Literacies in Childhood 2e supports the development of competent and confident Early Childhood and Primary Educators in Australia and New Zealand. Building on the success of the first edition, this new edition offers increased emphasis on all stages of early childhood from infants and toddlers, to preschoolers and the early primary school years. Still espousing a ‘literacy as social practice’ philosophy, the new edition also provides a balanced discussion of phonics, and addresses the principles of emergent literacy focusing on children’s literacy learning as a multi-faceted process. This underpinning concept of ‘multiliteracies’ provides a cohesive theme throughout the text. Topical issues that are retained in this edition include: the intersections between social identities such as gender, language, ethnicity, race, ability and class; the importance of partnerships between educators, families and communities in fostering literacy learning; visual, technological and commercial influences and the overriding view that children are competent interpreters of their social worlds.

Features:

• Australian, New Zealand and Asian focus
• Comprehensive in its coverage of important topics and issues
• Includes high profile academics, and draws on latest research
• Grounded in practice but with strong theoretical and philosophical foundations
• Accessible language that ‘speaks’ to the student
• Divided into Parts, providing a clear framework and systematic progression of concepts
• Abstracts at the beginning of each chapter
• Reflection and follow up boxes useful for busy lecturers
• Children’s sample work and transcripts integrated throughout
• More multilingual (not just bi-lingual) coverage