Unlocking the Curiosity Door: The Strange and Complex World of Children at Play

• In Event: Playful Possibilities of the #playrevolution: Narrating Necessary Stories of Literacies in Play

Abstract

Objectives
Dustin from the science fiction throwback, Stranger Things (2016), implored his other elementary-aged friends, “Why are you keeping this curiosity door locked?” in response to fear of the unknown.  In the same way, what if we examined young children’s play with curiosity and inquiry rather than marginalize their play as haphazard and whimsical?  Furthermore, how do children build community and participate in authentic literacy practices through play? In this presentation, I illuminate children’s play with popular culture as integral to understanding social worlds in official (adult-mediated activity) and unofficial events where children enacted “minds and social agendas of their own” (Dyson, 2003, p. 102). Children’s (re)production of popular culture themes (e.g. violence, sexism) make adults uncomfortable; other times, their nonsensical delight seems irrational to the adult gaze. But why keep “the curiosity door locked” when possibilities are refracted anew through creative participation by young children?

Framing and Methods
Drawing from a 5-month study in a Midwestern kindergarten classroom, I take up Bakhtin’s notion of carnival (1981), or the practices of everyday individuals when free from authoritative boundaries. Carnivalesque practices are defined as play - the joyous, improvised, and spontaneous engagement of people interacting without any particular goal/outcome (Chudacoff, 2007). Five children who sat together at one table; clearly confined and limited to their table space, navigated around curriculum while cultivating their own cultural space. Data for this project was collected during writing workshop times, occurring 3-5 times per week for 45-90 minutes; the sessions were audio-recorded and transcribed, and writing samples were collected daily.

Findings
The findings center around conversations of horror story genres and scary characters. Children actively took up tools and ideas from the appropriate genre (e.g. chainsaws, blood, masks) while local context served as the setting for their stories: the nearby high school, Halloween, and popular costumes.  Scary stories were the social center of writing time, however, children’s written texts reflected the genre (e.g. narrative, true stories) valued in curriculum and by the teacher. Consequently, the resulting stories were not pictures of chainsaws and bloody deaths. Pictures of rainbows and hearts situated by weekend narratives were written and killer dolls were discarded for unofficial pleasures. Certain ideas were reserved for secret conversations and others for public sharing, as determined by young children themselves.

Significance
Children’s play is relegated to the margins of social, cultural life in favor of more palatable, academic activity; writing is validated and measured by success markers that privilege certain genres of writing; horror stories are seen as “child’s play”, to borrow from horror story veteran, Chucky.  The topics and the genre are not given textual space, but rather deemed inappropriate and unfit for young children. Significant in this project is engagement in popular culture as central in children’s social and writing life.  This presentation seeks to analyze the intersection of popular culture, play, and literacy, to open possibilities for new genres and representations in children’s written texts.

Author

• Haeny Susan Yoon, Teachers College, Columbia University