Kristiina Kumpulainen from the University of Helsinki presented the second keynote at the ECIL conference. Fewer and fewer Finnish children are reading traditional books, but on the other hand notions of literacy and reading are changing, and what and how people read is also changing. There are new types of texts, symbols and meanings that we have to engage with in the world, and multiliteracies that children need to learn. Public education receives a lot of investment in Finland, and children can attend education from 12 months of age, and there is a core curriculum from this age, but compulsory education starts at age 6. There are a lot of initiatives to encourage children to read books, but it is also important that children are able to navigate the digital world. Finnish children display high abilities in reading, but surveys have shown that they report not enjoying reading. People are worried about this cultural change to move away from printed books, but actually these same concerns were expressed when stories began to be printed and here was a move away from oral storytelling. In an increasingly multicultural Finland, there are concerns about how to promote literacies in young people’s lives.
Research has shown that there is a need to enhance joy and interest in reading, and it is important to develop versatile literacy skills (multiliteracies) with culturally responsive pedagogues. Multiliteracies are embedded in the curriculum. Parents need to be aware of the importance of literacy skills in the early years, and have a positive attitude about this. Basic reading and writing skills are not enough, people need to understand meaning through oral, visual, audio, digital, gestural, tactile and spatial texts. Critical skills, to be able to understand and unpack, and to understand whether it is true or not are important. Multiliteracy features in the national curriculum, and this is separate from ICT skills. The curriculum emphasises holistic topic based learning.
Teachers are encouraged to be creative and imaginative, they think of themselves as designers of learning, they have freedom to interpret the curriculum and respond to the local setting. Only 10% of the applicants are accepted into the teacher training courses, in Finland teachers are highly valued. Muliliteracy is defined as a holistic and versatile approach to texts, and is about seeking, interpreting, useing, producing, representing, and evaluating texts in their multiple forms, in various contexts and situations and with various tools. Multiliteracy is hard to measure, it can be observed through longitudinal qualitative research, but it can defined, and opportunities devised for children to experience and build multiliteracy. Pre and post tests cannot be used!
There is a research and development programme to look at children’s development of multiliteracy, and the professional development of the workforce involved in early education, and involves close collaboration across professional groups. The principle is to co-design activities and materials that facilitate a child sensitive playful pedagogy, that appreciates both child and teacher agency. This all sounds so different from the current focus on testing and learning facts that characterises early education in the UK, where the creativity of teachers is stifled by national education policy. In Finland teachers are encouraged to take children’s interests as starting points for holistic learning, that develops disciplinary learning and multiliteracy.
Research which stared in 2017, works with 16 communities in Helsinki to understand a multicultural perspective. Multiple data collection methods (observation, video, children’s work, interviews & surveys) are being used to understand multiliteracy development. One output has been the “whisper of the spirit” programme, which has been used and adapted all over the country.
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