ABSTRACT
Supporting young children as they become writers can be regarded as a major undertaking for early years educators who work in contexts that are informed by evolving social, cultural, and material forces. Framed within Bourdieu’s account of the field of cultural production, this chapter reports findings from a small-scale study that explores how educators support young children as they become writers in a diverse and technologically evolving contemporary textual landscape. Drawing from a focus group conversation with three early years teachers, this chapter describes the forces that play on their practices and views. Analysis of extracts from this conversation illustrates the tensions involved for two of the teachers as they encourage young children’s ‘writing’ and ‘text making’ in communities that enmesh, embrace, and resist the forces at play in a technology and accountability-infused landscape. The conversation supports an argument for an expanded view of the children’s writing process where digital resources, and practices using them, can be regarded as supportive and even central. This project has been supported by a United Kingdom Literacy Association research fund.
