Abigail Hackett – författare

Challenging dominant views of early childhood language development and knowledge, this thought-provoking volume illuminates the importance of place, the body, and movement in opening space for young children’s improvisatory, creative, playful language practices.Bringing together a rich collection of contemporary research and diverse perspectives, the book centers on the premise that ‘where’ talk happens—be it spoken, mimed, signed, or assisted through one or more communication tools—is not a neutral backdrop or controllable variable. Rather, it is deeply entangled in the emergence of language from bodies, in how these vocalizations make their way into the world, what they might feel like and set into motion, and how they are received, heard and listened to by other humans and by non-humans. Chapter authors introduce theories about language, body, and place, while also providing examples of what this work may look like in practice.This book is key reading for those who work with young children and families, including teachers, pre-service teachers studying child development, speech and language therapists, support workers, and those in the arts, cultural and environmental sectors. It is also highly relevant to researchers, literacy education scholars, and anyone who endeavors to think more expansively and critically about language and literacy in early childhood contexts.

Challenging dominant views of early childhood language development and knowledge, this thought-provoking volume illuminates the importance of place, the body, and movement in opening space for young children’s improvisatory, creative, playful language practices.Bringing together a rich collection of contemporary research and diverse perspectives, the book centers on the premise that ‘where’ talk happens—be it spoken, mimed, signed, or assisted through one or more communication tools—is not a neutral backdrop or controllable variable. Rather, it is deeply entangled in the emergence of language from bodies, in how these vocalizations make their way into the world, what they might feel like and set into motion, and how they are received, heard and listened to by other humans and by non-humans. Chapter authors introduce theories about language, body, and place, while also providing examples of what this work may look like in practice.This book is key reading for those who work with young children and families, including teachers, pre-service teachers studying child development, speech and language therapists, support workers, and those in the arts, cultural and environmental sectors. It is also highly relevant to researchers, literacy education scholars, and anyone who endeavors to think more expansively and critically about language and literacy in early childhood contexts.

Drawing from a wide range of disciplines, including anthropology, sociology, architecture and geography, and international contributors, this volume offers both students and scholars with an interest in the interdisciplinary study of childhood a range of ways of thinking spatially about children's lives.

Working with Young Children in Museums makes a major contribution to the small body of extant research on young children in museums, galleries and heritage sites. Bridging theory and practice, the book introduces theoretical concepts in a clear and concise manner, whilst also providing inspirational insights into everyday programming in museums. Structured around three key themes, this volume seeks to diverge from the dominant socio-cultural learning models that are generally employed in the museum learning literature. It introduces a body of theories that have variously been called new materialist, spatial, posthuman and Deleuzian; theories which enable a focus on the body, movement and place and which have not yet been widely shared or developed with the museum sector or explicitly connected to practice. This book outlines these theories in an accessible way, explaining their usefulness for conceptualising young children in museums and connecting them to practical examples of programming in a range of locations via a series of contributed case studies. Connecting theory to practice for readers in a way that emphasises possibility, Working with Young Children in Museums should be essential reading for museum practitioners working in a range of institutions around the world. It should be of equal interest to researchers and students engaged in the study of museum learning, early childhood education and children’s experiences in museums.

Working with Young Children in Museums makes a major contribution to the small body of extant research on young children in museums, galleries and heritage sites. Bridging theory and practice, the book introduces theoretical concepts in a clear and concise manner, whilst also providing inspirational insights into everyday programming in museums. Structured around three key themes, this volume seeks to diverge from the dominant socio-cultural learning models that are generally employed in the museum learning literature. It introduces a body of theories that have variously been called new materialist, spatial, posthuman and Deleuzian; theories which enable a focus on the body, movement and place and which have not yet been widely shared or developed with the museum sector or explicitly connected to practice. This book outlines these theories in an accessible way, explaining their usefulness for conceptualising young children in museums and connecting them to practical examples of programming in a range of locations via a series of contributed case studies. Connecting theory to practice for readers in a way that emphasises possibility, Working with Young Children in Museums should be essential reading for museum practitioners working in a range of institutions around the world. It should be of equal interest to researchers and students engaged in the study of museum learning, early childhood education and children’s experiences in museums.

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.