Based on the results from a Swedish research project, this paper investigates young children's meaning-making in relation to moving images in a preschool context. The specific focus of the paper is to look at if – and how – two year-old children can be said to make meaning during the screening of a series of short animated films at their preschools. What kind of meanings are made and how are they communicated by the children? How do the films become resources for childrens meaning making and to what extent can social interaction with peers and preschool teachers be said to influence childrens meaning making during the screening of the films? The results presented are based on analyses of both interaction in front of the TV screen and of the animated films.

The theoretical framework is based on a social semiotic (Hodge & Kress, 1988; Kress, 2003; van Leeuwen, 2005) and multimodal (Kress & van Leeuwen, 2001; Jewitt, 2009) approach, which implies a view of communication and representation as a social process of signmaking. Both theories are united in a common interest in understanding how people communicate and make meanings with a wide range of resources, or modes. Semiotic resources are used both to produce and interpret texts, in the same way as signs are made both externally and internally. The analyses of both interaction and of the animated films were guided by the theoretical assumptiom that all texts simultaneously construct different types of meanings through three metafunctions (Jewitt & Oyama, 2001; Iedema, 2001; van Leeuwen, 2005). They represent some aspect of the world (the ideational metafunction); represent and construct relations between represented and interactive participants (the interpersonal metafunction); and are organised as coherent texts (the textual metafunction). Meanings are made through the use of various modes in relation to these different aspects.

The project included studies at eight preschools spread over three Swedish municipalities. Approximately 150 children in the ages from two to four participated in the project. They watched the films in groups of four to six children. Nine screenings were recorded with video camera and mp3 recorders. All video material was transcribed multimodally and analysed by means of the social semiotic and multimodal framework presented above. Aspects that were attended to specifically in the transcriptions included verbal interaction, gaze/eye movements, gestures, posture, mimics and motions. Apart from the filmed material, interviews were made with children, parents and preschool teachers. The role of the interviews was to construct a background in terms of how moving images were used in the preschools and how familiar the children were with different kinds of media etc. Accordingly, interviews were transcribed more thematically than the video material.

The paper shows that the children indeed make meaning in relation to the fillms and that they make a number of forms of meaning during the screenings. The meanings are made in different modes and are influenced by a number of factors, such as the social interaction with peers and preschool teachers, whether or not the stories are familiar to the children from before, and the childrens previous experiences of moving images . The paper also shows that the young children are highly competent in practicing literacy skills during the screenings, exemplified by their expertise in interpreting various aspects related to film language

References

Banks, Marcus (2001): Visual Methods in Social Research. London: SAGE Publications.Hodge, Robert & Kress, Gunther (1988): Social semiotics. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press.Iedema, Rick (2001): “Analysing film and television: a social semiotic account of Hospital: an Unhealthy Business”. In Van Leeuwen, Theo & Jewitt, Carey (red): Handbook of Visual Analysis. London: SAGE Publications. P 183-206.Jewitt, Carey (ed.)(2009): The Routledge Handbook of Multimodal Analysis. London & New York: Routledge.Jewitt, Carey & Kress, Gunther (eds)(2003): Multimodal literacy. London: Routledge. Jewitt, Carey & Oyama, Rumiko (2001): “Visual meaning: a social semiotic approach”. In van Leeuwen, Theo & Jewitt, Carey (eds): Handbook of Visual Analysis. London: SAGE Publications. P 134-156Kress, Gunther (1993): “Against arbitrariness: the social production of the sign as a foundational issue in critical discourse analysis”. In Discourse & society, vol 4(2). P 169-191.Kress, Gunther (1997). Before writing. Rethinking the paths to literacy. London: Routledge.Kress, Gunther (2003): Literacy in the New Media Age. London: Routledge.Kress, Gunther; Jewitt, Carey; Ogborn, Jon; Tsatsarelis, Charalampos (2001): Multimodal Teaching and Learning. The Rhetorics of the Science Classroom. London: Continuum.Kress, Gunther & van Leeuwen, Theo (2001): Multimodal Discourse. The modes and media of contemporary communication. London: Arnold.Lindstrand, Fredrik (2006) Att göra skillnad. Representation, identitet och lärande i ungdomars arbete och berättande med film. Doctoral thesis. Stockholm: HLS Förlag.Lindstrand, Fredrik (1998) "Snuttefilm i förskolan - en studie av engagemang och meningsskapande". In Rönnberg, M. (ed.): Blöjbarnsteve. Uppsala: Filmförlaget.Van Leeuwen, T. (2005) Introducing social semiotics. London & New York: Routledge.

Populärvetenskaplig föreläsning vid konferensen Konstarter i Pedagogiken - Art in Education, Edsbyn 7-8 januari 2013.

Hur ser vi på barns lärande? Vad säger deras nyfikenhet oss? Och hur bekräftar vi den kunskap de själva kommit fram till?Hur kan vi tolka barns uttryck så att de hjälper oss förstå hur vi ska vägleda dem i deras spontana sökande efter kunskap? De konkreta exemplen i Design för lärande i förskolan är inriktade på språk och kommunikation, naturvetenskap och matematik. Genom inspirerande analyser som är kopplade till exemplen, ger boken en inblick i allt det lärande som ständigt pågår i barns vardag.För att ta vara på de oändliga möjligheterna som finns i förskolan, behöver vi förstå hur lärande går till och hur det kommer till yttryck. På samma sätt måste vi uppmärksamma vår egen roll i barnens lärande - hur interaktion med barnen, vårt utformande av resurser, miljöer och aktiviteter får betydelse för barnens möjligheter att engagera sig, lära och förstå.Design för lärande i förskolan vänder sig till blivande och verksamma förskollärare och förskolechefer.

This paper discusses the outline and implications of a recently initiated research project, ”REMAKE: Representations, resources and meaning-making. The Middle Ages as a knowledge domain in different learning environments”, funded by the Swedish research council. The aim of the project is to study how – and with what social and epistemological consequences – a knowledge domain is realized in different learning environments. Here, we look at how the subject of history, and more specifically “the Middle Ages”, is realized in pre-school, compulsory school and upper secondary school contexts.

Based on a design-theoretic, multimodal perspective on learning and communication (Rostvall & Selander, 2008; Selander & Kress, 2010), the project takes a starting point in the assumption that a given knowledge domain is realized in different ways in different learning environments, as a result of a complex interaction of selections, representations and actions by the participants involved. There is not a given core or consensus of what this domain is or what parts or aspects the subject area should encompass.

The project will put an emphasis on the resources used by teachers and learners in their work to design and re-design the subject content, and on how specific designs for learning shape the possibilities for how one can learn and engage with a certain knowledge domain. The resources brought into play will be analysed in terms of how they are used, what they add to the representation of the historical epoch in focus, and how they affect the learners’ possibilities to make meaning.

By means of classroom observations, where all work around the Middle Ages will be documented in a selection of groups and classes, the project will investigate a) teachers didactic design; b) different representations of the Middle Ages and c) how children/pupils interpret, transform and design their conception of the knowledge domain. Doing this, we deal with questions of agency, cultures of recognition (what is acknowledged as history, as knowledge/knowing in relation to history and as resources for learning about history) and the uses of history in different contexts.

On a more comprehensive level, the project aims at comparing the differences within the educational system. We ask ourselves: How do the representations of the middle ages differ in pre-school, compulsory school and upper secondary school? What may the long term consequences of these differences be in terms of learners’ abilities to engage with and deepen their understanding of the specific domain?