Mercantile Parenting: The circulation of information about children’s literacy development in commercial spaces

Cultivating Connections Conference Global Perspectives & Practices in Family Literacy

Jennifer Rowsell, Brock University

July 16th, 2010 Edmonton, Alberta

Literacy is about what we do (practice) but also about how we assign meaning to what we do (discourse).

Mothers’ and fathers’ understanding of how best to foster children’s learning and development (CLD) is a vital element in optimising children’s learning.

Our project focuses on how parents and caregivers access the kinds of resources which can assist them to support CLD.

Parents’ networks: The circulation of knowledge about children’s literacy learning (ARC Discovery, Nichols, Nixon, Rainbird & Rowsell)

! What kinds of information about children’s learning and development do parents seek?

! What information networks do parents use in order to find and share this information?

! What forms does this information take (e.g. print materials, web-pages, flyers, magazines)?

! What ideas about children’s learning and development are circulated through these information networks?

What is circulating?

Ideas about children, parenting, literacy, learning, development

Resources

Practices

In what forms?

Print texts

Visual texts

Digital texts

Material objects

Oral communication

Observed behaviour

Through what spaces?

Commercial spaces

Institutional spaces

Virtual spaces

Homes

Community spaces

How are connections made?

Co-location

Travel

Intertextuality

Referral

Social networks

Personal narratives

With what effects?

Differentiation

Transformation

Reproduction

!  An environmental focus: Walk-about, mapping, visual documentation, artifact collection, and observation

!  An organisational focus: Interviews with information workers, network tracing and artifact collection

!  A family focus: Ethnographic participant observation, interviews and artefact collection

networks

spatial social

textual/artifactual

digital/cyber

knowledge

Parent

Personal Story

Sponsor of Literacy

Spaces of Practice

Parental Practices Textual Networks

!  Rural community of two adjoining townships, one Anglo-European and the other with a significant Asian community, located on the fringe of the metropolitan area.

!  Central hub and surrounding residential area of metropolitan local government district including large mall.

!  US town with high social contrast, home to a highly educated elite and a strong working-class black community. Experiencing growth and change.

! Actor network theory

! Discourse analysis ! Geosemiotics ! Ecological survey

Social Capital: Material and immaterial resources that individuals and families are able to access through their social ties. (Horvat 2003: 323)

Ecologies: All elements in a system need to be considered in terms of their relationships.

Extend focus relationship between home & school to encompass communities as educational sites (Good et al 1997, Neuman and Celano 2001)

!  Networks – dynamic sets of connections through which flow ideas and resources

!  Individuals and organizations are both agents (actors) and networks (Law 2003).

!  Multiple dimensions of networking - social, digital, financial, textual and spatial.

!  Look for ‘network effects’ in local spaces and practices (Clark 2001 p. 5).

! Parent survey ! Parent interviews ! Fieldwork (‘actual’ sites) ! Interviews with information workers ! Web-site investigation ! Artifact collection ! Opportunistic information gathering

! Reconnaissance & observation – virtual & actual

! Following leads

! Identifying key site features

! Documentation •  Inventories •  Mapping •  Photographs •  Artifact collection

! Observation •  Use of space •  Use of resources •  Interactions regarding CLD

!  Characteristics of information & resources

!  Spatial context – where is this text/display/shop? What kind of space is this?

!  Access – how easy is it to find/reach/see?

!  Cost – how much time/money/effort does it take to: get to this place/access this resource/take this thing home?

!  Social relations – which people are hailed to read this text/come to this place?

!  Mobility – how does information/resources move in and out of this space?

!  Networking – what kinds of connections are made between intofmration/resources in different spaces & places?

hospital

Bounty Bag

Mother & baby

voucher

Target

Network analysis: some trails

publisher

Other publications

!  Bringing CDA to network analysis means we consider networking as a textual practice.

!  Bringing network theory into dialogue with CDA means we consider how networks facilitate the circulation of texts and discourses through direct human interactions and through technological interfaces.

!  We are interested in identifying the discourses of CLLD circulating through these networks.

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!  The semiotic aggregate – concept for understanding complex interrelationships between spaces, texts and interactions

!  Interaction order (how people interact in place),

!  Visual semiotics (how texts and images are ‘read’ in place)

!  Semiotics of place (how materiality and space is ‘read’)

Scollon & Scollon (2003)

!  Multi-site studies enable different questions to be asked about access, resources and parents’ practices around CLLD;

!  Geographic disparities are complex and cannot be described in terms of binaries (e.g., rural/urban);

!  Strong sponsorship for CLLD does not guarantee reach into diverse social spaces;

!  Religious organizations are important networking and resourcing entities for parents;

!  The infant is emerging as the new ideal subject for literacy socialisation and thus for enlisting parents at the earliest stage.

!  Three commercial hubs in close proximity in US site in ‘strip malls’

!  Used a Sarah Pink lens for observations to explore, “the production of both material and social realities” to derive a sense of place. (Pink, 2008: 179)

!  Documented ‘entangled pathways’ or making of routes for sensory experiences.

!  Such a perspective accounts for researcher reflexivity.

Babies R Us Interaction Order: Interact with BRU representatives Visual Semiotics: Texts are read at stations, large reception for

questions, answers, and requests. Semiotics of Space: Open, expansive, modern, focused on

babies in all domains of philosophy and practice

Target Interaction Order: Little to no seeking out of help and most

activity in children’s clothing Visual Semiotics: Parenting has a variety of books - not separated

by genre like B R U - privileging of children’s clothes instead of information

Semiotics of Space: Muted colours, darker lighting, vast, busy and hectic feel

Walmart Interaction Order: Focused shopping and interactions

looking for specific items Visual Semiotics: Generic design with sections in the same

place in each store. Informational texts at the front of store by the cash registers.

Semiotics of Space: Clothing in front of store and toys in back, darker lighting and more chaotic feel.

On Walmart: Moving into the store and walking east along the side you hit: food; drugstore/chemist at the front of the store and on the other side as you walk into the main part of the store you hit: stationary items; housewares; and gardening/landscaping. You walk through aisles and aisles of housewares; sporting goods; electronics; until you hit children’s toys in the back of the store. Most of the toys have to do with pure fun, but there is one row dedicated to educational toys. (12/09)

Babies R Us " Home " Category " Brand " Collection " Top Rated " What’s New " Multiple Learning Styles

Target " Women " Men " Baby " Kid " Shoes " Beauty " Home " Bed + Bath

Walmart (Baby Section) " Bedding and Décor " Car Seats " Clothing " Cribs " Diapers & Potty " Feeding " Gear " Gifts for Baby " Maternity " Nursery " Strollers " Toddler Room " Toys " Travel Solutions

•  A mix of theoretical and methodological approaches. •  An attention to time, space and semiosis. •  There are some commonalities and differences between

virtual and physical spaces: •  Different architectures of participation in mall space vs. online space. •  There is a synergy and complementarity between commercial spaces and

virtual spaces. •  We show what a big role the digital is playing in educating children and

establishing dispositions for the ‘good parent.’ •  Based on commercial ethnography, producers of commercial goods are the

new sponsors of literacy (Brandt, 2001). •  Interaction between the local and the global in “educating” families (e.g.,

Westfield London, New Jersey, Australia).