Unfinalizability: An exploration of a young child’s emergent identities through living stories

Abstract

Drawing on a Bakhtinian idea of unfinalizability and a semiotics lens of multimodality, the authors conceptualize children's everyday narratives as chains of living stories that emerge at home and in early childhood education settings. In this study, the authors interpret the living stories and emergent identities of Dylan, a five-year-old Vietnamese boy, in Aotearoa New Zealand. Two narrative chains of Dylan's living stories were selected to represent his intersecting and emergent identities around the significant event of the birth of his sibling, when he became the eldest brother. The findings will inspire early childhood educators and researchers to value learnings derived from stories and use the pedagogy of unfinalizability in their interactions with young children.