This article probes into the social and discursive construction of intertextualities in young ELL children's poetry writing process. It aims to explore the role of intertextuality in promoting young ELL children's writing and academic learning through analysing naturally occurring classroom discourses. The research participants were 19…

Using data from a 4-year longitudinal ethnography in a multiage classroom, this study followed one "struggling" reader/writer from his first day of kindergarten into first grade in order to explore how time shapes young children's beliefs about reading and writing as well as constructions of literate identities. Using mediated discourse…

This qualitative study investigated Chinese and German teachers' and parents' conceptions and understanding of learning at play. A total of 28 teachers and 12 parents took part in this study. Among the participants, 12 kindergarten teachers (6 German and 6 Chinese) were interviewed to obtain their perspectives on learning at play. These…

Whether or not we are teachers, all of us must make sense of language. In doing so, we encounter representations of language, implicit or explicit descriptions which shift over time and are always tied to social and political interests. Teachers' work necessarily depends on these descriptions, which are deeply embedded within their…

The purpose of this study is to gain insight into how Korean temporary migrant mothers conceptualize the nature of parent involvement in the USA. The participants in this study consisted of Korean mothers who were educated in Korea, migrated temporarily to the USA for educational purposes, and sent their children to American schools. Using the…

Discursive practices enacted by educators in kindergarten create a blueprint for how the educational trajectories of students with disabilities get constructed. In this two-year ethnographic case study, I critically examine educators' relationships with students considered to present challenging behaviors in one classroom located in a…

This article describes how 2 classrooms of 4-year-old children incorporated popular media (cartoons, television shows, video games, movies, and music) into their conversations with peers during writing. The findings assert that (a) children naturally incorporate popular culture into their writing, (b) children include popular culture in their…

This article examines the code-switching (CS) practices of culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) young children in kindergarten and grade 1 classrooms. The author argues that their use of CS went beyond relief of psycholinguistic stress or coping with liminality (sense of living between two languages and cultures). Through several narratives…

Beginning with Lev Vygotsky's long-established assertion that the play of children always involves both imaginary play and rules of behavior, this article argues for a theoretical framework that connects such play with the construction of social identities in kindergarten peer groups. It begins with a discussion of Ivy Schousboe's model of the…

This paper, based on an ethnographic study of an Israeli kindergarten, describes the practice of hugging, by the girls, of the teacher, and the latter's response to the girls' initiative. Based on Bourdieu's concept of "habitus" and the assumption that embodiment is crucial to social-cultural learning, the paper demonstrates the complex…

In this article the author uses a socially situated view of identity to take a close look at how one male pre-service early educator shapes his professional identities during a fieldwork experience in a kindergarten classroom. In organizing his pedagogy and relationships this pre-service teacher simultaneously draws from his personal experiences…