Language, Learning, and Culture in Early Childhood

Complex factors affect young children and their families in today's increasingly diverse world characterized by globalization, the transnational movement of people, and neo-liberal government policies in western and industrialized countries. This book focuses on three of these factors-culture, language and learning-and how they affect children's development and learning in the context of their communities, families and schools. Taking an ecological perspective, it challenges normative and hegemonic views of young children's language, literacy and numeracy development and offers examples of demonstrated educational practices that acknowledge and build on the knowledge that children develop and learn in culturally specific ways in their homes and communities. The authors highlight issues and perspectives that are particular to Indigenous people who have been subjected to centuries of assimilationist and colonialist policies and practices, and the importance of first or home language maintenance and its cognitive, cultural, economic, psychological and social benefits. Links are provided to a package of audio-video resources (http://blogs.ubc.ca/intersectionworkshop/) including key note speeches and interviews with leading international scholars, and a collection of vignettes from the workshop from which this volume was produced .

Ann Anderson is Professor, Curriculum and Pedagogy, University of British Columbia, Canada. Jim Anderson is Professor, Language and Literacy Education, University of British Columbia, Canada. Marianne McTavish is Senior Instructor, Language and Literacy Education, University of British Columbia, Canada. Jan Hare is Associate Professor, Language and Literacy Education, University of British Columbia, Canada.

Contents Foreword Allan Luke Preface Acknowledgements Chapter 1: Language, learning and culture in early childhood: Home, school and community contexts-An IntroductionAnn Anderson, Jim Anderson, Jan Hare, Marianne McTavish & Tess Prendergast Chapter 2: Young children's emerging identities as bilingual and biliterate students: The role of context Eurydice Bouchereau Bauer & Beatriz Guerrero Chapter 3: Halq'eméylem language revitalization Margaret MacDonald & Danièle Moore Chapter 4: Speaking English isn't thinking English: Exploring young Aboriginal children's mathematical experiences through Aboriginal perspectives Lisa Lunney Borden & Elizabeth Munroe Chapter 5: "Now he knows that there are two kinds of writing, two kinds of reading": Insights and issues in working with immigrant and refugee families and communities in a bilingual family literacy program Jim Anderson, Nicola Friedrich, Laura Teichert & Fiona Morrison Chapter 6: Social class, culture, and Asian children's home and school literacy connection: The Case for cultural reciprocity in early literacy education Guofang Li Chapter 7: Considering place for connecting mathematics, community and culture Cynthia Nicol, Joanne Yovanovich & Alison Gear Chapter 8: Culture and mathematical learning: A case study of South-Asian parents and children playing a board game Ann Anderson, Ji Eun Kim, and Sylvia McLellan Chapter 9: Reconceptualizing "parent and child together time" in family literacy programs: Lessons learned from refugee and immigrant families Marianne McTavish and Kimberly Lenters Chapter 10: What is involved in modeling the world with mathematics Terezinha Nunes Chapter 11: Indigenous pedagogies in early learning settings: Linking community knowledge to school-based learning Jan Hare Chapter 12: Sailing the ship while we study it: Culturally responsive research strategies in early childhood contexts Amy Noelle Parks Chapter 13: A critical analysis of culturally and linguistically diverse community participation in Canadian early childhood education: Power relations, tensions and possibilities Luigi Iannacci Chapter 14: Looking back, looking ahead: Reflections on the intersection of language, culture, and learning in early childhood Nicola Friedrich, Ji Eun Kim, Sylvia McLellan, Tess Prendergast, Harini Rajagopal, & Laura Teichert,