In Transition to School: Across Vernacular and Institutional Multiliteracies.

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to explore how multiliteracies are embedded in different activities and places where children (5–6 years old) participate within a community, and the tension between vernacular and institutional framings of such activities as children make the transition from kindergarten/preschool to first grade. Multiliteracies are defined both by the way in which children interact with different modalities and technologies and how this interaction is part of different activities and settings within a community. The empirical data presented are from an ethnographic study in a multicultural community in Oslo, following children over a 2-year period and across institutional and everyday contexts. The data show how children and their families experience tensions between the vernacular and the institutional of multiliteracies. Key issues are raised about ways of understanding children and their literate lives in contemporary cultures and a conceptual agenda for studying multiliteracies as an interplay between different practices and places where children are engaged in reading and writing.