Making space for literacy learning

The impact of spatial and temporal organization in constructing a writing subject in the early years

Abstract

The teaching of literacy is an embodied practice. Teacher’s pedagogical practices are directed onto children’s bodies. These practices are informed by teachers’ own knowledge, experiences and beliefs about literacy as well as constructions of literacy in the curriculum. These shape literate subjects children become. It is through these practices that children become literate subjects. This article explores how children become ‘writers’, by using Foucault’s work on power and the spatial as theoretical lenses. The article is underpinned by the view that everything happens in space. We construct space and space constructs us, social relations can only happen in space. But, because space and social relations are mutually constitutive, they can transform each other. Data is drawn from a research project using ethnographic methods in early years classrooms in South Africa. A spatial and temporal lens is applied to observations of the teaching of writing in two preschool classrooms (4-5 year olds and 5 to 6 year olds) and one Grade 1 classroom and illustrates how mundane practices are crucial to learning and teaching. It raises questions about how time and space across thevearly years produce literate subjects and the influence of globally of technicist approaches to literacy which have implications for teacher education.