From invention to social action in early childhood literacy: A reconceptualization through dialogue about difference

What difference should sociocultural difference make in early literacy theory and practice? In response to this question, this article argues that such differences should lead to a reconceptualization that highlights the social nature and cultural meaning of child literacy development. Drawing on a recent ethnographic study of child composing in an urban primary school, the author contrasts dominant assumptions about appropriate developmental practices (i.e., invented spelling, process writing) with children's interpretations of those practices, interpretations grounded in children's social and cultural worlds. The author argues that infusing situatedness and culture into the ways in which educators observe and make sense of children's written language should make “normal” a range of possible pathways to literacy—and “appropriate” a range of ways of teaching—so that difference would in fact make less difference in children's school success.