Many Pathways to Literacy: Young Children Learning with Siblings, Grandparents, Peers and Communities

This unique and visionary text is a compilation of fascinating studies conducted in a variety of cross-cultural settings where children learn language and literacy with siblings, grandparents, peers and community members. Focusing on the knowledge and skills of children often invisible to educators, these illuminating studies highlight how children skilfully draw from their varied cultural and linguistic worlds to make sense of new experiences. The vastly experienced team of contributors provide powerful demonstrations of the generative activity of young children and their mediating partners - family members, peers, and community members - as they syncretise languages, literacies and cultural practices from varied contexts. Through studies grounded in home, school, community school, nursery and church settings, we see how children create for themselves radical forms of teaching and learning in ways that are not typically recognised, understood or valued in schools. This book will be invaluable reading for teachers, teacher educators, researchers and policy-makers who seek to understand the many pathways to literacy and use that knowledge to affect real change in schools.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: Syncretic Literacy Studies: Starting Points 1. A Sociocultural Approach to Learning E. Gregory, S. Long & D. Volk Part 1: The Family Context: Siblings and Grandparents 2. Mediating Networks for Literacy Learning: The Role of Puerto Rican Siblings D. Volk with M. De Acosta 3. Samia and Sadaqat Play School: Early Bilingual Literacy At Home R. Drury 4. 'Right, get your book bags!': Siblings Playing School in Multiethnic London A. Williams 5. Buzz Lightyear in the Nursery: Intergenerational Literacy Learning in a Multi-Media Age C. Kelly 6. Storytelling and Latino Elders: What Can Children Learn? I. Olmedo Part 2: Friends as Teachers 7. Making a Place for Peer Interaction: Mexican American Kindergartners Learning Language and Literacy S. Long with D. Bell & J. Brown 8. Community School Pupils Re-interpret Their Knowledge of Chinese and Arabic for Primary School Peers C. Kenner 9. 'How do I read these words?': Bilingual Exchange Teaching Between Cantonese Speaking Peers Y. Chen & E. Gregory 10. Friendship Literacy: Young Children as Cultural and Linguistic Experts M. Datta 11. Learning to tb Just: Interactions of White Working Class Peers R. Rogers & M. Mosley Part 3: Learning in Community Settings 12. Change and Tradition in Literacy Instruction in a Samoan American Community A. Duranti, E. Ochs & E. Ta'ase 13. Multilingual Flexibility and Literacy Learning in an Urdu Community School L. Robertson 14. The African American Church: A Beacon of Light on the Pathway to Literacy for African American Children G. McMillon & P. A. Edwards 15. His Eye on the Sparrow: Teaching and Learning in an African American Church W. Haight & J. Carter-Black 16. Cultural Literacy in the World of Pueblo Children M. Romero Conclusion: Many Pathways: Implications of Syncretic Literacy Studies for Practice and Research