Multiliterate Star Warians: The Force of Popular Culture and ICT in Early Learning

CAN POPULAR CULTURE AND information communication technologies (ICT) broaden early years' multiliteracies experiences? This paper presents a case study that begins with boys role-playing Star Wars action scenes at the commencement of the school year, and concludes with an end-of-year school community celebration of a new DVD Star Wars movie sequel, designed and performed by the boys. The Children's Star Wars Project was developed in a small Western Australian independent community school committed to the Reggio Emilia educational philosophy. The case study provides an exemplar of the integral relationship between early childhood pedagogy, multiliteracies metalanguage, and multimodal designs of meaning. Implications for educational research are that popular culture and ICT can be readily integrated with early childhood education (ECE) to broaden multiliteracies experiences. As shown in this case study, these experiences facilitate the achievement of The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia outcomes.