children's afternoon club activities as well as for learning at home. The project includes activity instructions, questions to support the discussion, and templates for props making. The Riddle of the Spirit material is a continuation of the Whisper of the Spirit material in the world with Ukko the thunderstorm spirit, Tapio the forest spirit, Vetehinen the water spirit and Myrrysmies the ancient wizard