Strolling through the (post)modern city: Modes of being a flaneur in picture books

The city and the urban condition, popular subjects of art, literature, and film, have been commonly represented as fragmented, isolating, violent, with silent crowds moving through the hustle and bustle of a noisy, polluted cityspace. Included in this diverse artistic field is children’s literature—an area of creative and critical inquiry that continues to play a central role in illuminating and shaping perceptions of the city, of city lifestyles, and of the people who traverse the urban landscape. Fiction’s textual representations of cities, its sites and sights, lifestyles and characters have drawn on traditions of realist, satirical, and fantastic writing to produce the protean urban story—utopian, dystopian, visionary, satirical—with the goal of offering an account or critique of the contemporary city and the urban condition. In writing about cities and urban life, children’s literature variously locates the child in relation to the social (urban) space. This dialogic relation between subject and social space has been at the heart of writings about/of the flâneur: a figure who experiences modes of being in the city as it transforms under the influences of modernism and postmodernism. Within this context of a changing urban ontology brought about by (post)modern styles and practices, this article examines five contemporary picture books: The Cows Are Going to Paris by David Kirby and Allen Woodman; Ooh-la-la (Max in love) by Maira Kalman; Mr Chicken Goes to Paris and Old Tom’s Holiday by Leigh Hobbs; and The Empty City by David Megarrity. I investigate the possibility of these texts reviving the act of flânerie, but in a way that enables different modes of being a flâneur, a neo-flâneur. I suggest that the neo-flâneur retains some of the characteristics of the original flâneur, but incorporates others that take account of the changes wrought by postmodernity and globalization, particularly tourism and consumption. The dual issue at the heart of the discussion is that tourism and consumption as agents of cultural globalization offer a different way of thinking about the phenomenon of flânerie. While the flâneur can be regarded as the precursor to the tourist, the discussion considers how different modes of flânerie, such as the tourist-flâneur, are an inevitable outcome of commodification of the activities that accompany strolling through the (post)modern urban space

The challenges of participatory research with 'tech-savvy' youth

This paper focuses on participatory research and how it can be understood and employed when researching children and youth. The aim of this paper is to provide a theoretically and empirically grounded discussion of participatory research methodologies with respect to investigating the dynamic and evolving phenomenon of young people growing up in networked societies. Initially, we review the nature of participatory research and how other researchers have endeavoured to involve young people (children and youth) in their research projects. Our review of these approaches aims to elucidate what we see as recurring and emerging issues with respect to the methodological design of involving young people as co-researchers. In the light of these issues and in keeping with our aim, we offer a case study of our own research project that seeks to understand the ways in which high school students use new media and network ICT systems (Internet, mobile phone applications, social networking sites) to construct identities, form social relations, and engage in creative practices as part of their everyday lives. The article concludes by offering an assessment of our tripartite model of participatory research that may benefit other researchers who share a similar interest in youth and new media

No Place Like...: Home and School as Contested Spaces in Little Soldier and Idiot Pride

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Picture Books as Performative Texts: Or How to do Things with Words and Pictures

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Writing Strategies of Skilled ESL Writers: A Protocol Analysis

This study presents the findings of the composing processes of four skilled ESL writers. The study first examines the theoretical perspectives about writing process. It then describes the writing strategies that skilled ESL' writers in the TESL Matriculation programme of Universiti Putra Malaysia employ in the course of their writing. Data collected was in the form of writers' think aloud protocols and their completed compositions. The writing strategies were identified and the results were examined with a writing taxonomy procured from the 3 models of writing put forward by Flower and Hayes' (1981), Bereiter and Scardamalia (1987) and Biggs (1988). This study confirms that composing is a non-linear process in which writers have the opportunity to be recursive writers. It was found that while some writing strategies were uniform among the four skilled ESL writers of this study I some writing strategies were used by one or two writers only. It was also found that writers' cognitive abilities and cognitive approaches are much more critical than linguistic competence in writing. This paves way for the assumption that good writing strategies can be taught to less skilled writers. The present study also indicates that some of the writing strategies of skilled Malaysian pre-tertiary level ESL writers identified in this study were similar to findings of previous related research involving unskilled writers

Toddlers' food preferences: The impact of novel food exposure, maternal preferences and food neophobia

Food preferences have been identified as a key determinant of children’s food acceptance and consumption. The aim of this study was to identify factors that influence children’s liking for fruits, vegetables and non-core foods. Participants were Australian mothers (median age at delivery=31 years, 18-46 years) and their two-year-old children (M=25 months, SD=1 month; 52% female) allocated to the control group (N=230) of the NOURISH RCT. The effects of repeated exposure to new foods, maternal food preferences and child food neophobia on toddlers’ liking of vegetables, fruits and non-core foods and the proportion never tried were examined via hierarchical regression models; adjusting for key maternal (age, BMI, education) and child covariates (birth weight Z-score, gender), duration of breastfeeding and age of introduction to solids. Maternal preferences corresponded with child preferences. Food neophobia among toddlers was associated with liking fewer vegetables and fruits, and trying fewer vegetables. Number of repeated exposures to new food was not significantly associated with food liking at this age. Results highlight the need to: (i) encourage parents to offer a wide range of foods, regardless of their own food preferences, and (ii) provide parents with guidance on managing food neophobia

Editorial

In this issue of Papers we publish essays based on a selection of conference papers at the Seventh International Conference of the Australasian Children&rsquo;s Literature Association for Research (ACLAR) held in Melbourne on 13-14 July, 2006. The cover of this issue replicates Kathryn James&rsquo;s design for the conference programme, with its clever image of the &lsquo;undercover child&rsquo; reading a comic. The theme of the conference emphasised newness: new texts, technologies, readings and readers, and the essays we present here traverse a variety of concepts and texts within this framework.<br /

Editorial

In this issue of Papers we publish essays based on a selection of conference papers at the Seventh International Conference of the Australasian Children’s Literature Association for Research (ACLAR) held in Melbourne on 13-14 July, 2006. The cover of this issue replicates Kathryn James’s design for the conference programme, with its clever image of the ‘undercover child’ reading a comic. The theme of the conference emphasised newness: new texts, technologies, readings and readers, and the essays we present here traverse a variety of concepts and texts within this framework

Editorial

We commence this editorial with two announcements. The first is that Professor John stephens (Macquarie University) has been awarded the 11th international Brothers Grimm Award. this prestigious biennial Japanese award is given to a scholar who has made an outstanding international contribution to research in children’s literature. in addition to being a longstanding member of our editorial Board and a staunch supporter of Papers, John has been President of the international research society for Children’s Literature and is currently the ACLAr President. the award is worthy recognition of John’s influential scholarship and publications, particularly Language and Ideology in Children’s Fiction (1992). He is the first Australian to receive the Brothers Grimm Award and will travel to Japan later in the year for the presentation ceremony. We congratulate John and invite all readers of Papers to join us in wishing him well