Alexander, Sara och skriften : en skriftbruksetnografisk studie av barn i mellanåren

Sammanfattning: This thesis focuses on literacy in children aged 11-12. The overriding purpose is to describe the specific competencies that children employ in their daily use of writing. What do they do with writing and how do they do it?The theoretical framework is primarily the strand of literacy research that belongs to the field of New Literacy Studies, where literacy is understood as socially and contextually related. The study also draws on ethnomethodology in the sense that the object of study is the daily actions through which we construct our lives and negotiate identities. Two children, a boy and a girl, with different socio-economic backgrounds and family situations were observed at home, in school and during freetime activities for more than a year through an ethnographic research approach.The thesis identifies the different competencies that the children activate. In one case competencies involving oral skills are primarily used as resources in problem solving, while writing and reading are used to solve similar problems as a matter of course in the other case. The thesis also shows that a common use of writing is to regulate and organise everyday and special activities such as planning Christmas gifts and to write reminders that school tasks need to be completed andreported.In terms of materiality, writing is available in more or less conventionalised formats. Common formats for everyday written products are sheets of paper in different sizes (A4 to post-it notes), or digital screens (computer, TV, mobile phone). The school whiteboard has a special materiality and is the material source of a great many of the everydaywritten products.