Creating identity texts with young children across culturally and linguistically diverse contexts

• Published in: Journal of early childhood research : ECR Vol. 18; no. 3; pp. 243 - 258
• Main Author: Streelasky, Jodi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.09.2020
• Subjects: Childrens Attitudes; Childrens Rights; Cultural Differences; Environmental Influences; Foreign Countries; Identification (Psychology); Interpersonal Relationship; Kindergarten; Language Usage; Learning Experience; Participative Decision Making; Place Based Education; Preschool Children; Student Experience; Canada; Tanzania; visual art; cross-cultural conceptions of early education; books; children’s voices; language arts; identity-work; international comparisons; multimodality; qualitative inquiry; children as citizens
• ISSN: 1476-718X; 1741-2927
• DOI: 10.1177/1476718X19898715

This article addresses the ways young children in culturally and linguistically diverse settings were involved in the meaningful development of identity texts in the form of personalized books. In the study, Canadian and Tanzanian children aged 4 to 6 shared their favorite learning experiences and spaces at school through their use of multiple modes. A multimodal approach to data sharing was then implemented through the co-creation of three dual-language books in English and Kiswahili. The books featured the research participants’ images, drawings, paintings, and photographs, and included verbal descriptions of their multimodal texts in their distinct geographical and cultural contexts. The children in both settings were involved in the book-making process by sharing their views on what images and descriptions they wanted to include in the identity texts that were then shared with both groups of children, their teachers, and their families. This approach to research and data dissemination with children draws on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child which views children as strong, capable, and knowledgeable. This perspective also recognizes the rights of children to participate in decision-making processes in research in which they are involved, and to be empowered to communicate their own views.