Literacy in the Early Years

Claire McLachlan is a Professor of Education and Head of School for Te Hononga, School of Curriculum and Pedagogy in the Faculty of Education at the University of Waikato. She was formerly a Professor of Childhood Education at Massey University. She holds a B.A. in English and Education and M.A. (Hons, 1st class) and Ph.D in Education from Massey. Her primary research interests are in early literacy, early childhood curriculum, assessment and teachers' beliefs about practice and she has produced five recent books on curriculum, literacy and assessment. Her current research concerns supporting teachers' understandings of literacy in order to promote improved literacy outcomes for young children, the effectiveness of family literacy programmes and an intervention study on physical activity in early childhood settings. Claire's contribution to early childhood research is reflected in her membership in the New Zealand Ministry of Education Early Childhood Research Policy Forum, membership in the UNESCO Panel on Early Reading and her being honored with an award from Massey University for excellence in educational research. She has also recently received an OMEP International research award.
Alison Arrow, PhD, is a senior lecturer in literacy at Massey University, having graduated from the University of Auckland in 2008. One of Alison's research areas is professional development in literacy with early childhood education teachers. This research has included the assessment of literacy abilities with children as young as three years old. She has published on the nature of literacy in early childhood and her current research examines how young children use digital technology at home and school for their literacy learning. Dr. Arrow has won a number of internal Massey University research grants and in 2012 she was the Massey University College of Education Early Career Research Award Winner. More recently, Alison has been successful in obtainingresearch funding for longitudinal intervention research with children just beginning school.

This edited collection provides an in-depth exploration of different aspects of contemporary early childhood literacy research and the implications for educational practice. Each chapter details how the research was conducted and any issues that researchers encountered in collecting data with very young children, as well as what the research findings mean for educational practice. It includes photographs of effective literacy practice, detailed explanations of research methods so the studies can be replicated or expanded upon, and key features for promoting effective literacy practice in early childhood settings. This book is an essential read for everyone who is interested in exploring the complexities and challenges of researching literacy acquisition in the youngest children.

Focuses on the unique implications of the research study for early childhood literacy practice

1 Conceptualising literacy in the early childhood setting.- 2 In dialogue with children: Exploring children's views of literacy practices in their early childhood settings.- 3 Linguistic diversity and literacy practices in early childhood education in Norway.- 4 "You guys should offer the program more often!": Some perspectives from working alongside immigrant and refugee families in a bilingual family literacy program.- 5 Predicting early writing: The role of parental support and children's private speech during writing.- 6 What brings children to writing and energises their early writing efforts?.- 7 Child shyness and reading ability in encounters with difficult words during shared story book reading.- 8 The Hakalama: The Aha Punana Leo's Syllabic Hawaiian Reading Program.- 9 How effective is the morphological awareness instruction on early literacy skills?.- 10 Early Reading First as a model for improving literacy instruction and outcomes.- 11 Promoting the predictors of literacy in early childhood settings: An analysis of two studies in low SES settings.- 12 Digital technologies in the literature lines of young children.- 13 Literacy, technology and early years education: Building sustainable practice.- 14 The future of literacy research in the early childhood context.