Maria Lúcia Castanheira

Talked Images: Examining the Contextualised Nature of Image Use

This article describes the uses of video data analysis in studying processes of meaning construction of disciplinary concepts in a biology class. We highlight the contributions of video data analysis, oriented by an interactional ethnographic approach, to understanding how visual representations of biological concepts were talked into being (Dixon & Green, 2005). We demonstrate how the video data records supported the development of a topic-oriented study of language use in a biology classroom that (a) acknowledges the local historical processes and (b) makes visible the indexed nature of language use in the classroom and its implication for constructing opportunities for learning scientific concepts. This study was developed in a high school classroom of a Brazilian public school attended by working-class students.

A passagem da educação infantil para o ensino fundamental: tensões contemporâneas

No contexto da ampliacao do ensino fundamental para nove anos, o artigo relata como foi vivida, por um grupo de criancas, a transicao de uma escola de educacao infantil para uma de ensino fundamental em Belo Horizonte. O processo de construcao e analise dos dados da pesquisa baseou-se na abordagem interpretativa da sociologia da infância e na etnografia interacional. Verificou-se que as praticas educativas que assumiram centralidade na educacao infantil e no ensino fundamental se estruturavam em torno da brincadeira e do letramento, mas situadas diferencialmente nos dois segmentos. Na escola de educacao infantil, a centralidade do brincar esteve presente na organizacao das rotinas institucionais. No entanto, tendo em vista sua condicao de sujeitos inseridos em uma cultura grafocentrica, as criancas voltaram-se para a apropriacao da lingua escrita, engajando-se individual e coletivamente em diversos eventos de letramento. Ao inserir-se no ensino fundamental, as criancas depararam-se com um hiato entre as experiencias desenvolvidas na educacao infantil e as praticas educativas da nova escola: o brincar foi situado em segundo plano. Argumentamos que a falta de dialogo presente na organizacao do sistema educacional brasileiro em relacao aos dois primeiros niveis da educacao basica se refletiu no processo de desencontros vivenciados pelas criancas pesquisadas. Nesse sentido, a investigacao, ao ter como foco o registro da experiencia infantil, evidenciou a necessidade de uma maior integracao entre o brincar e o letramento nas praticas pedagogicas da educacao infantil e do ensino fundamental, ambas dimensoes centrais da cultura infantil contemporânea.In the context of the extension of fundamental education to nine years, the article describes how the transition from an early childhood education school to an elementary school was experienced by a group of children in Belo Horizonte. The process of construction and analysis of the research data was based on the interpretive approach of the sociology of childhood, and on interactional ethnography. It was observed that the educational practices that gained central role in early childhood education and in fundamental education were structured around play and literacy, but situated differently within the two segments. For early childhood education, the centrality of play has been present in the organization of institutional routines. However, due to their condition as subjects inserted in a graphocentric culture, children turned to the appropriation of written language, engaging individually and collectively in various literacy events. When coming into fundamental education, children faced the chasm between the experiences developed in early childhood education and the educational practices of their new school: playing was put in second place. We argue here that the lack of dialogue between the first two levels of basic education observed in the organization of the Brazilian education system is reflected in the troubled processes experienced by the children studied. In this sense, the investigation, by having its focus on the recording of children’s experiences, revealed the need for better integration of playing and literacy in the pedagogical practices of early childhood education and of fundamental education, both of them central dimensions of contemporary child culture.

Exploring Classroom Life and Student Learning

In this chapter, we present interactional ethnography as a “logic of inquiry” (Green, Dixon & Zaharlick, 2003) for studying how individual students, and those with whom they interact in classrooms, jointly construct opportunities for learning to be literate, and for constructing identity within and across times, actors and events. Our goal is to complement Nuthall’s (2007) work on the hidden lives of learners by proposing a conceptual approach to uncovering how students and the teacher socially construct opportunities for learning—and what opportunities they construct—personally and collectively across times, interactions and events.

Researching the Opportunities for Learning for Students with Learning Difficulties in Classrooms: An Ethnographic Perspective

In the first chapter of this volume, Wyatt-Smith and Elkins argue that ‘it is timely to review how different theoretical frameworks and methodologies provide different lenses through which to study students’ learning needs’. By viewing different theoretical frameworks and methodologies as potentially complementary, Wyatt-Smith, Elkins and other authors in this volume move discussions beyond debates of which method is best, to a discussion of what different theoretical traditions contribute towards research on students’ learning needs. In this chapter, we seek to contribute towards this argument by demonstrating how multiple theoretical perspectives and methods can be included in a single research study as well as in programs of research that seek to explore common phenomena from different theoretical and methodological points of view (for example Green & Harker, 1988; Grimshaw, Burke, & Cicourel, 1994; Koschmann, 1999; Cumming & Wyatt-Smith, 2001a)

Eventos interacionais e eventos de letramento: um exame das condições sociais e semióticas da escrita em uma turma de educação infantil

In this text we examine the social and semiotic conditions in which writing is present in the everyday school life of kindergarten, by analyzing the interactional and literacy events identified in a group of kindergarten students in a public school in Belo Horizonte. The events herein analyzed integrate the data bank of a research project that involved participant observation and adopted the approaches of Interactional Ethnography and childhood Sociology in examining how, when and by whom the activities involving written language were initiated and developed in the group we observed. The contraposition of different ways of analysis and representation of the interactions among the participants in literacy events demonstrated that sometimes the teacher, sometimes the students used writing as an integral part of their interactions. Additionally, it was possible to recognize aspects that contribute to the occurrence of lack of comprehension among the group participants. The engagement of the children in literacy events allows us to argue that there is an effort, both collective and individual, for them to position themselves as readers and writers in the classroom environment.

O letramento e o brincar em processos de socialização na educação infantil brincadeiras diferentes

En este trabajo se pretende analizar los significados de la lectura, escritura y juegos para ninos en base al analisis de la rutina en una escuela de educacion infantil publica en Belo Horizonte (Brasil). Esta investigacion esta relacionada con los debates sobre el letramiento y la alfabetizacion en la educacion infantil, que fueron intensificados debido a la obligatoriedad de nueve anos en la educacion primaria de Brasil (leyes federales n. 11.114/2005 y n. 11.274/2006 y la enmienda constitucional n. 59/2009). Nuestro analisis forma parte de una investigacion mas amplia, desarrollada a traves de un enfoque etnografico interaccional (Green; Dixon; Zarlick, 2005), la perspectiva interpretativa de la sociologia de la infancia (Corsaro, 2005), y la perspectiva social del letramiento (Castanheira; Green; Dixon, 2007; Soares, 1999; Street, 1984). Este analisis nos permite demostrar la posibilidad de integracion entre el letramiento y el juego en educacion infantil.En este trabajo se pretende analizar los significados de la lectura, escritura y juegos para ninos en base al analisis de la rutina en una escuela de educacion infantil publica en Belo Horizonte (Brasil). Esta investigacion esta relacionada con los debates sobre el letramiento y la alfabetizacion en la educacion infantil, que fueron intensificados debido a la obligatoriedad de nueve anos en la educacion primaria de Brasil (leyes federales n. 11.114/2005 y n. 11.274/2006 y la enmienda constitucional n. 59/2009). Nuestro analisis forma parte de una investigacion mas amplia, desarrollada a traves de un enfoque etnografico interaccional (Green; Dixon; Zarlick, 2005), la perspectiva interpretativa de la sociologia de la infancia (Corsaro, 2005), y la perspectiva social del letramiento (Castanheira; Green; Dixon, 2007; Soares, 1999; Street, 1984). Este analisis nos permite demostrar la posibilidad de integracion entre el letramiento y el juego en educacion infantil.

Navigating across academic contexts: Campo and Angolan students in a Brazilian university

This paper draws on the Academic Literacies approach to examine tutor/student relations in the production of academic texts. We address issues associated with learning to write in such contexts, through exploring the perspectives of two groups of non-traditional students as they reflect on their experiences in navigating educational contexts in a Brazilian public university. The term non-traditional is used here to refer to students from social groups whose previous generation had no, or very limited, access to university. In order to explore the “hidden features” of the contextualized nature of academic writing, we present two cases: students from Angola and from Campo, both groups not traditionally represented in Brazilian universities. We explored the development of writing in academic contexts by examining tensions identified by these students and their tutors/teachers as they engaged with academic literacies.

EL LETRAMIENTO Y EL JUEGO EN LOS PROCESOS DE SOCIALIZACIÓN EN LA EDUCACIÓN INFANTIL: JUGAR DE MANERA DIFERENTE

En este trabajo se pretende analizar los significados de la lectura, escritura y juegos para ninos en base al analisis de la rutina en una escuela de educacion infantil publica en Belo Horizonte (Brasil). Esta investigacion esta relacionada con los debates sobre el letramiento y la alfabetizacion en la educacion infantil, que fueron intensificados debido a la obligatoriedad de nueve anos en la educacion primaria de Brasil (leyes federales n. 11.114/2005 y n. 11.274/2006 y la enmienda constitucional n. 59/2009). Nuestro analisis forma parte de una investigacion mas amplia, desarrollada a traves de un enfoque etnografico interaccional (Green; Dixon; Zarlick, 2005), la perspectiva interpretativa de la sociologia de la infancia (Corsaro, 2005), y la perspectiva social del letramiento (Castanheira; Green; Dixon, 2007; Soares, 1999; Street, 1984). Este analisis nos permite demostrar la posibilidad de integracion entre el letramiento y el juego en educacion infantil.En este trabajo se pretende analizar los significados de la lectura, escritura y juegos para ninos en base al analisis de la rutina en una escuela de educacion infantil publica en Belo Horizonte (Brasil). Esta investigacion esta relacionada con los debates sobre el letramiento y la alfabetizacion en la educacion infantil, que fueron intensificados debido a la obligatoriedad de nueve anos en la educacion primaria de Brasil (leyes federales n. 11.114/2005 y n. 11.274/2006 y la enmienda constitucional n. 59/2009). Nuestro analisis forma parte de una investigacion mas amplia, desarrollada a traves de un enfoque etnografico interaccional (Green; Dixon; Zarlick, 2005), la perspectiva interpretativa de la sociologia de la infancia (Corsaro, 2005), y la perspectiva social del letramiento (Castanheira; Green; Dixon, 2007; Soares, 1999; Street, 1984). Este analisis nos permite demostrar la posibilidad de integracion entre el letramiento y el juego en educacion infantil.

LITERACY AND PLAY IN SOCIALIZATION PROCESSES IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION: PLAYING DIFFERENTLY

En este trabajo se pretende analizar los significados de la lectura, escritura y juegos para ninos en base al analisis de la rutina en una escuela de educacion infantil publica en Belo Horizonte (Brasil). Esta investigacion esta relacionada con los debates sobre el letramiento y la alfabetizacion en la educacion infantil, que fueron intensificados debido a la obligatoriedad de nueve anos en la educacion primaria de Brasil (leyes federales n. 11.114/2005 y n. 11.274/2006 y la enmienda constitucional n. 59/2009). Nuestro analisis forma parte de una investigacion mas amplia, desarrollada a traves de un enfoque etnografico interaccional (Green; Dixon; Zarlick, 2005), la perspectiva interpretativa de la sociologia de la infancia (Corsaro, 2005), y la perspectiva social del letramiento (Castanheira; Green; Dixon, 2007; Soares, 1999; Street, 1984). Este analisis nos permite demostrar la posibilidad de integracion entre el letramiento y el juego en educacion infantil.En este trabajo se pretende analizar los significados de la lectura, escritura y juegos para ninos en base al analisis de la rutina en una escuela de educacion infantil publica en Belo Horizonte (Brasil). Esta investigacion esta relacionada con los debates sobre el letramiento y la alfabetizacion en la educacion infantil, que fueron intensificados debido a la obligatoriedad de nueve anos en la educacion primaria de Brasil (leyes federales n. 11.114/2005 y n. 11.274/2006 y la enmienda constitucional n. 59/2009). Nuestro analisis forma parte de una investigacion mas amplia, desarrollada a traves de un enfoque etnografico interaccional (Green; Dixon; Zarlick, 2005), la perspectiva interpretativa de la sociologia de la infancia (Corsaro, 2005), y la perspectiva social del letramiento (Castanheira; Green; Dixon, 2007; Soares, 1999; Street, 1984). Este analisis nos permite demostrar la posibilidad de integracion entre el letramiento y el juego en educacion infantil.