Nomadic writing : exploring processes of writing in early childhood education

This thesis explores how writing is made in two Swedish early childhood classrooms with a focus on how processes of writing are constituted in the writing event and what writings and writers the event offers potentials for. Theoretically, the research project takes its starting point in the assumption that processes of writing are an effect of relations between different elements, where the young writer is only one part of many human and non-human matters that make way for multiple becomings of writing and writers. In this context, the figuration of the nomad thought of Deleuze and Guattari is particularly applicable as it builds on the assumption that everything is always connected, continuously moving. The questions addressed are how the processes of writers, text-like writings and educational writing processes emerge, continue and transform in the writing event, and what writers, text-like writings and educational writing processes the event offers potentials for. The thesis consists of three research articles based on different empirical data. The first article builds on data from the thinking and talking about writing and the writing child in scholarly literature since the 19th century. The second and third articles are based on analyses of ethnographic documentation of six- to seven-year-olds’ writing activities in two early childhood classrooms. The ethnographic strategies of the audio and video recordings, field notes, informal interviews and the collection of children’s text-like writings were carried out over a period of one and a half year during which the children moved from preschool class to their first year of school. The findings of the first article suggest that the image of the ideal writing and the ideal writer has changed over time. However, the image of the young writer training for adult life predominates over time. The main result of the second article shows in specific ways that the mutual production of stabilizing processes of writing and processes of experimentation are vital components for becomings of writers and writing, irrespective of pedagogical framings. The finding of the third article illustrates how the teaching method of creative writing produced over time creates multiple pedagogical trajectories of “doing method” and “doing creativity”. The thesis posits nomadic writing as a way to account for the movement, the connectivity and change in the processes of writing, thus contributing to an understanding of how the processes of writing create potentialities for multiple becomings of writers and writing

Disembodied voice and embodied affect : e-reading in early childhood education

This article is based on observations made in a Swedish digital early childhood classroom during reading time. The question of ‘what is happening’ in the digital classroom when six-year-olds read a fictional electronic book is explored through video observations focusing on children learning to read by engaging in e-books. Informed by affect, as described by Baruch de Spinoza and interpreted by Gilles Deleuze, this article provides a way to attend to the highly dynamic encounters between bodies, ideas and materiality that characterize the children’s engagement in e-reading. The analysis suggests that the digital voice is a vital component for activating engagement in and a drive for reading through the moments and movements of embodied reading when children co-read a fictional e-book on their own. Focusing on how e-book reading is enacted in the educational everyday reading practices, this article is an empirically grounded contribution to the understanding of how e-reading is constituted in contemporary digital classroom in all its complexity

Images of writing and the writing child

This article uses a discursive lens to illuminate how writing and the writing child is constructed in different texts since the nineteenth century. The concept ‘image’ is used as an analytical tool to gain perspective on dominant ideas about children as writers and their educational writing practices. These images are produced in educational practices, theories of writing, societal conceptions and didactic models, which together are referred to as a formation. The article ends by reflecting upon what consequences may be seen if taking a critical child perspective. The article provides an analysis against which writing teachers, teacher educators and researchers can gain a perspective on dominant ideas about young writers and their educational writing practices

Images of writing and the writing child

This article uses a discursive lens to illuminate how writing and the writing child is constructed in different texts since the nineteenth century. The concept ‘image’ is used as an analytical tool to gain perspective on dominant ideas about children as writers and their educational writing practices. These images are produced in educational practices, theories of writing, societal conceptions and didactic models, which together are referred to as a formation. The article ends by reflecting upon what consequences may be seen if taking a critical child perspective. The article provides an analysis against which writing teachers, teacher educators and researchers can gain a perspective on dominant ideas about young writers and their educational writing practices

Images of Writing and the Writing Child

This article uses a discursive lens to illuminate how writing and the writing child is constructed in different texts since the nineteenth century. The concept ‘image’ is used as an analytical tool to gain perspective on dominant ideas about children as writers and their educational writing practices. These images are produced in educational practices, theories of writing, societal conceptions and didactic models, which together are referred to as a formation. The article ends by reflecting upon what consequences may be seen if taking a critical child perspective. The article provides an analysis against which writing teachers, teacher educators and researchers can gain a perspective on dominant ideas about young writers and their educational writing practices

Den dagliga situationsanpassningen : Lärares hantering av tid, rum och teknik i skolan

Denna studie är ett bidrag i förståelsen av situationsanpassat arbete. Studien illustrerar hur lärare i olika situationer måste hantera tid, rum och teknik som formativa krafter, krafter som bidrar till att forma lärarnas arbete. Resultatet baseras på en bearbetning av de data som samlades in vid sju observationerna varvid nio tidsmässigt avgränsade situationer, kallade settings, analyserats med stor noggrannhet. Resultatet visar hur tid, rum och teknik utgör möjligheter såväl som hinder, vilka lärarna måste hantera i sitt dagliga arbete. Ökad medvetenhet kring lärarvardagens arbetsvillkor och hur villkoren formar lärares arbetsvardag kommer förhoppningsvis att öka deras möjligheter att hantera det situationsanpassade arbetet

En klassrumsintervention om deltagande skrivande

Språket kan vara ett redskap för demokrati, och att skriva är ett sätt att nyttja sin yttrandefrihet. För att alla elever ska kunna, vilja och våga skriva för att delta bör skrivundervisning vara allsidig och riktad mot deltagande skrivande. Hur kan en sådan skrivundervisning se ut? Denna presentation beskriver och diskuterar preliminära resultat från en klassrumsintervention som syftar till att öka mellanstadieelevers förmåga att använda skrivandet som ett verktyg för att skapa och uttrycka sin röst i klassrummet såväl som i samhället. Genom en medskapande cyklisk design utvecklade lärare, elever och forskare tillsammans en intervention där den dagliga skrivundervisningen i en mellanstadieklass fokuserar olika aspekter av deltagande skrivande under en tre-veckorsperiod. Interventionen grundas i teorier om hur attityder och värderingar uttrycks i text, hur röster från människor och andra texter samspelar i en text (Bachtin, 1997; Martin &amp; White, 2005) samt teorier om inflytande och delaktighet (Arnstein, 1969). Fokus var att skapa möjligheter för elever att utveckla sin förmåga att hitta och formulera budskap i texter; att utveckla sin språkliga repertoar för att beskriva saker, personer och händelser; samt för att utveckla förmågan att argumentera i skrift genom att stödja sina argument med andras röster. Interventionen följdes genom observationer, intervjuer, fältanteckningar och insamling av elevtexter. En första analys av materialet indikerar dels att eleverna upplever sig ha fått fler ord för att uttrycka sig och gradera sina tankar och åsikter, dels att olika medier och modaliteter stimulerade elevernas motivation till att delta genom skrivande. Referenser:  Arnstein, S. (1969) A Ladder Of Citizen Participation, Journal of the American Planning Association, 35(4):216-224. Bachtin, M. (1997). Det dialogiska ordet. Gråbo: Bokförlaget Anthropos AB. Martin, J., &amp; White, P. (2005). The language of evaluation: Appraisal in English. Palgrave Macmillan.Symposium: (W)rights! Skrivande som näring för demokratin</p