"Come see my story" : young children's story creation in a public preschool classroom

Abstract

This study was conducted to examine two research questions: (1) How does one early childhood teacher's beliefs and practices shape story creation moments during a literacy instruction block? And (2) How are 4 and 5 year-old children's stories created in an early childhood literacy instruction block? This study is situated in the current field of literature on storytelling and theoretically guided by critical childhood studies. Specifically, my work examines the literature on children's storytelling including its multiple modalities, and storytelling as a literacy pedagogy and practice in the early childhood classroom. There is a need for children's story creation in the current educational and political context of the US. This study was conducted using qualitative research design and methodology, which draws upon ethnographic methods and narrative inquiry with children. The findings of this study illustrate how one early childhood teacher's beliefs and practices profoundly shape story creation moments during a literacy instruction block. Further, this study discusses the ways in which young children embrace their agency and role as active members of their social worlds within a critical childhood classroom as well as demonstrate their unique ways of knowing and being that occur through story creation. This study results in implications for further academic research, teacher education and development programs, and classroom practice in the early childhood literacy classroom.