New literacies, old identities: Girls’ experiences of literacy and new technologies at home and school

Paper presented at ESRC-funded Seminar Series:

Girls and Education 3-16: Old Concerns, New Agendas
Seminar 2: Girls’ experience of school life

Goldsmiths College, London, 9^th March 2006

This paper examines issues arising from a number of research projects conducted over the last three years in which I have explored young children’s (aged 0-6) use of popular culture, media and digital literacies at home and in early years settings. In recent years, the issue of boys’ underachievement in literacy has dominated the agenda for literacy educators and early years practitioners. This emphasis has masked the complexities of the situation for girls, as assumptions about the alleged ease with which girls become literate are embedded in many of the analyses. In this paper, I challenge normative discourses about girls and literacy in the early years through a close reading of data that indicate that for some girls, the transition from home to early years settings is not seamless. Instead, expectations in early years settings are often based on traditional approaches to the communications, language and literacy curriculum and fail to take account of the changes that have taken place in socio-cultural constructions of literacy due to technological advances. When such changes are acknowledged, it is often boys’ experiences with digital literacies that are privileged. The paper will examine critically current discourses with regard to ‘new literacies’ and will consider how far the experiences of young girls are drawn upon in conceptualisations of new literacy practices in early years settings and schools.

Introduction

Since the late 1990’s, there have been persistent concerns about boys’ achievement in literacy. These concerns have been linked to boys’ and girls’ different performances in national tests in reading, writing and English. Analysis of national tests reveals differences in attainment of boys and girls in the early years of education, as indicated in Tables 1 and 2.

Strand	All	Boys	Girls
Language for communication and thinking	81	77	85
Linking sounds and letters	63	57	68
Reading	72	67	77
Writing	61	53	70

	All	Boys	Girls
Reading	85	81	89
Writing	82	77	88

There are, as indicated here, clear differences between boys’ and girls’ performance in these tests. This overview masks complexities in the situation, however, as ‘race’ and class impact upon attainment, which means that some groups of girls attain lower results than some groups of boys (Connolly, 2006; Gillborn and Mirza, 2000; Gorard, 2000; Gorard, Rees, Salisbury, 2001). In addition, the move to teacher assessment in the change from Baseline Assessments to the Foundation Stage Profile has resulted in lower results for Black and Minority Ethnic pupils, a situation which indicates racist assumptions about attainment on the part of early years teachers (Gillborn, 2005). However, despite these cautionary warnings, educationalists have seized on the ‘underachievement of boys in literacy’ issue with gusto. An analysis of the website of the National Literacy Trust, a key source of information on literacy for many schools and teachers, indicates the extent of the problem. On the page dedicated to providing links to resources concerning gender and literacy, 25 references are focused on projects relating to boys and literacy and only one on girls and literacy³. This ‘backlash blockbuster’ (Mills, 2000) has led to an increased focus on intervention projects in the early years in which emphasis has been placed on boys’ experiences of literacy. An assumption in much of this work is that girls’ experiences of the communications, language and literacy curriculum in the early years is unproblematic. However, in this paper, I argue that this overlooks the discontinuities in practices for many girls between home and early years settings. These discontinuities relate to literacy practices that are embedded in new technologies. Whilst these have been referred to variously as ‘new’ literacy practices (Lankshear and Knobel, 2003), it is important to recognise that literacy practices mediated by electronic technologies have a long history. Nevertheless, the term currently indicates literacy practices related to digital technologies and, given the profound nature of the changes in literacy due to technological developments (Kress, 2003), the phrase will be used throughout this paper to refer to literacy practices embedded in the use of computers, television, mobile phones and console games.

New kinds of readers and writers are emerging from the current proliferation of digitextual practices in which children, young people and adults read and write using a range of technologies (Kress, 2003). Lankshear and Knobel (2004) identify four roles that they suggest characterise the practices people engage in as they produce, distribute and exchange texts in a new media age. Using the phrase the ‘digitally at home’ to describe a generation comfortable with and competent in the use of new technologies, the roles they outline for the digitally fluent are: a ‘designer’ of texts; a text ‘mediator’ or ‘broker’; a text ‘bricoleur’ and a text ‘jammer’ (Lankshear and Knobel, 2004). The roles of ‘bricoeur’ and ‘designer’ are of most relevance to this paper, but all four roles will be outlined briefly here. A text mediator is someone who plays a role in summarising or presenting specific aspects texts for others and Lankshear and Knobel offer the example of the practice of blogging and commenting on blogs to illustrate this. A text jammer is someone who presents a critical statement about a text by re-presenting it in some way, perhaps by adding a new phrase to an image in order to subvert the original meaning. A text bricoleur draws from a range of texts in order to create new ones. The fourth role is ‘text designer’ and Lankshear and Knobel (2004) emphasise that the concept of design, rather than traditional conceptions of authorship, is important in the production of multimodal, digital texts.

Girls’ engagement in a range of digi-textual practices from birth means that many of them are already competent text bricoleurs and designers by the time they attend pre-school settings, able to orchestrate and remake resources in the production of multi-media, multimodal texts. The data from the ‘Digital Beginnings’ Project (Marsh et al., 2005) indicate that many girls were creating texts using print and images on their computers and producing still and moving images on mobile telephones in their homes from a young age. For example, the mother of 4- year-old Emma reported that her daughter used a computer at home about four times a week, developing quite independent skills in using the internet and playing games:
Interviewer: Is she quite independent at using a computer? Would she be able to, say, load a disc in and click on the right…?

Mother: Yes, well, they’ve got the ‘Art Attack’ disc as well and she will

Interviewer: Okay, and what kind of things do you think she learns from computers, if anything?

Mother: Well, it’s just mainly games and things but she, like, learns how
to work it and load it and save things and print them off and

that kind of [thing]…

Emma was also developing competence with a mobile phone:

Mother …she’s got, like, my old phone.

Interviewer …So what sort of things does she do with that, then?

Mother Oh, she spends ages playing. She’ll put the different tunes on

and pretend to ring people and pretend that people are ringing

her. I mean she takes it everywhere with her. When we go out

she’ll put it on the table.

Interviewer …And is she aware of text messaging at all?

Mother Yeah… I mean sometimes I put a little bit of money on it just

for her to play with her friend because she goes away to the

caravan with my mum, her grandma sometimes on a weekend

so she will text little pictures to us and things.

However, when Emma attended her nursery class, she had little access to computers or other ICTs, as the interview with the Head of the nursery she attended indicated.

Interviewer So you go over there to do it?

Teacher Well, nursery don’t because of the time slot at the moment…

This was also the case with Tanya, whose mother outlined how her daughter used the computer at home independently to play games and access websites, but suggested that this was not the case in the early years setting she attended:

Mother She’s quite good, yeah, she knows how to use the mouse, she

Interviewer And does she use one anywhere else?

Mother No not yet. I think they are getting one at play school, but they

don’t use it there yet.

Their experiences were not isolated. Children in the study as a whole were more likely to have used a computer at home in the week prior to the survey than in the early years settings they attended (Marsh et al., 2005).

These ritualised acts often served the purpose of both maintaining family relationships and, in the case of children from Black and Minority Ethnic families, celebrating the cultural heritage of the family, made possible in many homes by the use of satellite television (Kenner, 2005). In addition, young children were frequently engaged in media use with younger and older siblings. However, these social and cultural uses of media were not widely reflected in the technological practices reported by early years settings, which primarily consisted of individuals’ use of single computers and the predominant use of English language programs.

Technological artefacts were precious objects for many girls. In Marsh (2004b), 23 four-year old girls and boys were given a digital camera and asked to take photographs of the things they liked doing best in their homes. The largest category of artefacts taken by both boys and girls was related to technology. Figure 1 offers examples of some of the girls’ choices, which included computers, televisions and CD players.

Figure 1: Photographs of favourite activities/ artefacts taken by four-year-old girls

These indications of young girls’ extensive engagement in digital literacy practices in the home have significant implications for early childhood educators, in that there is a need to recognise and build on children’s competence as text bricoleurs and designers in the communications, language and literacy curriculum. However, there is limited evidence that this is the case. In the ‘Digital Beginnings’ study, 524 practitioners responded to a survey in which they were asked about their use of popular culture, media and new technologies in the early years setting in which they worked. Although 67% reported using popular culture to develop work in oracy and literacy at least occasionally (e.g. two or three times a half-term), there was less extensive use of media and new technologies (Marsh et al., 2005). This has obvious consequences for the minority of children who do not have regular access to a computer at home, as well as implications for the further development of the skills many girls demonstrate in relation to technologies on entry to early childhood settings. The lack of use of computers in early years settings may relate to lack of resources, but it was clear from the interviews with practitioners that attitudes also played a part, with low expectations of young children:

The use of other technologies, such as digital and video cameras, was even less frequent (74% of practitioners stated that they never used digital still cameras with children, 81% stated that they never used video cameras with children). This lack of attention to media production and analysis is not always a deliberate strategy by early years practitioners, as many in the study stated that they would like more training in this area. However, there were early years educators who suggested that they did think that work with both still and digital video cameras was age-inappropriate:

Teacher 1 We haven’t, we’ve used them but we haven’t let the children

Teacher 2 I think it is too expensive if they drop them.

The overall picture is one in which there is still a predominant focus in early years settings on traditional print practices, reading storybooks and writing which involves pencils and paper. Whilst these patterns applied to both boys and girls, I would argue that they have the most serious implications for girls. In the ‘Digital Beginnings’ study, there were no significant gender differences in the average daily use of computers at home (Marsh et al., 2005). However, there is evidence from other studies that older boys spend more time using computers than girls (Valentine, Marsh and Pattie, 2005). If there is not a deliberate strategy by early years educators to ensure that girls have equal access to ICTs, then the experiences that many girls have prior to attending early years settings will be dissipated. Given that future competence in ICTs and digital literacy practices will become of even greater importance in the employment market (Luke and Luke, 2001), girls are being disadvantaged by the emphasis of many early years practitioners on the alphabetic code as it relates to paper-based texts.
Further, there is a need for early years educators to ensure that girls are able to engage in digi-textual practices that do not reinforce gender stereotypes. Whilst many girls used a range of technologies in the home, some of these were located in discourses that perpetuated particular, reductionist accounts of girls’ interests. For example, many of the girls used toy computers, laptops and PDAS that were linked to the popular character, Barbie. These artefacts are often pink and feature icons such as flowers and hearts. Encounters with ICT hardware and software which are not embedded in such reductive, hegemonic accounts of girlhood are important for young girls if they are to experience alternative discourses and early years settings offer suitable spaces for such encounters. It is unfortunate, therefore, that the use of these technologies is currently so limited in many settings.


Privileging boys’ practices

Whilst the overall picture does indicate a lack of attention to the way in which literacy is changing rapidly in the twenty-first century, some early years settings have attempted to use ICTs more widely in the communications, language and literacy curriculum. However, a close analysis of the data relating to this development indicates that, when this does occur, it is often boys’ uses of and interests in digital technologies that are privileged.

(Beavis, 2005:3)

This resonates with young girls’ use of new technologies. In much of the data from studies of the new literacy practices of 0-6-year-olds (Marsh, 2004; 2005; Marsh et al., 2005), girls could be seen to be forming and performing aspects of their identities in ways which reinforced gendered communities of practice (Paechter, 2004). Whilst there were no significant differences in the average daily amount of screen use by boys and girls in the ‘Digital Beginnings’ study, the texts they were engaged with and the activities undertaken were often very different. However, in their use of popular culture, media and new technologies to promote engagement in schooled literacy practices, practitioners often draw on boys’ interests.
In the ‘Digital Beginnings’ project, practitioners were asked what internet sites they directed children to, if any. The most popular site used by early years settings was ‘CBeebies’, popular with both boys and girls, but the second most popular site was ‘Bob the Builder’, which did not appear on any of the girls’ lists of favourite websites, television programmes or popular characters. Despite this, the ‘Bob the Builder’ narrative was predominant in many of the accounts of how settings had used children’s interests in popular culture, media and new technologies to promote learning.

The ‘Bob the Builder’ narrative is saturated with stereotypical representations of gender. The website, used extensively by many of the early years practitioners who had access to the internet in their setting, demonstrates this. The ‘Bob the Builder’ site⁵ introduces the show’s characters. Wendy is described on the site thus:

Bob the Builder is depicted on an introductory screen in a kitchen. This is a high-tech environment in which, if children click on the television and telephone, electronic sounds are emitted. In addition, Bob is portrayed holding his clipboard, obviously ready to start work. Wendy appears in a different room holding a bunch of flowers, which does not reflect the ‘tech-saviness’ referred to in her profile. In addition, the objects children can click on in Wendy’s room are not technological, like those in Bob’s domain, and instead feature a teddy-bear, cushion and bird (there is also a kettle that does whistle when clicked on, but it is assumed that this electronic gadget enables Wendy to make tea for the team in addition to organising their tools). This brief analysis of one typical site used by many early years settings suggests that not only are girls being offered access to websites which do not correspond to their own stated interests and preferences, but that some of the sites accessed do little to challenge stereotypical representations of gender.

In this paper, I have suggested that the transition from home to school literacy practices for many young girls is not as straightforward as is often assumed. Girls aged from 0-6 do spend more time in homes on traditional print-based literacy practices than boys (Marsh et al., 2005) and these practices are reflected in early years settings. In that sense, it could be argued that the transition to schooled literacy practices is easier for girls than boys and this may explain many boys’ disengagement with the literacy curriculum. However, the situation is more complex than this, because many of the literacy practices young girls are engaged in the home are located in new technologies. There is, at present, limited recognition of these digital literacy practices in early years settings and schools, which means that girls have restricted opportunities to develop confidence and expertise in ICTs and this may be one of the reasons for girls’ less extensive use of computers than boys in the later years (Valentine et al., 2005).

This is not to suggest that the simple adoption of girls’ out-of-school digital literacy practices will offer a panacea. Whilst work involving dance mats and karaoke machines might offer some recognition of girls’ preferred practices, this work needs to be embedded in a critical literacy agenda in which issues of identities and agency are explored. As Beavis (2005) suggests in relation to the use of computer games:
In seeking to understand more about the ways in which young people’s out of school learnings and experiences around computer games might be utilized in the curriculum using ICTs in ways hospitable to both boys and girls, it is important to attend not just to the practices on display, but to issues of identity, purpose and social context in order to promote interest, flexibility and expertise.

(Beavis, 2005:10)

Young girls need opportunities to engage reflexively with technologies in early years settings in order to challenge traditional constructions of gender. This work could be undertaken in ways which do not undermine children’s pleasurable engagements with such texts, but which enable them to engage in complex, multi-layered readings of popular culture (Alvermann, Hagood and Moon, 1999).

However, perhaps a more pressing concern is the proliferation of intervention programmes targeted at promoting boys’ achievement in literacy which celebrate uncritically the texts, artefacts and icons related to hegemonic masculinities. Simply regurgitating popular narratives in which stereotypical masculinist discourses are privileged in order to enhance engagement with schooled literacy practices may help to raise boys’ attainment in literacy, but will do little to ensure that girls are adequately equipped for the challenges of living in societies in which girls and women still suffer extensive discrimination.

Alvermann, D., Moon, J.S., & Hagood, M.C. (1999). Popular culture in the classroom: Teaching and researching critical media literacy. Newark, Delaware: IRA/ NRC.

Gillborn, D. (2005). “It's not a conspiracy ... it's worse than that”: a critical race perspective on education after the Stephen Lawrence inquiry. Paper presented at the British Educational Research Association Annual Conference, University of Glamorgan 2005

Mills, M. (2000) Shaping the boys’ agenda: the backlash blockbusters. Paper presented at ECER Annual Conference, Edinburgh, September 2000.