In Australian schools, approximately 20% of young children are emergent bilinguals, who are simultaneously developing their home languages while learning through English. While many teachers recognise the benefits of multilingual teaching approaches in culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms, there remains a significant level of uncertainty about how to enact them. These approaches depend

This qualitative study examined the responses of North Carolina child care center administrators on the role of books and specifically diverse books in children’s lives. Additionally, the administrators provided descriptions of what constitutes a diverse book. Sixty-five administrators from high quality child care centers responded to three open ended questions in an online survey. Resulting themes

Although early writing is considered an essential pathway to language and literacy development for preschool-age children (i.e., 3- to 5-years-old), it tends to receive less priority when compared to reading in early childhood (EC) education. To bolster teachers’ early writing practices, researchers have closely examined the nature of the writing instruction and experiences that occur in EC classrooms

Shared reading is a crucial site for children’s emerging reading skills when children engage affectively, behaviorally, and cognitively in the reading process. To inform a more holistic, collective, and inclusive view of observable engagement in read aloud (RA) behaviors, authors examined EB preschoolers’ micro-moment engagement behaviors to understand how they recruit their verbal and embodied modes

Although existing research describes how teacher candidates (TCs) have incorporated translanguaging pedagogies through practice-based assignments, little research closely examines how TCs engage in discursive shifts, or moment-to-moment linguistic decisions, in translanguaging pedagogies during literacy instruction in their field placement internships. Drawing on a larger study that utilized practitioner

Translanguaging theory highlights the dynamic use of multiple languages and communication modes by multilingual people in their daily experiences. Museums are informal family learning spaces where multilingual families use languages and other semiotic resources to create learning opportunities for their children. Using a microethnographic approach to discourse analysis and multimodal interaction analysis

This paper describes name-related literacy practices in a multilingual preschool classroom and their implications for emergent biliteracy. We draw on a translingual framework to understand children’s name-writing activities and how bilingual children’s early literacy interacts with, and at times disrupts, the written conventions of named languages. Drawing on fieldnotes, observations, and artifacts

The COVID-19 pandemic rapidly shifted primary-grade literacy instruction which had rarely been implemented online before the pandemic. Remote early literacy instruction is thus an emerging field of research, and research is needed to understand the affordances and limitations of this crisis-driven instruction and how it may inform early literacy instruction moving forward, both in remote and traditional

Rich oral language practices, including the opportunity and ability to participate in cognitively and linguistically challenging extended discourse, are foundational to early literacy development. To meet children’s needs in their first exposure to the languages of schooling, educators may engage students in extended discourse multilingually. The current study focuses on student-centered translanguaging

This study explores the captivating world of toy unboxing videos as a space for emergent bilingual children to engage in translanguaging practices. Through the lens of translanguaging, which encourages the unrestricted use of full linguistic repertoires, this research examines the experiences of two five-year-old immigrant and emergent bilingual children, who employ linguistic repertoires from both

This qualitative study explores intersections between U.S. language policies (federal and state-level) and instructional practice in early childhood settings for multilingual learners (MLs). We draw on the theoretical framework of culturally sustaining pedagogy to engage in a critical content analysis of U.S. federal and state-level policy from three states. In the cross-analysis of policy and pedagogy

Educators should support multilingual students’ translingual writing. However, it can be challenging for teachers to support students’ composing in languages that teachers do not speak. Drawing on a community translanguaging lens, this paper explores this issue by asking: How did teachers talk about and interact with language resources that were new to them while supporting translingual writing in

The benefits of book gifting schemes for infants, parents and families, are well documented. While book gifting schemes operate around the world, and are delivered in different ways (e.g., postal services, local libraries, maternity hospitals and community centres), little is known about the benefits and challenges for those involved in delivering the schemes. This mixed methods study, based on a book

Herein, I explore the meanings of the oft-used phrase “children’s voices.” The phrase is seldom defined in the literature on children’s language, oral and written. And yet, studying those voices has been fronted as a key methodological tool allowing insights into concerns about equity and the erasure of “nonmainstream” children’s communicative resources. Thus, this essay examines the professional use

Early childhood literacy is pervaded by dominant discourses telling children both what to say, how to say it, and what is worthy of adults' attention. These discourses are affected by the need to constantly see language through solely representational accounts, and children as still progressing, developing and becoming literate while excluding the strong presence of more-than-humans and the diverse

Inference generation, an emerging skill in preschool-aged children, is critical for story comprehension and often requires instruction and practice to develop. Drama-based instruction (DBI) is a promising strategy for supporting preschool students’ inferencing skills, emotion understanding, and overall story comprehension. The current study examined the effects of a DBI story time intervention on preschool

Shared reading with young children is promoted as good practice in national and international policy. Existing literature explores cognitive and developmental benefits of family shared reading for young, typically developing children, but much less is known about benefits for young people with learning disabilities. Additionally, the analysis of ‘benefit’ is often cast in economic terms to society

Drawing on recent literacy research that foregrounds affect and space, we trace the creation of an early literacy learning space as it emerges through a group conversation between a preschool class...

Preschoolers are offered few opportunities to become acquainted with non-fiction books, and when they are given the possibility to read non-fiction picturebooks, these are often fictionalised in on...

During a 10-week classroom-based study in a school in western Canada, 17 Kindergarten children had multiple opportunities to learn about how elements of visual art, design and layout in picturebook...

In this article we explore how digital play as conducted through various social media and online meeting platforms facilitated resiliency and confidence building in children during the COVID-19 pan...

This article explores a 4-year-old recent immigrant and emergent bilingual child’s encounter with voice search technology to understand how assemblages among a young immigrant child, his voice, his...

As the world came to grips with the coronavirus diseases (COVID-19), educational institutions and the society at large faced the challenge of figuring out how to continue with teaching and learning...

This article examines spatiality in selected children’s books about COVID-19. Spatiality is an important lens because the coronavirus pandemic is a crisis related to distancing and mobility restric...

In this article, we examine young children’s narrative play as posthuman, collaborative composing assemblages. Thinking with Tsing (2015), we re/consider collaboration as that which benefits from c...

To understand how verbal, visual, and actional modalities serve dual language bilingual education instruction and learning in the preschool activity of Morning Circle (MC), we ask: (a) What is the ...

The legacy of colonization includes stereotypes and misinformation about African and African descendant people as well as a void in an understanding the vast contributions of precolonial Africa to ...

Within Freedom Schools, the intellectual identities of academic achievement and success for Black children are fostered with positive cultural identity and social action as the foundation. This is ...

This article is written for educators who serve as teachers, administrators, policy-makers in childcare settings, schools, classrooms, teacher preparation programs, programs that prepare educationa...

Against the backdrop of endemic anti-Black racism in Early Childhood literacy, we frame these special issues using Pro-Blackness as an antidote in early childhood classrooms. Pro-Black does note co...

In continuing the legacy of community-mindedness, good Black educators today consistently enact emancipatory pedagogies designed to protect Black children’s personhood. Cultivating community in the...

This study set out to gain a deeper understanding of how early childhood students, specifically Black boys in first- and second-grade, would respond to the teaching of historical figures and events...

This paper offers a nuanced perspective of two families’ lockdown literacy journies with their young children during the COVID 19 pandemic. We present informal home learning examples stimulated by ...

The present study examined a six-component theoretical model of word reading acquisition in 449 Spanish-speaking children from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Measures of phonological awareness (PA)...

The increasingly diverse population of young children in the U.S. requires innovative culturally and linguistically sustaining literacy practices in early childhood education. Through parent-child ...

This collective case study sought to investigate the distinctive writing processes and productions of young writers within the space of a writers’ workshop. Based on video-taped observations, field...

Although it is well established that reading with young children supports early language and literacy development, few studies have focused on the importance of parental beliefs about reading with ...

The prison abolition movement has brought attention to the American carceral crisis, or better yet, the mass incarceration and disproportionate criminalization of Black people in America. It has al...

Black children around the globe develop and learn in persistently racist environments. Decades of early racial awareness research primarily center on the development of young children’s self-esteem...

In the most recent edition of the Handbook of Reading Research, Ebony Elizabeth Thomas and colleagues (2020) identify the need to recontextualize critical literacy pedagogy and research in ways that center Black and Indigenous communities. Although critical literacy has a rich tradition in emancipatory work (e.g. Freire, 1996), Thomas et al. argue for the need to begin elsewhere, with the knowledge

Black Art in various forms has long been used by people in the African Diaspora to promote Black joy and Pro-Blackness yet it is often not included in language and literacy to early childhood pedagogies to uplift Black children in North American schools. Likewise, many anti-racist Early Childhood research studies focus on the challenges faced by Black people with little emphasis on Black joy and Pro-Black

Although isolating, lockdown also created unexpected opportunities for connection and inspiration. This article describes the lockdown literacies of a sibling pair, Marco and Mara, as they wrote di...

New sociomaterial and performative directions in literacy research on digital technologies and play in early childhoods may complicate the established concept of digital play. This study contribute...

Though a limited amount of literature has examined the family literacy practices of students with refugee backgrounds in the United States, little research has focused on play and conversations of Burmese siblings with refugee backgrounds. Drawing upon theoretical perspectives from new literacy studies, Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory, and Gregory’s concept of synergy, this qualitative study explores

As classrooms worldwide become diverse, the ways teachers engage children in literacy learning must be inclusive to accommodate the multitude of languages spoken. Multimodal literacy practices using digital tools provide innovative opportunities for emergent bilinguals to express their meaning-making processes. This paper details a year-long investigation into the multimodal literacy practices of eight

This article examines four Afghan refugee parents/guardians in Islamabad, Pakistan for their beliefs about literacy and language(s). Semi-structured interviews with each parent/guardian showed that they all highly valued reading and writing as essential life skills. However, while they viewed literacy as having instrumental value, they also strongly believed it shaped and developed a person morally

The ‘schoolification’ of early childhood education and care programs, seen as readying children for formalised schooling, has had an impact on the education of younger and younger age groups. While the focus of past research has mainly focused on 4-5-year-old children, this study shifts the focus to two-three-year-old children and the literacy focus of educators working with these very young children

Numerous studies indicate that the language and literacy development of young children is highly contingent upon the construction of an enriching home literacy environment. Using sociocultural theory as a framework, in this article I explore how a bilingual child’s language and literacy acquisition is embedded as a social practice within the home literacy environment of everyday life. Drawing on data

Book distribution or book provision programs that provide free books to families with young children have become increasingly popular approaches to promote home literacy practices. This qualitative study aimed to understand parents’ perceptions of the implementation of a book provision program and its impact on their families’ literacy practices and behaviors. Forty-three parents participated in twelve

This article utilizes Black girlhood as a framework in a critical multimodal qualitative inquiry to explore the complexities of representations of Black girls’ hair, in picturebooks. Using a data corpus of 55 picturebooks published between 2010–2020, the authors analyzed the multimodal messages embedded in the initial introductions of Black girl protagonists. The findings suggest that contemporary

Early reading achievement is essential for all children’s development and future success. However, U.S. schools continue to under prepare Black children in early literacy, as evidenced by disparate outcomes observed for this population of learners. The under preparation of Black students is problematic, given the strong negative correlation between early reading proficiency and high school graduation

For decades, language and literacy scholars working within a sociocultural framework have laboured to bring attention to the strengths of marginalized students in an effort to create more inclusive and equitable learning environments (e.g., Cummins, 2000; Dyson, 1997; González et al., 2005; Heath, 1983). While this work has moved the field forward in invaluable ways, it has not consistently engaged

There is a need to better understand the agentic choices that students make to communicate meaning through their multimodal compositions. Utilizing a case study approach, this article examines the composing of two first-grade students and discusses how these students utilized multimodal composing techniques from structured writing units during an “open unit” where students were given wider parameters

This study tackles the question: how is literacy engagement enacted in the context of significant disability? We delve into the complex literacy practices of Kalika, a three-year-old child with Rett syndrome, a rare neurodevelopmental disorder, to elucidate how she engages with printed text. Rett syndrome leads to near total loss of verbal communication and limited functional hand use, making it particularly

This article discusses a research study that involves five preschool teachers working in linguistically diverse classrooms. It focuses on how these teachers’ beliefs regarding language teaching and learning have emerged from their own experiences, and how they affect their understanding of their work. The study draws on the concept of plurilingualism and, to explore what the participants think, know