Writing in Childhood Cultures

In this chapter, the authors are interested in the potential role of composing as a mediator of childhood practices, indeed, of childhood cultures, as they unfold in school settings for young children. The chapter provides a kind of conceptual scheme for considering writing within the social relations and cultures of childhoods themselves. The discussion begins, though, by constructing a theoretical stage, discussing the authors' stance on the chapter's key conceptual tools. To this end, this chapter draws on the new interdisciplinary field of childhood studies, the shifting anthropological discussion of culture, and a situated perspective on literacy itself.