Aim:
The aim of this project is to explore early literacy practices in family homes and diverse early childhood education (ECE) settings for children aged 2-5 years.
Specifically, we want to build a picture of story-sharing practices in culturally and linguistically diverse and equity-funded kindergartens, adopting a strengths-based approach to highlight examples of stories and literacies as they naturally happen.
Research questions:
- In what ways do kaiako share stories with tamariki in diverse, equity-funded kindergartens?
- How do kaiako employ knowledge about tamariki home story interactions in their everyday practices?
- What are the enablers and challenges for kaiako in sharing stories with tamariki in diverse, equity-funded kindergartens?
This is a case study with 4 phases of fieldwork/data generation: 1) establishing relationships/whakawhanaungatanga between kindergartens and NZCER; 2) interviewing senior leadership teams; 3) kindergarten observations and team interviews; 4) interviews with whānau.
Six equity-funded kindergartens have volunteered to take part in the research. In addition to interviews and observations, we have also used photo and video methods to generate data where agreed and with consent.
The picture so far…
We are starting to gain a sense of the richness and diversity in the kinds of stories that are shared with children, and the multiple, multimodal nature of stories and literacies. We are excited to learn more as we spend time observing stories-in-action in each of the kindergartens, and through talking to whānau about stories at home.