Comments on: Researching from within kids’ culture

By: Caroline Ferris Leader

Caroline Ferris Leader — Sun, 23 Nov 2014 18:19:40 +0000

Thanks, Huck! I look forward to more conversations about your experiences. See you tomorrow.

By: Caroline Ferris Leader

Caroline Ferris Leader — Sun, 23 Nov 2014 18:19:00 +0000

Thanks so much, Diana. I would love to hear more about the kinds of stories you get with your kids. I can’t remember which age group you have (3-4?), but it would be fun to examine how fast kids learn from storytelling experiences and start to craft their own cohesive tales. I did not get that from these kiddos. They’re still working on synthesizing their insights into the format of narratives adults comprehend as stories.

By: Caroline Ferris Leader

Caroline Ferris Leader — Sun, 23 Nov 2014 18:14:46 +0000

Jason–thanks so much. I agree with your point about repetition and struggled to add my own nuance to gendered merchandizing in this post, so I really appreciate the comment. Social repetition seems so important to the kids I work with–it stimulates play and creates bonds. What I want to push back on, maybe in future posts, is the idea that kids are duped by merchandisers, or that they just want what others have. You hit the nail on the head that adults do the same thing. It may be more useful to acknowledge that humans imitate each other, and not blame kids for this seemingly “unconscious” involvement in consumer culture.

By: Tom Taagen

Tom Taagen — Sun, 23 Nov 2014 07:20:07 +0000

Take care, Huck

By: Tom Taagen

Tom Taagen — Sun, 23 Nov 2014 07:19:09 +0000

I luv it. Great blog posting Pegasus. Your conclusions nailed some of my own experiences. I also enjoy your sense of humor.

By: Jason Sperb

Jason Sperb — Sat, 22 Nov 2014 19:22:39 +0000

This is a great post–in studying responses to Disney historically, I often fond that kids’ “actual” voices were something of a structuring absence, with adults either speaking for children (i.e., “protectionist”) or struggling to reconstruct their own sense of having been a child. So, the idea you promote of rethinking how children actually communicate in active and nuanced ways might be key. I wonder too though if this emphasis on “repetition” that children depend upon for communication might also then re-open that space for, as you noted in the beginning, the strength of media saturation to somewhat define their responses (even while that might hardly be limited to children, of course).

By: Diana Willis Bottomley

Diana Willis Bottomley — Sat, 22 Nov 2014 17:26:56 +0000

Caroline, this is a very interesting post. In my classroom, I spend a lot of time on drawings, conversations, and written language. When a child approaches me with a picture, I tend to say “tell me about this.” It’s amazing what is generated from that one sentence. Looking forward to hearing more about your research findings.