Animating families’ playful idiocultures through parental co-design and participatory analysis: examining how caregivers promote young children’s rightful presence

Abstract

In early literacy research, recognizing play as literacy is relatively commonplace. From examining child-produced artifacts to untangling the knots of new imaginative universes, scholars have examined early learners’ playtexts as unique and consequential products of inquiry. Despite this surplus of literature focused on the objects of play, there is a relative dearth of research examining how families might read and analyze the relational aspects of children’s play. Seeking to contribute to this nascent conversation, in this article, I draw on qualitative data generated through a 6-week ethnographic inquiry across an integrative science–literacy unit. Through sustained participant observation, annotated memoirs, instructional artifacts, design interviews, and take-home extension activities, I foreground family idiocultures, the lived repertoires and communicative dynamics intrinsic to caregivers and their children. With codesign and co-analysis as my primary objects of analysis, two research questions guided this study: (1) How are families’ playful idiocultures animated through participatory codesign and co-analysis? (2) How do children actively (re-)create moments of inquiry and learning via early authorship practices? By privileging participatory design and subject–subject relationality, the findings presented herein affirm children’s and families’ rightful presence in school and challenge dichotomies between home and formal education. In animating the relational, innovative, and sometimes underestimated aspects of playful literacies, this article demonstrates how playful early (co)authoring fosters community, memory, and meaningful partnerships among teachers, families, and young writers.