This study investigates the physical literacy environment of preschools in three Nordic countries. The environments were assessed using an observation protocol in a total of 131 classrooms with children aged between one and seven in Sweden, Norway and Finland. The results showed that children's books were common and accessible in all three countries. Half of the preschools had a writing centre, and digital devices were available in less than half of them. Multilingual children were present in 82 per cent of the classrooms, but texts and books in the multilingual children's first languages were rare. Taken together, the results suggest that children's books were the main gateway to literacy in these preschools, while artefacts supporting writing skills and digital literacy were less common. The findings indicate that the physical environment in these preschools did not reflect the ongoing societal changes towards increased multimodal literacy.

In this article, the authors explore and contribute to producing a performative research paradigm where post-qualitative as well as artistic research might dwell and breathe. Entering a thread of discussion that started with Haseman’s A manifesto for performative research in 2006, and building on their own friction-led research processes at the edges of qualitative research, the authors plug in with performativity, non-representational theories and methodologies, post-qualitative inquiry and post approaches. A performative paradigm for post-qualitative inquiry is proposed, where knowledge is viewed as knowledge-in-becoming as the constant creation of difference through researcher entanglement with the research phenomenon and wider world. A performative paradigm produces a space for movement, (artistic) freedom, (post-qualitative) experimentation and inclusion. A performative research paradigm also offers provocations that shake long-established notions about what research is and should be. Within a performative research paradigm, learning/be(com)ing/knowing is always in-becoming – as is the performative paradigm itself.

This study explored the pedagogical implications of integrating creative dance into fifth-grade students' poetry reading and writing within the context of an educational design research project. Two teaching designs were developed and implemented by a researcher, a dance teaching artist, and two primary school teachers during two research cycles (the academic year of 2018-2019). Thinking with new materialism, a diffractive analysis was used to identify performative agents that make a difference in students' meaning-making processes. When dance was integrated, it became entangled with the poetry in students' meaning-making processes. The boundaries between reading, writing, and dancing became fluid, enhancing the attention to the materiality, relationality, and embodiment of the students' reading and writing processes. These results demonstrate that dance integration has the pedagogical potential to deepen and broaden the meaning-making in poetry reading and writing. This article therefore concludes by presenting some recommendations for how to integrate creative dance into first language and literature education.

This study investigates the use of dance and visual arts in poetry education by systematically reviewing peer-reviewed articles published on the topic from 2000 to 2019. The review focuses on empirical results in studies concerned with using dance and visual arts in poetry education and implications for poetry pedagogy in research and practice. The review encompasses 21 articles that were analysed thematically. The thematic analysis yielded seven themes: expand and deepen understandings of poetry; break curricular boundaries; interaction and collaboration; personal knowledge, reflection and experience; increase interest, motivation and confidence; challenges, limitations and constraints; and disciplinary knowledge. With research on this topic having increased in the 2010s, the findings show the potentials and challenges of using dance and visual arts in different ways in poetry education. Still, the research field is understudied, and many questions remain unanswered. Consequently, this study concludes with suggestions for future research on arts-based responses in poetry education. The study adds to the dialogue on poetry education and contributes to raising awareness of the possibilities and challenges of using dance and visual arts in the poetry classroom.

Research on dance literacy has advanced in the 21st century, with researchers arguing that emphasis on students' dance literacy can illuminate bodily learning in school. Nevertheless, the concept is often left undefined, and there seems to be no clear consensus on what dance literacy means for bodily learning in school contexts. This article examines previous literature to provide a conceptual overview of dance literacy, and discusses dance literacy in school through a critical theoretical lens. Discussing and reviewing the previous literature on dance literacy from an emancipatory approach, the article proposes a Dance Literacy Model for Schools within primary and secondary education settings that do not teach dance as a school subject. The model comprises three dimensions of dance literacy: dance as an art form and form of expression, dance combined with other literacies, and learning through dance in different curricular areas. The article concludes that education in dance literacy can contribute to students' literacy education by accentuating bodily learning in and through dance while simultaneously highlighting and appreciating the value of dance itself.