Investigating read alouds: a self-study in the company of children and early childhood educators

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate read aloud with early childhood educators and children. As an action researcher I enquire into my experiences as an early childhood services coordinator, as a learner of the New Brunswick Early Learning and Child Care Curriculum Framework-English and as a graduate student to draw on the power of action research, literature, conversations and my own self-study to reframe experience allowing me to reconsider and reshape my thinking and actions in ELLC centres. Combining research on dialogic reading and expressive engagement, I cooperated in read alouds with four early childhood educators and one room of fouryear-old children within an Early Learning and Child Care centre. Through video documentation, observations, journals, and educators’ focus groups, I engaged in research with early childhood educators building on the collaborative relationship and engagement that occurs during a read aloud between a child, a book, and an educator.