A posthuman perspective on early literacy: A literature review
Abstract views: 1936 / PDF downloads: 1794
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638X.20212169Keywords:
Early literacy, Posthumanism, Materials, Nonhuman entities, Child and childhoodAbstract
Drawing on research about young children’s literacy development, this review article discusses a recent paradigmatic turn for understanding the child and childhood from human-centerism to posthumanism. Building on the new materialist tradition (e.g., Barad, 2007) and the assemblage theory of Deleuze and Guattari (1987, 1997), the posthuman lens enables researchers and educators to see children as parts of entangled networks of relationships who continuously intra-act with their peers, teachers, materials, and the other nonhuman entities and activities produced constantly by the child-material entanglements. As such, the posthumanist perspective expands the current research on early literacy by offering new possibilities for re-conceptualizing the child, the materials or resources for early literacy, and the meaning of childhood and children’s play. These new ways of seeing the child, the materials, and childhood have also generated new pedagogical practices that are material-oriented, intra-active, and flexible. The review concludes by providing directions for conducting research from a posthuman perspective in the field of early literacy education.
References
Akhter, P. (2016). A young child's intergenerational practices through the use of visual screen-based multimodal communication to acquire Qur'anic literacy. Language and Education, 30(6), 500-518. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09500782.2016.1141935
Alanen, L. (1988). Rethinking childhood. Acta Sociologica, 31(1), 53-67. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/000169938803100105
Anderson, B., & Harrison, P. (2010). The promise of non-representational theories. In B. Anderson & P. Harrison, Taking-Place: Non-representational theories and geography (pp. 1-36). Farnham: Ashgate.
Aries, P. (1962). Centuries of childhood: A social history of family life (R. Baldick, Trans.). New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf.
Barad, K. (2007). Meeting the universe halfway: Quantum physics and the entanglement of matter and meaning. London: Duke University Press.
Barad, K. (2009, June 6). "Matter feels, converses, suffers, desires, yearns and remembers": An interview with Karen Barad. New materialism: Interviews & cartographies. Retrieved from https://quod.lib.umich.edu/o/ohp/11515701.0001.001/1:4.3/--new-materialism-interviews-cartographies?rgn=div2;view=fulltext
Barad, K. (2013). Ma(r)king time: Material entanglements and rememberings: Cutting together-apart. In P. R. Carlile, D. Nicolini, A. Langley, & H. Tsoukas (Eds.), How matter matters: Objects, artifacts, and materiality in organization studies (pp. 16-31). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Baroutsis, A., & Woods, A. (2019). Materialities, multiliteracies and makerspaces: Design-based experiments in teacher/researcher collaborations. In N. Kucirkova, J. Rowsell, & G. Falloon (Eds.), The Routledge international handbook of learning with technology in early childhood (1st ed., pp. 248-264). London: Routledge.
Bendiksen, S. Å., Østern, A., & Belliveau, G. (2019). Literacy events in writing play workshops with children aged three to five: A study of agential cuts with the artographic triple dimensions as a lens. International Journal of Education and the Arts, 20(3), 1-27.
Bennett, J. (2010). Vibrant matter: A political ecology of things. England: Duke University Press.
Bogost, I. (2012). Alien phenomenology, or what it's like to be a thing. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5749/minnesota/9780816678976.001.0001
Braidotti, R. (2013). The Posthuman. Cambridge: Polity.
Burman, E. (2016). Deconstructing developmental psychology. London: Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315727127
Clark, A., & Moss, P. (2001). Listening to young children: The mosaic approach. London: National Children's Bureau.
Coole, D., & Frost, S. (Eds.). (2010). New materialisms: Ontology, agency, and politics. Durham: Duke University Press.
Cregan, K., & Cuthbert, D. (2014). Global childhoods: Issues and debates. London: Sage.
Crescenzi, L., Jewitt, C., & Price, S. (2014). The role of touch in pre-school children's learning using iPad versus paper interaction. Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, 27(2), 86-95.
Davies, B. (2014). Listening to children, being and becoming. London: Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315770390
Deleuze, G. (1997). Desire and pleasure. In A. Davidson (Ed.), Foucault and his interlocutors (pp. 183-192). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (1987). A thousand plateaus: Capitalism and schizophrenia. Minneapolis: The University of Minnesota Press.
Dobinson, T., & Dunworth, K. (2019). Literacy unbound: Multiliterate, multilingual, multimodal (1st ed.). Cham: Springer International Publishing.
Dolphijn, R., & van der Tuin, I. (2012). New materialism: Interviews and cartographies. Ann Arbor: Open Humanities Press.
Egan, K., & Ling, M. (2002). We begin as poets: Conceptual tools and the arts in early childhood. In L. Bresler & C. M. Thompson (Eds.), The arts in chidren's lives: Context, culture, & curriculum (pp. 93-100). Boston, MA: Kluwer Academic Press.
Enriquez, G. (2016). Literacies, learning and the body: Putting theory and research into pedagogical practice. London: Routledge.
File, N., Basler Wisneski, D., & Mueller, J. (2012). Strengthening curriculum in early childhood. In N. File, D. Basler Wisneski, & J. Mueller (Eds.), Curriculum in early childhood education: Re-examined, rediscovered, renewed (pp. 200-205). New York, NY: Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203804360
Gershon, W. (2013). Vibrational affect: Sound theory and practice in qualitative research. Cultural Studies & Critical Methodologies, 13(4), 257-262. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1532708613488067
Hackett, A., & Rautio, P. (2019). Answering the world: Young children's running and rolling as more-than-human multimodal meaning making. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 32(8), 1019-1031. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2019.1635282
Hackett, A., & Somerville, M. (2017). Posthuman literacies: Young children moving in time, place and more-than-human worlds. Journal of Early Literacy Research, 17(3), 374-391. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1468798417704031
Haraway, D. (2016). Staying with the trouble: Making kin in the Chthulucene. London: Duke University Press.
Hargraves, V. (2019). The posthuman conditions of ethics in early childhood literacy: Order-in(g), be(e)ing literacy. In C. R. Kuby, K. Spector, & J. J. Thiel (Eds.), Posthumanism and literacy education: Knowing/becoming/doing literacies (1st ed., pp. 187-200). New York: Routledge.
Harwood, D., & Collier, D. R. (2017). The matter of the stick: Storying/(re)storying children's literacies in the forest. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 17(3), 336-352. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1468798417712340
Heider, K. L., & Renck-Jalongo, M. (Eds.). (2014). Young children and families in the information age: Applications of technology in early childhood. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands.
Hill, S. E. (2020). Early literacy: A multimodal process. In O. N. Saracho (Ed.), Handbook of research on the education of young children (4th ed., pp. 113-122). New York: Routledge.
Iovino, S., & Oppermann, S. (2012). Introduction: Stories come to matter. In S. Iovino & S. Oppermann (Eds.), Material ecocriticsm (pp. 1-17). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Jenks, C. (2005). Childhood (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.
Jesson, R., McNaughton, S., & Wilson, A. (2015). Raising literacy levels using digital learning: A design-based approach in New Zealand. Curriculum Journal, 26(2), 198-223. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09585176.2015.1045535
Jewitt, C. (2011). An introduction to multimodality. In C. Jewitt (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of multimodal analysis (pp.14-27). New York: Routledge.
Jokinen, P., & Murris, K. (2020). Inhuman hands and missing child: Touching a literacy event in a Finnish primary school. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 20(1), 44-68. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1468798420904115
Jones, L., & Holmes, R. (2014). Evaluation of the Clore art studio: A continuous swirling line, vibrant colour and humble objects [Unpublished Evaluation]. Manchester Metropolitan University for Manchester City Art Gallery.
Koepke, M. (2015). Towards a pedagogy of moments: Radical pedagogies. Inflexions, 8. Retrieved from http://www.inflexions.org/radicalpedagogy/main.html#Koepke
Kress, G. (1997). Before writing: Rethinking the paths to literacy. New York: Routledge Press.
Kress, G. (2011). What is a mode?. In C. Jewitt (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of multimodal analysis (pp. 54-67). New York: Routledge.
Kuby, C. R., & Crawford, S. (2018). Intra‐activity of humans and nonhumans in writers' studio: (Re)imagining and (re)defining 'social'. Literacy, 52(1), 20-30. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/lit.12120
Kuby, C. R., & Rucker, T. G. (2015). Everyone has a Neil: Possibilities of Literacy desiring in writer's studio. Language Arts, 92(5), 314-327.
Kuby, C. R., & Rucker, T. G. (2020). (Re)thinking children as fully (in)human and literacies as otherwise through (re)etymologizing intervene and inequality. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 20(1), 13-43. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1468798420904774
Kuby, C. R., Rucker, T. G., & Darolia, L. H. (2017). Persistence(ing): Posthuman agency in a writers' studio. Journal of Early Childhood Education, 17(3), 353-373. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1468798417712067
Kuby, C. R., Spector, K., & Thiel, J. (2019). Posthumanism and literacy education: Knowing/becoming/doing literacies. New York: Routledge.
Leander, K., & Boldt, G. (2013). Rereading "a pedagogy of multiliteracies": Bodies, texts, and emergence. Journal of Literacy Research, 45(1), 22-46. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1086296X12468587
Leander, K. M., Aziz, S., Botzakis, S., Ehret, C., Landry, D., & Rowsell, J. (2017). Readings and experiences of multimodality. Literacy Research: Theory, Method, and Practice, 66(1), 95-116. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/2381336917719247
Lemieux, A., & Rowsell, J. (2020). "This documentary actually makes Welland look good": Exploring posthumaism in a high school documentary film project. In K. Toohey, S. Symthe, D. Dagenais, & M. Forte (Eds.), Transforming language and literacy education: New materialism, posthumanism, and ontoethics (pp. 120-135). New York, NY: Routledge.
Lenz Taguchi, H. (2010). Going beyond the theory/practise divide in early childhood education. London: Routledge.
Lenz Taguchi, H. (2013). Images of thinking in feminist materialisms: Ontological divergences and the production of researcher subjectivities. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 26(6), 706-716. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2013.788759
Lenz Taguchi, H. (2014). New materialism and play. In L. Brooker, M. Blaise, & S. Edwards. (Eds.), Sage handbook of play and learning in early childhood (pp. 79-90). London: Sage.
MacRae, C., Hackett, A., Holmes, R., & Jones, L. (2018). Vibrancy, repetition and movement: Posthuman theories for reconceptualising young children in museums. Children's Geographies, 16(5), 503-515. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14733285.2017.1409884
Manning, E. (2016). The minor gesture. London: Duke University Press.
Massumi, B. (2002). Parables for the virtual: Movement, affect, sensation. Durham: Duke University Press.
Murris, K. (2016). The posthuman child: Educational transformation through philosophy with picturebooks. New York: Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315718002
Narey, M. J. (2017). Multimodal perspectives of language, literacy, and learning in early childhood: The creative and critical art of making meaning. Cham: Springer. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44297-6
Olsson, L. (2009). Practical resources: Preschoolers in Stockholm and its suburbs hwere subjectivity and learning take on the features of a relation field. In Movement and experimentation in young children's learning: Deleuze and Guattari in early childhood education (pp. 11-22). London: Routledge.
Pacini-Ketchabaw, V., Kind, S., & Kocher, L. M. (2017). Encounters with materials in early childhood education. New York: Routledge.
Pahl, K. (2014). Materializing literacies in communities: The uses of literacy revisited. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
Procter, L. (2013). Emotions, power and schooling: The socialisation of 'angry boys'. Journal of Political Power, 6(3), 495-510. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/2158379X.2013.849370
Procter, L., & Hackett, A. (2017). Playing with place in early childhood: An analysis of dark emotion and materiality in children's play. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 18(2), 213-226. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1463949117714082
Roelvink, G., & Zolkos, M. (2015). Posthumanist perspectives on affect: Framing the field. Journal of Theoretical Humanities, 20(3), 1-20. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0969725X.2015.1065106
Sanzo, K. (2018, April 25). New materialism(s). Genealogy of the Posthuman. Retrieved from https://criticalposthumanism.net/new-materialisms/
Savina, E. (2014). Does play promote self-regulation in children? Early Child Development and Care, 184(11), 1692-1705. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03004430.2013.875541
Schulte, C. M. (2019a). The untimely death of a bird: A posthuman tale. In C. R. Kuby, K. Spector, & J. J. Thiel (Eds.), Posthumanism and literacy education: Knowing/becoming/doing literacies (1st ed., pp. 71-81). New York: Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315106083-8
Schulte, C. M. (2019b). Wild encounters: A more-than-human approach to Children's drawing. Studies in Art Education, 60(2), 92-102. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00393541.2019.1600223
Shouse, E. (2005). Feeling, emotion, affect. M/C Journal, 8(6). DOI: https://doi.org/10.5204/mcj.2443
Sintonen, S. (2020). From an experimental paper to a playful screen: How the essence of materiality modulates the process of creation. British Journal of Educational Technology, 51(4), 1322-1333. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12906
Thiel, J. J. (2015). Vibrant matter: The intra-active role of objects in the construction of young children's literacies. Literacy Research: Theory, Method, and Practice, 64(1), 112-131. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/2381336915617618
Theil, J. J., Kuby, C. R., & Spector, K. (2019). Agency. In C. R. Kuby, K. Spector, & J. J. Thiel (Eds.), Posthumanism and literacy education: Knowing/becoming/doing literacies (pp. 19-20). New York, NY: Routledge.
Toohey, K., Dagenais, D., Fodor, A., Hof, L., Nunez, O., & Singh, A. (2015). "That sounds so cool": Entanglements of children, digital tools, and literacy practices. TESOL, 49(3), 461-485. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.236
Wargo, J. M. (2017). Rhythmic rituals and emergent listening: Intra-activity, sonic sounds, and digital composing with young children. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 17(3), 392-408. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1468798417712573
Wargo, J. M. (2018). Writing with wearables? Young children's intra-active authoring and the sounds of emplaced invention. Journal of Literacy Research, 50(4), 502-523. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1086296X18802880
Weheliye, A. (2014). Habeas viscus: Racializing assemblages, biopolitics, and black feminist theories of the human. Durham: Duke University Press.
Wohlwend, K. E., Peppler, K. A., Keune, A., & Thompson, N. (2017). Making sense and nonsense: Comparing mediated discourse and agential realist approaches to materiality in a preschool makerspace. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 17(3), 444-462. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1468798417712066
You, C. (2019). Representing zoo animals: The other-than-anthropocentric in Anthony Browne's picture books. The Lion and the Unicorn, 43(1), 22-41. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/uni.2019.0002
Zachariou, A., & Whitebread, D. (2015). Musical play and self-regulation: Does musical play allow for the emergence of self-regulatory behaviours? International Journal of Play, 4(2), 116-135. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/21594937.2015.1060572
Žižek, S. (2014). Absolute recoil: Towards a new foundation of dialectical materialism. New York: Verso.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2021 Journal of Childhood, Education & Society
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Attribution: You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
NonCommercial: You may not use the material for commercial purposes.
NoDerivatives: If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material.
Author(s) must confirm that the Journal of Childhood, Education & Society retains all the copyrights unconditionally and indefinitely to publish articles.