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Singing our song: the affordances of singing in an intergenerational, multimodal literacy programme
Author(s) -
Heydon Rachel,
McKee Lori,
O'Neill Susan
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
literacy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.649
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1741-4369
pISSN - 1741-4350
DOI - 10.1111/lit.12135
Subject(s) - singing , affordance , meaning (existential) , psychology , literacy , ethnography , exploratory research , class (philosophy) , set (abstract data type) , pedagogy , mathematics education , developmental psychology , sociology , cognitive psychology , computer science , social science , management , artificial intelligence , anthropology , psychotherapist , economics , programming language
This exploratory case study examined the affordances of singing as a multimodal literacy practice within ensembles that featured art, singing and digital media produced in an intergenerational programme that served a class of kindergarten children and community elders. The programme that was set up by the study in collaboration with a rural school and elders' organisation saw participants meet one afternoon a week for most of a school year. Study questions concerned the meaning making and relationship‐building opportunities afforded to the participants as they worked through chains of multimodal projects. Data were collected using ethnographic tools in an elders' home where the projects were completed and in the kindergarten where project content and tools were introduced to the children and extended by the classroom teacher. Themes were identified through the juxtaposition of data in relation to the literature and study questions. Results indicate that singing provided opportunities for participants to form relationships and make meaning as a group while combining modes. Study findings foreground the communicative power of singing and suggest how singing, when viewed through a multimodal lens, might be a potent tool for multimodal literacy learning.