Purpose: This short article takes the play and passion of children's literacy as its focal point. Rather than orienting reading and writing around what should be taught or how children should respond and understand written text, in this short reflective essay we aim to explore the play and passion inherent in children's literacy practices. We do…

Children, including those who are deaf, become aware of and learn about their environments through playing and social and cultural interactions. For most deaf children, preschool classrooms are optimal spaces for these interactions to occur, but only if they can fully engage with this environment. We discuss the need for and constituent aspects of…

The field of early childhood education is propelled by guiding principles stemming from philosophical and child development research positions. While the guiding principles of high-quality early childhood education are influenced by universal and local perspectives, it is critical that early childhood curricula and pedagogy are firmly…

Informal home education occurs without much that is generally considered essential for formal education--including curriculum, learning plans, assessments, age related targets or planned and deliberate teaching. Our research into families conducting this kind of education enables us to consider learning away from such imposed structures and to…

Examines the issues raised by photographs children took of reading in the home as part of a funded research project exploring the gendering of reading in the 7-9 age group. Focuses on the dilemmas the images pose for analysis, and what the images, considered in themselves, can be taken as evidence for. (SG)

Presents a case study of a fourth-grade boy who was an active, intelligent boy who was not coping well with reading and writing in school. Discusses observations of, and conversations with, the boy and his parents in their home. Demonstrates the importance of educators' having a family perspective on students' language and literacy development.…

The purpose of this paper is to present an ethnographic study (Cardoso, 1999) involving six primary school pupils and doing simple experiments with everyday home equipment in the context of learning science. The hands-on science activities were carried out by children with the help of their parents. Results showed that children learnt at home and…