Following the contours of movement: Relational perspectives on early childhood literacy

Abstract

In a posthuman view of literacy, the importance of the sensorial, affective, non-representational and more-than-human is highlighted. These elements become part of an understanding of literacy that is plural, more-than-human and not limited to reading and writing. In this field of study, there is a growing focus on children's embodied practices, including movements entangled with materials or within spaces. An examination of embodied practices includes considering the ways in which education circumvents or regulates certain practices that deviate from the norm regarding movement and corporeality. This article engages with data from a group of young children and things (e.g. a notebook, a bench and a cork floor) intra-acting, moving and playing as if they were in a football match. These data are drawn from a larger research project currently being conducted in a classroom in Seville, Spain, at a state-funded primary school. We perceive how the bodies of children, ourselves, notebooks, spaces and time are entwined through this difficult-to-describe practice. Working with Mazzei’s methodology, we follow the contours of movement to expand on Erin Manning's notions of this concept while troubling reductionist understandings of literacy. Building on the work of Manning, we consider movement as (a) always potential and not located in a specific body/action, (b) relational and (c) transformative. We examine the ways in which embodied, unintentional and more-than-linguistic practice matters in literacy. Finally, this work concludes with practical and ethical implications for literacy by encouraging educators to welcome unexpected worldings, to focus on relations and to reconsider the role of movement in the classroom.