More-Than-Human Literacies in Early Childhood - (Feminist Thought in Childhood Research) by Abigail Hackett (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

More-Than-Human Literacies in Early Childhood draws on a long-term ethnographic research into the role of place, materiality and the body in the literacies of young children aged 12-36 months. It builds a picture of how children participate in, or become caught up in, literacies and language in the contexts of their everyday lives.

Throughout the book, recognised understandings of young children are decentred in favour of experiential knowing of parents and communities, body-place knowing and ordinary affects. Abigail Hackett argues that young children's literacies are always more-than-human, involving sounds, gestures and movements between humans and nonhuman places and things. By paying close attention to the more-than-human nature of these literacies, which rely on bodies, places, animals, humans, objects and atmospheres for their ongoingness, a case is made for the decentring of young children.

The book will be of particular interest to researchers looking at feminist-new materialism, posthumanism, affect theory, and critical literacy in early childhood settings.

Review Quotes

"Hackett contributes a bold and conceptually rich rupturing of the dominant discourses of early childhood literacy." --TACTYC (Association of Professional Development in Early Years)

"At a time when data-driven system and evidence-based practice continue to hold sway in educational settings, this book make a powerful plea for engaging with the everyday, for recognising the affective intensities of wild, more-than-human literacies and unsettling the certainties that work to hold inequalities in place. It is one of the most compelling books on language and literacy that I have read for some time - beautifully written, provocative and very moving." --Cathy Burnett, Professor of Literacy and Education, Sheffield Hallam University, UK

"An interesting blend of theory and practice that describes the relationship between posthuman thought and literacy. The book is beautifully written, well laid out and has carved out a niche within the existing theoretical frameworks that is unique." --Radhika Viruru, Clinical Professor of Teaching, Learning, and Culture, Texas A&M University, USA

"Abigail Hackett's richly descriptive portrayal of young children's language and literacy practices provides us a view into an everyday world that we instantly recognize but that is most often shoved aside as "off-task" within linear, instrumental versions of development and learning. Through her marvelous storytelling, Hackett makes accessible, clear, and compelling the power of conceptualizing young children's literacies as embodied, collective, entangled in flows of affect, and engaged with the more-than-human world." --Gail L. Boldt, Professor of Education, The Pennsylvania State University, USA

"More-Than-Human Literacies in Early Childhood is an engaging read. This is largely due to the warmth within Hackett's recounting of her time in the field. Nevertheless, the text is simultaneously theoretically challenging, bringing together multiple concepts related to post-humanism and feminist new materialism, as well as the politics and ethics related to the education and care of very young children." --Samantha Hulston, University of Cambridge, Literacy

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