The article challenges the narrow versions of literacy in current versions of early childhood education in the UK. The theoretical underpinning for the paper is drawn from sociocultural perspectives and what Kress (1997) defines as the ‘broad and messy area... of communication and representation’. It is argued that we need to broaden our understanding of literacy to include young children’s representations in graphic and narrative versions, influenced by the media and ‘everyday’ exchanges with siblings and significant adults, that characterize their journeys towards literacy in home settings. When they enter pre-school and start school the versions of representations they are encouraged to do are driven by a narrow emphasis on school versions of literacy and numeracy. The kind of personal and social drawings done at home are discarded. The argument is illustrated by examples of young children drawing in home and school settings taken from a three-year longitudinal study of seven young children’s meaning making as they moved from home to pre-school and the beginning of schooling.
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