- Title
- A case study to explore developing a community of practice to support emergent literacy in preschool children's play
- Creator
- Martin, Tamarynd
- Subject
- Early childhood education
- Subject
- Children -- Language
- Subject
- Reading (Preschool)
- Subject
- Toddlers -- Books and reading
- Date Issued
- 2018
- Date
- 2018
- Type
- Thesis
- Type
- Masters
- Type
- MEd
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10948/31841
- Identifier
- vital:31850
- Description
- In South Africa at present, Literacy is a cause for rising concern, with reading and writing competency in primary school being at an all-time low. It is a widespread belief that part of the problem lies with the lack early childhood education. Only 37% of children under the age of five attend an early childhood development centre. Furthermore, South Africa has a shortage of educators, specifically within the domain of early childhood development. With more research being done in the area of literacy, more educators concur that emergent literacy forms the foundation of formal reading and writing later on. This study is a participatory case study, which reflects on the importance of literacy in the early years, showing the belief that pre-formal schooling, specifically emergent literacy, is directly linked to proficiency in reading and writing in formal schooling. This study also highlights how educators in early childhood development can be involved in ongoing reflective interventions through in-service training and communities of practice. This community of practice was developed as a series of focus groups, which met on a weekly basis to discuss and share thoughts, opinions and experiences surrounding emergent literacy in a preschool context. From multiple focus groups, I found that the participants became more confident in sharing their experiences and building upon each other’s ideas and thoughts. The focus groups, not only added to their understanding of emergent literacy, but enthused them and created more of an awareness in their day to day practices.
- Format
- 152 leaves
- Format
- Publisher
- Nelson Mandela University
- Publisher
- Faculty of Education
- Language
- English
- Rights
- Nelson Mandela University
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| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | SOURCE1 | Tamarynd Martin.pdf | 1 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |