What and why?
My literacy reading for this week is
“European Early Childhood Education Research Journal”. I chose this
reading because it related to this week’s core concept of Analyst through
advertising. Advertising appeals to me particularly as a research focus as it
is related to my former studies and work.
Central Premise
The paper focused on 96 children from
kindergartens in Greece, and looked at their responses to a series of
advertising images. It was interesting to me that many people (often myself
included) may dislike advertising to children as it can be deceptive – that is,
appearing to be exciting and fun, when in fact the primary motive is something
else, selling a product to the child. At the same time, the study was presented
to children as the researcher wanting to ‘understand how children see and think
about pictures’. What it was actually about was how they perceive the intent
of, and emotionally react to advertising. Not exactly the same thing, and I
understand the need for ambiguity in order to not taint the data, but it was
interesting nonetheless.
Though buried in obscure wording
(conation, anyone?), the most interesting finding I could gather was that
around 8% of the children recognised that the purposes of the images presented
to them were for selling / or advertising.
In practice
Based on the above finding, I think children should be exposed to critical literacy
activities around advertising. I think discussions with each other around
materials provided by the educator would be a good start. This could then be a
starting point for online research around the source, purpose, and conventions used
in advertising.
Update: 21/11/2013
I believe that my background in business could be an advantage in early childhood in that I can provide an alternative viewpoint based on my experiences in this area. It is perhaps unusual that someone who has studied advertising is now recommending that 'I think children should be exposed to critical literacy activities around advertising'. However, considering that I have both studied and worked in this area to some extent, I think that this is not an opinion without merit.
In terms of potential weaknesses as an educator, I covered one example of this in 'Portfolio Week 5' where I said:
"When I first went to live in the Netherlands in 2011 I discovered to my surprise that I was more similar to other ‘macho’ Australian men than I thought. I refused to ride on the back of my girlfriend’s bicycle and couldn’t really explain why other than it felt ‘wrong’".
Whether this 'weakness' would be a weakness in all cases can be examined further. As prompted by the feedback I have received from Jesse via email (and perhaps similarly to my point about a business perspective above), I wonder if there are some situations where having an alternative, though archaic, point of view would be an advantage?
Reference:
Constandinidou-Semoglou, O. (2007).
Early childhood education and adult-oriented advertising discourse. European
Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 15(3), 329-341. Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com/docview/61903755?accountid=10910
What and why?
My numeracy reading for this week is
“Mathematics and Social Justice in Grade 1: How Children Understand Inequality and
Represent It”. I thought this would be an interesting reading as I believe social
justice issues are equally relevant in Australia as they are in Canada.
Secondly, this article appeals to any Australian reader through the promotion
of maths versus math, a pet peeve of many non-North American I’m sure,
as well as having a focus on ‘The Rabbits’ by Shaun Tan, my favourite children’s
book author / illustrator.
Central Premise
The paper uses an example of an
activity where the children were asked to demonstrate aspects of The Rabbits
books using Cuisenaire rods. It was fascinating to see the various ideas they
came up with, and their equation of power with the various rods.
In practice
This reminded me of the reading I
had last week, where the educator had isolated the various food items from The
Very Hungry Caterpillar and made them into objects on a felt board to be
manipulated. I am sensing a common theme of the importance of manipulatives in
early numeracy, which is heartening as it seems far more engaging than what
little I recall of my own early numeracy experiences.
I feel as though this is a
particularly worthwhile example to emulate in that it not only addresses
numeracy in an engaging way, but also challenges children to think about
complex topics like power and social justice at the same time.
Reference:
Murphy, M. (2009). Mathematics and
social justice in grade 1: How children understand inequality and represent it.
Beyond the Journal: Young Children on the Web, May, Retrieved 6th
November 2013 from http://www.naeyc.org/files/yc/file/200905/BTJMurphy.pdf
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