Multimodal Lifeworlds: Pedagogies for Play Inquiries and Explorations

In this paper, we advocate a reconceptualisation of early learning in the 21st century in the form of multimodal lifeworlds. We review the research literature on the role of new technologies for young children’s learning, both in their homes and in educational contexts. We contend that, in order to make our work accessible, and to describe the ways in which digital artefacts can create new contexts for learning, we should foreground the learning that is possible in contemporary multimodal learning ecologies. We raise complex questions and issues that require consideration as we plan for pedagogies that will encourage, support and transform children’s learning. The paper presents an understanding of new and continually evolving technologies as artefacts that inhabit the contemporary child’s lifeworld. These resources form part of their suite of learning devices, which impact on children’s identities, learning ecologies and how they make meanings of self. Finally, we present a possible conceptualization, which combines these elements that are relevant for pedagogical planning, discussed in the article, to consider how new technologies, as social, cultural and personal artefacts can contribute to children’s learning ecologies

Global Childhoods, Asian Lifeworlds: After School Time in Hong Kong

Explores home spaces through a cultural lens, asking questions about eastern and western perceptions of home learning

Children’s everyday lifeworlds out of school, in Hong Kong, Melbourne, and Singapore: Family, enrichment activities, and local communities

Children’s everyday lives beyond school need to be considered holistically, in a way which moves beyond time use. In this article we draw on our adaptation of Sarah Pink’s (e.g. 2012) video re-enactment methodology for considering children’s out-of-school lifeworlds with Year 4 children (9 and 10 years old) in the global cities of Hong Kong, Melbourne, and Singapore. The data presented and discussed here was part of a larger Global Childhoods Project with children in the three global cities of Melbourne, Hong Kong, and Singapore. We use video re-enactment methodology to ‘think with’, to open up lines of inquiry and create conversations about children’s lives in and between the cities. Through these we consider the specifics of each city context, as well as socioeconomic and sociocultural contexts and factors that may impact differently on children’s everyday lifeworlds out-of-school within the same city. In order to focus the scope of the article, we consider family routines, enrichment activities and local communities, as aspects that we find useful to reflect on when exploring what children’s lives look like, in and across locations. We focus on these as we are interested in how they might add to the complexities of thinking about children in each location. We move between thinking about the re-enactments themselves and broader literature to explore children’s out-of-school lifeworlds in the three cities, painting a picture of children’s lives and considering the contexts which make particular activities and practices possible and desirable

The early years technological landscape : reflecting on digital childhoods for pedagogic planning

This paper focuses on technology use in early childhood: how we define new technologies; how technologies are shaping childhoods; and what we mean by play with technologies. We describe the contemporary landscapes, that have the potential to enrich children’s early experiences. We build on ecological explorations of technology use in the early years (Arnott, 2016); broadening understandings of technologies (Bers and Horn, 2010; Livingstone et al., 2015) and a decade-long progression of work on play in the digital age (Yelland, 1999; 2011). We adopt a framework of cultural capital (Bourdieu 1993, 1998) which postulates that educational centres play a critical and increasingly pervasive role in perpetuating the advantage of specific knowledge and skills that are valued by society across generations. The empirical elements of the paper used participant observation to create narratives of everyday practice (Mikos cited in Struppert 2011). Appropriate ethical consents were obtain and data disseminated in line with the EECERA Ethical Code (2015). The paper present three findings. We suggest that definitions of ‘new technologies’ must move beyond screen-based media to authentically capture their place in children’s lives (Arnott, 2017). We argue that the multifaceted nature of technologies is altering the ways in which children learn (Karagiannidou 2017). We conclude with empirical examples of this shift in the learning process to describe how the nature of children’s play has become multimodal (Yelland and Gilbert 2017). The paper provides a theoretical foundation within which to position explorations of children’s use of new technologies as part of digital childhoods

Being flexible about flexible learning and flexible delivery

"Flexible delivery" has been endorsed by universities, who variously argue for the need to respond to the changing demands of students, the need to embrace technology, the need to secure market share in teacher education, and the need to meet budgetary constraints. However, the needs of universities, cannot be considered in isolation from the societal need for quality teachers education graduates who have the knowledge and skills to prepare their students for the demands of the 21st century. This paper explores three key issues that confront teacher educators involved in planning, implementing and resourcing a flexibly delivered mathematics curriculum unit versus the face-to-face delivery of the same unit