I am an academic at Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, Australia. My research encompasses the ways that young children accomplish their social activity during interactions with adults and with other children. Most recently, I have examined the social accomplishment of young children's digital activity.
Dialogic teaching emphasizes changes to classroom interaction to promote student participation, y... more Dialogic teaching emphasizes changes to classroom interaction to promote student participation, yet there are still few studies which investigate how this might occur in early years’ literacy classrooms. This practitioner action research study focuses on one classroom teacher’s journey as she implemented a range of dialogic strategies to promote student talk, aiming to create a richer learning environment in a Kindergarten and Year One elementary classroom. Changes were made over a six-month period and these were documented using a reflective journal, video and audio recordings of classroom lessons and transcript analysis of those. Classroom talk was coded according to types of interactions, and the number of interactions produced by students and the teacher. Patterns in turn-taking and language use were identified and compared over time as various strategies were implemented. As a result of changes, a more dialogic classroom environment developed providing increased opportunities f...
A problem in pedagogy is that listening and speaking, as intricately interconnected interactional... more A problem in pedagogy is that listening and speaking, as intricately interconnected interactional phenomena, are often treated separately. In classroom discussions, attention is predominantly drawn to vocalisation as the key element of dialogue. This paper aims to draw attention to intricacies and multidimensionality of listening in classroom discussions and consider how these multiple dimensions align with a dialogic ideology. Drawing on practitioner action research conducted in elementary classrooms where teachers deliberately sought to promote dialogic pedagogy, we examine transcripts to further understand how listening is connected to recipiency, meaning-making and co-produced in interaction. Conversation analysis delineates five turn-structures constitutive of listening actively. We argue that teacher knowledge of these realms of listening will assist teachers recognise “active” listening among students.
Maintaining intersubjectivity is crucial for accomplishing coordinated social action. Although co... more Maintaining intersubjectivity is crucial for accomplishing coordinated social action. Although conversational repair is a recognised defence of intersubjectivity and routinely used to address ostensible sources of trouble in social interaction, it is less clear how people address more equivocal trouble. This study uses conversation analysis to examine preschool classroom interaction, focusing on practices used to identify and address such trouble. Repair is found to be a recurrent frontline practice for addressing equivocal trouble, occasioning space for further information that might enable identifying a specific trouble source. Where further information is forthcoming, a range of strategies are subsequently employed to address the trouble. Where this is not possible or does not succeed, a secondary option is to progress a broader activity-in-progress. This allows for the possibility of another opportunity to identify and address the trouble. Given that misunderstandings can jeopar...
International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 2009
Transcription is a practice central to qualitative research, yet the literature that addresses tr... more Transcription is a practice central to qualitative research, yet the literature that addresses transcription presents it as taken for granted in qualitative studies. In this article the author provides a review of three decades of literature on transcription between 1979 and 2009. The review establishes core understandings and issues that have informed the transcription literature, including the ways it is said that transcription is overlooked in qualitative research. Discussion of the literature raises the need for more empirical studies that examine transcription in qualitative research, and suggests specific questions that qualitative researchers might address in relation to transcription and its reporting.
Research confirms that young children engage in digital literacy practices in the home. While the... more Research confirms that young children engage in digital literacy practices in the home. While there is an emerging body of work that documents the diversity of these practices, there is little research that examines their acquisition in situ. This article uses conversation analysis to describe and explicate the social accomplishment of a number of activities that led to and constituted a young child’s Google search to find information about a lizard. Discussion of the child’s activities considers the local and situated use of technology, including how the child and adult jointly obtained the information needed by the child to read and write texts related to the search. The article establishes ways that social interaction contributes to young children’s acquisition and use of digital literacy practices, including when learning about print and about techology itself.
Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 2010
/ The playing of computer games in the home is ubiquitous in contemporary life. Research that exa... more / The playing of computer games in the home is ubiquitous in contemporary life. Research that examines young children’s computer use confirms that playing computer games is a dominant form of activity. While computer game playing has important social effects for children, how children accomplish their social activity during computer use is very much taken for granted in the game-playing literature. This article addresses young children’s computer game playing through a detailed analysis of two children’s interaction while playing a Wiggles game in their home. Conversation analysis is employed to describe and explicate the social accomplishment of playing the game through a sequential analysis of data. Discussion considers the local organization of the game, its occasioned complexity, and the management of identity-related activities during game playing. The study provides a description of the ways that social interaction accomplishes the children’s game playing.
This article examines some of the ways that young children seek and provide help through social i... more This article examines some of the ways that young children seek and provide help through social interaction during use of the computer in the home. Although social interaction is considered an important aspect of young children's use of computers, there are still few studies that provide detailed analysis of how young children accomplish that social interaction. Conversation analysis of two young children's social interactions during help provides descriptions of the methods and resources used by them to mutually accomplish their activity. Discussion of specific ways of helping establishes how talk and interaction between children may contribute to computer use and acquisition of on-screen reading and writing practices.
Purpose – This chapter examines disputes produced by two young children during computer game play... more Purpose – This chapter examines disputes produced by two young children during computer game playing and considers how the disputes were related to the children's ongoing activity. Methodology/approach – The study is framed by ethnomethodology and conversation analysis. Sequential analysis of recorded data details the mutual production of disputes during talk and interaction. Findings – The analysis establishes how the children made each other accountable to the agreed-upon way of playing the game after one child offered to show the other how to play. Conflict developed during the game and disputes built upon previous disputes, especially in relation to claims made about knowing how to play. Research implications – The disputes here are best understood in relation to how disagreement was avoided initially but then emerged as the gaming progressed. Examining disputes in the course of computer activity shows how the children turn agreement into disagreement over time. Social implications – This study establishes some of the ways that disputes arise out of young children's social interactions during computer game playing and how disputes are related, or not, to shared understandings of what is going on moment by moment in the game. Originality – Overall, this chapter provides a detailed sequential analysis across computer activity and establishes how the children's disputes challenge the order of game playing as the game progresses.
International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 2016
This article discusses the use of observational video recordings to document young children’s use... more This article discusses the use of observational video recordings to document young children’s use of technology in their homes. Although observational research practices have been used for decades, often with video-based techniques, the participant group in this study (i.e., very young children) and the setting (i.e., private homes) provide a rich space for exploring the benefits and limitations of qualitative observation. The data gathered in this study point to a number of key decisions and issues that researchers must face in designing observational research, particularly where nonresearchers (in this case, parents) act as surrogates for the researcher at the data collection stage. The involvement of parents and children as research videographers in the home resulted in very rich and detailed data about children’s use of technology in their daily lives. However, limitations noted in the data set (e.g., image quality) provide important guidance for researchers developing projects ...
Internet-connected tablets and smart phones are being used increasingly by young children. Little... more Internet-connected tablets and smart phones are being used increasingly by young children. Little is known, however, about their social interactions with family members when engaged with these technologies. This article examines video recorded interactions between a father and his two young children, one aged 18 months using an iPhone, and one aged three years accessing an iPad. Drawing on Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis, this analysis establishes ways the family members engage and disengage in talk to manage their individual activity with mobile devices and accomplish interaction with each other. Findings are relevant for understanding children’s everyday practices with mobile technologies.
Multimodal Perspectives of Language, Literacy, and Learning in Early Childhood, 2017
With young children’s increased use of digital technologies, there is growing interest in their m... more With young children’s increased use of digital technologies, there is growing interest in their multimodal meaning making. Little is known of the ways that interactions between young children and adults produce multimodal meaning making as an aspect of digital literacies. This chapter explores children’s production of multimodal meaning making during their viewing of YouTube videos in a preschool. Video-recorded data are drawn from a large study of young children’s everyday practices with digital technology in preschools and in their homes. Conversation analysis is used to investigate the multimodal resources employed by the children and their teacher to accomplish individual and shared understandings of video events as humorous, out-of-the-ordinary, and even dangerous. Discussion establishes how social interaction informed viewing, made use of multimodal resources, and extended opportunities for children’s learning. The chapter contributes to thinking about practices necessary for educators to support children’s multimodal meaning making during their use of digital technologies.
Dialogic teaching emphasizes changes to classroom interaction to promote student participation, y... more Dialogic teaching emphasizes changes to classroom interaction to promote student participation, yet there are still few studies which investigate how this might occur in early years’ literacy classrooms. This practitioner action research study focuses on one classroom teacher’s journey as she implemented a range of dialogic strategies to promote student talk, aiming to create a richer learning environment in a Kindergarten and Year One elementary classroom. Changes were made over a six-month period and these were documented using a reflective journal, video and audio recordings of classroom lessons and transcript analysis of those. Classroom talk was coded according to types of interactions, and the number of interactions produced by students and the teacher. Patterns in turn-taking and language use were identified and compared over time as various strategies were implemented. As a result of changes, a more dialogic classroom environment developed providing increased opportunities f...
A problem in pedagogy is that listening and speaking, as intricately interconnected interactional... more A problem in pedagogy is that listening and speaking, as intricately interconnected interactional phenomena, are often treated separately. In classroom discussions, attention is predominantly drawn to vocalisation as the key element of dialogue. This paper aims to draw attention to intricacies and multidimensionality of listening in classroom discussions and consider how these multiple dimensions align with a dialogic ideology. Drawing on practitioner action research conducted in elementary classrooms where teachers deliberately sought to promote dialogic pedagogy, we examine transcripts to further understand how listening is connected to recipiency, meaning-making and co-produced in interaction. Conversation analysis delineates five turn-structures constitutive of listening actively. We argue that teacher knowledge of these realms of listening will assist teachers recognise “active” listening among students.
Maintaining intersubjectivity is crucial for accomplishing coordinated social action. Although co... more Maintaining intersubjectivity is crucial for accomplishing coordinated social action. Although conversational repair is a recognised defence of intersubjectivity and routinely used to address ostensible sources of trouble in social interaction, it is less clear how people address more equivocal trouble. This study uses conversation analysis to examine preschool classroom interaction, focusing on practices used to identify and address such trouble. Repair is found to be a recurrent frontline practice for addressing equivocal trouble, occasioning space for further information that might enable identifying a specific trouble source. Where further information is forthcoming, a range of strategies are subsequently employed to address the trouble. Where this is not possible or does not succeed, a secondary option is to progress a broader activity-in-progress. This allows for the possibility of another opportunity to identify and address the trouble. Given that misunderstandings can jeopar...
International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 2009
Transcription is a practice central to qualitative research, yet the literature that addresses tr... more Transcription is a practice central to qualitative research, yet the literature that addresses transcription presents it as taken for granted in qualitative studies. In this article the author provides a review of three decades of literature on transcription between 1979 and 2009. The review establishes core understandings and issues that have informed the transcription literature, including the ways it is said that transcription is overlooked in qualitative research. Discussion of the literature raises the need for more empirical studies that examine transcription in qualitative research, and suggests specific questions that qualitative researchers might address in relation to transcription and its reporting.
Research confirms that young children engage in digital literacy practices in the home. While the... more Research confirms that young children engage in digital literacy practices in the home. While there is an emerging body of work that documents the diversity of these practices, there is little research that examines their acquisition in situ. This article uses conversation analysis to describe and explicate the social accomplishment of a number of activities that led to and constituted a young child’s Google search to find information about a lizard. Discussion of the child’s activities considers the local and situated use of technology, including how the child and adult jointly obtained the information needed by the child to read and write texts related to the search. The article establishes ways that social interaction contributes to young children’s acquisition and use of digital literacy practices, including when learning about print and about techology itself.
Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 2010
/ The playing of computer games in the home is ubiquitous in contemporary life. Research that exa... more / The playing of computer games in the home is ubiquitous in contemporary life. Research that examines young children’s computer use confirms that playing computer games is a dominant form of activity. While computer game playing has important social effects for children, how children accomplish their social activity during computer use is very much taken for granted in the game-playing literature. This article addresses young children’s computer game playing through a detailed analysis of two children’s interaction while playing a Wiggles game in their home. Conversation analysis is employed to describe and explicate the social accomplishment of playing the game through a sequential analysis of data. Discussion considers the local organization of the game, its occasioned complexity, and the management of identity-related activities during game playing. The study provides a description of the ways that social interaction accomplishes the children’s game playing.
This article examines some of the ways that young children seek and provide help through social i... more This article examines some of the ways that young children seek and provide help through social interaction during use of the computer in the home. Although social interaction is considered an important aspect of young children's use of computers, there are still few studies that provide detailed analysis of how young children accomplish that social interaction. Conversation analysis of two young children's social interactions during help provides descriptions of the methods and resources used by them to mutually accomplish their activity. Discussion of specific ways of helping establishes how talk and interaction between children may contribute to computer use and acquisition of on-screen reading and writing practices.
Purpose – This chapter examines disputes produced by two young children during computer game play... more Purpose – This chapter examines disputes produced by two young children during computer game playing and considers how the disputes were related to the children's ongoing activity. Methodology/approach – The study is framed by ethnomethodology and conversation analysis. Sequential analysis of recorded data details the mutual production of disputes during talk and interaction. Findings – The analysis establishes how the children made each other accountable to the agreed-upon way of playing the game after one child offered to show the other how to play. Conflict developed during the game and disputes built upon previous disputes, especially in relation to claims made about knowing how to play. Research implications – The disputes here are best understood in relation to how disagreement was avoided initially but then emerged as the gaming progressed. Examining disputes in the course of computer activity shows how the children turn agreement into disagreement over time. Social implications – This study establishes some of the ways that disputes arise out of young children's social interactions during computer game playing and how disputes are related, or not, to shared understandings of what is going on moment by moment in the game. Originality – Overall, this chapter provides a detailed sequential analysis across computer activity and establishes how the children's disputes challenge the order of game playing as the game progresses.
International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 2016
This article discusses the use of observational video recordings to document young children’s use... more This article discusses the use of observational video recordings to document young children’s use of technology in their homes. Although observational research practices have been used for decades, often with video-based techniques, the participant group in this study (i.e., very young children) and the setting (i.e., private homes) provide a rich space for exploring the benefits and limitations of qualitative observation. The data gathered in this study point to a number of key decisions and issues that researchers must face in designing observational research, particularly where nonresearchers (in this case, parents) act as surrogates for the researcher at the data collection stage. The involvement of parents and children as research videographers in the home resulted in very rich and detailed data about children’s use of technology in their daily lives. However, limitations noted in the data set (e.g., image quality) provide important guidance for researchers developing projects ...
Internet-connected tablets and smart phones are being used increasingly by young children. Little... more Internet-connected tablets and smart phones are being used increasingly by young children. Little is known, however, about their social interactions with family members when engaged with these technologies. This article examines video recorded interactions between a father and his two young children, one aged 18 months using an iPhone, and one aged three years accessing an iPad. Drawing on Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis, this analysis establishes ways the family members engage and disengage in talk to manage their individual activity with mobile devices and accomplish interaction with each other. Findings are relevant for understanding children’s everyday practices with mobile technologies.
Multimodal Perspectives of Language, Literacy, and Learning in Early Childhood, 2017
With young children’s increased use of digital technologies, there is growing interest in their m... more With young children’s increased use of digital technologies, there is growing interest in their multimodal meaning making. Little is known of the ways that interactions between young children and adults produce multimodal meaning making as an aspect of digital literacies. This chapter explores children’s production of multimodal meaning making during their viewing of YouTube videos in a preschool. Video-recorded data are drawn from a large study of young children’s everyday practices with digital technology in preschools and in their homes. Conversation analysis is used to investigate the multimodal resources employed by the children and their teacher to accomplish individual and shared understandings of video events as humorous, out-of-the-ordinary, and even dangerous. Discussion establishes how social interaction informed viewing, made use of multimodal resources, and extended opportunities for children’s learning. The chapter contributes to thinking about practices necessary for educators to support children’s multimodal meaning making during their use of digital technologies.
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