Transformations: Making Meaning in Education

by Kate Pahl

This original study shows how children make meaning in a variety of modes and challenges conventional notions of literacy as being linked only to print.

Transformations examines how a variety of activities such as model making, cutting out, drawing, and communication in the widest sense, are all forms of literacy. The book supports nursery/pre-school teachers in their work with teachers and within the school to value children’s work and to understand social and cultural influences on young thinking. Its linking of theory and practice gives teachers access to new and challenging theories of communication. The theory that children naturally negotiate multiple sign systems when making meaning is developed, and the book illustrates how children’s communication is shaped by the dynamic interplay between their internal worlds and external socio-cultural forces.

This book is for early years’ teachers, literary specialists, teacher educators, and anyone working with young children who is interested in gaining fresh insights into how children produce texts.

140 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1999