Voicing Young Children's Perspectives on "Being a Writer"

• In Event: 14.045 - Roundtable Session 2
  In Roundtable Session: 14.045-19 - The Materiality and Multimodality of Writing in the 21st-Century Classroom

Abstract

This paper draws on understandings of student voice to explore children’s perspectives on writing in the early years. Based on socio-material understandings of text production we also emphasise the material nature of literate practices such as learning to write. Qualitative data includes interviews with culturally diverse young children attending schools in communities of high poverty in Australia, and children’s drawings of their experiences of learning to write. Visual and narrative techniques were used to analyse the data. The understandings derived from this analysis are able to augment existing research, practice and policy, and work towards attaining improved learning outcomes in writing for children and young people.

Authors

• Aspa Baroutsis, Queensland University of Technology

• Lisa Kervin, University of Wollongong

• Barbara M. Comber, University of South Australia

• Annette Woods, Queensland University of Technology