Vietnamese textual methodologies: a comparison of Australian with Swedish and New Zealand early childhood visual literacy contexts

• Published in: Early child development and care Vol. 186; no. 11; pp. 1802 - 1820
• Main Authors: Gilmore, Gwen, Truong, Thi My Dung, Reilly, Michelle
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Routledge 01-11-2016; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Child Care Centers; Childhood; Comparative Analysis; Cultural Context; Early Childhood Education; early childhood literacy; early childhood preservice teachers; Emergent Literacy; First year; Foreign Countries; Intercultural Communication; intercultural learning; Kindergarten; Literacy; Meaning; Mixed Methods Research; Observation; Phenomenology; Photography; Preschool Teachers; Preservice Teacher Education; Preservice Teachers; Preservice training; Teacher education; Teachers; Visual Literacy; New Zealand; Sweden; Vietnam; Australia
• ISSN: 0300-4430; 1476-8275
• DOI: 10.1080/03004430.2015.1134520

For preservice teachers in early childhood education, having a rich exposure to multiple forms of literacy in diverse communities is an essential dimension of their teacher education. In this study, 10 Australian preservice early childhood education students, in the first year of their course, visit two early childhood settings in a large city in Vietnam to make deeper connections between literacy and practice contexts. They photographed literacy events and explored them to deepen their understandings of literacy. This paper examines photographs selected by these student teachers drawing on a framework used by Swedish and New Zealand (NZ) students, which focused on identifying a range of literacy concepts. We found that the Australian students focused on themes, meaning making and visual images for illustrating literacy comparison more frequently than their NZ and Swedish counterparts. Thus, the Mellgreen and Margrain framework has merit for teacher educators in expanding literacies in intercultural contexts.