Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Thesis Format

Monograph

Degree

Master of Arts

Program

Education

Supervisor

Pacini-Ketchabaw, Veronica

Abstract

Sounds exist everywhere, and early childhood classrooms are no exception. Sounds resonate with us, and sometimes they move us. However, engagement with sound has a limited trajectory. This thesis traces movements from a sound inquiry in an early childhood centre through three research questions: (a) How is sound consumed and produced in ECE? (b) What other ways of being might be enacted through sounds and ecological sound art in ECE? (c) How might sound become an agentic entity through pedagogical documentation and digital technology? The inquiry took a multimodal approach using text and sound, and embraced methods of ecological sound art, common worlding, and pedagogical documentation. Guided by the research questions, I offer interpretations of the sonic data to examine what sounds from the everyday do in a classroom. Sonic data are included to allow readers to listen to the classroom installations and experience new movements and thinking.

Summary for Lay Audience

This study examined audio-visual data from an early childhood education project in a southwestern Ontario childcare centre. In response to copious visual data that was collected at the research site, this study examined audio data collected during a one-month material inquiry with children. The inquiry used ecological sound art installations to examine the way children engage with sounds that surround them. This thesis examines movements from the one-month engagement to answer three research questions: (a) How is sound consumed and produced in ECE? (b) What other ways of being might be enacted through sound and ecological sound art in ECE? (c) How might sound become an agentic entity through pedagogical documentation and digital technology? This study was embedded in a common worlding and ecological sound art theoretical framework and used a postqualitative approach to analyze findings. The thesis proposes sounds as possessing agency in the early childhood classroom and concludes with considerations to rethink what sounds do in early childhood education.

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