ED423429 1998-00-00 Family Literacy:

Respecting Family Ways. ERIC Digest

No. 203.

ERIC Development Team

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Table of Contents

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Family Literacy: Respecting Family Ways. ERIC Digest No. 203......... 1

A CONTEXTUAL CONNECTION............................................ 2

THE VALUE OF DIFFERENT LITERACIES............................... 2

VARIATIONS IN FAMILY LITERACY PRACTICES...................... 3

POWER CONSIDERATIONS IN LITERACY OUTCOMES..............4

THE COMMUNITY CONNECTION TO FAMILY LITERACY............ 4

SUMMARY....................................................................... 5

REFERENCES.................................................................. 5

ERIC Identifier: ED423429

Publication Date: 1998-00-00

Author: Brown, Bettina Lankard

Source: ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult Career and Vocational Education Columbus OH.

Family Literacy: Respecting Family Ways.

ERIC Digest No. 203.

THIS DIGEST WAS CREATED BY ERIC, THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES

INFORMATION CENTER. FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT ERIC, CONTACT

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ED423429 1998-00-00 Family Literacy: Respecting Family Ways. ERIC Digest No. 203. Page 1 of 6
Throughout history, the family has been the primary source for learning. Before the

advent of schools, children were taught at home by their parents, older siblings,

grandparents, and/or other relatives. With the introduction of formal schooling, the

teaching of values, cultural practices, and skills such as cooking, sewing, farming, and

trapping continued to originate in the home. Today, in spite of the vast public and

private educational systems, some parents are choosing to teach their children at home,

confident in their belief that teaching in the context of family is the best way to ensure

the learning they desire.

Public agencies, such as the National Center for Family Literacy, and private

foundations, such as the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy, have shown

their support of the family as a primary place of learning by funding programs that

provide training and assistance to families for the promotion of literacy. This Digest

discusses the family as a preferred place of literacy development and highlights family

literacy initiatives that reflect respect for the family as a site of learning.

A CONTEXTUAL CONNECTION

Because the family exists in a network of community, its members are continually

communicating, negotiating, and otherwise interacting with schools and business

institutions in the workplace, within the context of their cultural and community

orientations (Bhola 1996). The social aspect of these relationships suggests that the

development of programs and curriculum must focus on the family unit as a whole,

building upon the cultural and knowledge capital of the entire family, and acknowledging

gender and age power relationships within the family.

Teaching literacy within the context of the family and in ways that are meaningful to

family members is an approach described by Auerbach (1989), who contends that the

cultural and social practices of a family are key considerations in the development of

family literacy programs. Auerbach s "socio-contextual model" is congruent with the

contextual teaching and learning approach to knowledge development. This approach is

based on the proposition that students learn best when the learning is meaningful to

them and situated in the context of their social environments. This model acknowledges

that there are family-relevant, as well as school-relevant, ways of bringing literacy into

the home. It acknowledges the positive contributions of family members and takes into

account the influence that cultural values and practices have on literacy development.

THE VALUE OF DIFFERENT LITERACIES

Because school-based family literacy efforts are typically directed to people from poor,

minority, and/or immigrant families who lack English proficiency, some of these

programs assume that these individuals have little to offer and that the school must

determine the forms of literacy that are acceptable for the family. Referring to this model

as deficit driven, Taylor ("Book Notes" 1998) challenges educators to redefine the

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relationship of literacy to poverty and socioeconomic status and to acknowledge the

wealth of knowledge members of these families offer, e.g., their languages, multiple

approaches to literacy, and ability to deal with life events.

Although all literacies are not equally valued in our society, there are ways in which all

parents make literacy contributions and that awareness of these contributions can occur

when parents engage in literacy experiences that have meaningful application in their

lives (Crowther and Tett 1997). The FLITE (Family Literacy Involvement Through

Education) program is one example of an effort designed to involve participants in

literacy development through the sharing of real-life experiences (Griswold and Ullman

1997). Evolving through a partnership between a Bronx public school and the City

University of New York, FLITE featured a series of workshops, one of which engaged

participants in recipe sharing as a means of enhancing reading, writing, and speaking

skills. Some participants prepared dishes that they brought for others to taste; some

shared written recipes of dishes popular in their cultures; some shared memories of

times when the dishes were served in their family homes; and some told about the

countries from which their dishes originated. Such workshops are a powerful tool for

enhancing the knowledge and literacy of all participants and are an example of

contextual learning in the social environment of community.

Communication about personal experiences was also a part of the "Connect" project

conducted in a poor working-class area of Edinburgh, Scotland (Crowther and Tett

1997). Participants in the program activities were encouraged to discuss their school

experiences and to describe some of the ways in which they were helping their children

toward literacy. By highlighting similarities between the participants' and their teacher's

pedagogic practices, the act of teaching became less threatening.

VARIATIONS IN FAMILY LITERACY

PRACTICES

Most educational approaches to family literacy recognize the parents, especially the

mother, as a child's most important teacher. "This restricted notion of family literacy

pays too much attention to the mother-child dyad and fails to take advantage of or take

into account multiple other channels of literacy influences within the family" (Puchner

1997, p. 3). It fails to recognize the value of literacy transmission from adult to adult,

child o adult, or sibling to sibling as occurs in various community cultures.

In a study of language skills of Southeast Asian immigrants in the United States,

researchers found that literacy transfer typically occurred from sibling to sibling because

lack of English proficiency limited parents' ability to help their children (Puchner 1997).

Parents who have limited English proficiency, for example, often lack confidence in their

ability to participate in family literacy programs. However, literacy workers can help

these parents to recognize ways in which they already contribute to their children's

literacy, e.g., by allotting a time and space for their children to do homework and/or by

observing, or having older children observe, homework activities. Once parents

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recognize that their efforts to facilitate literacy development are worthwhile, they

become less apt to succumb to other pressures on their time and energy that could

divert them from practices that further their own and their children's education.

Drawing upon the personal interests and experiences of parents can often lead them to

adopt new literacy practices. For example, in the FLITE "home visit" program, a father

who was unable to read or write was coached to tell a story about his personal

experiences using a tape recorder. The family literacy worker asked the man's wife to

listen to the recording and write down on paper the words he had recorded so she could

read it back to him. Later the family worker brought a picture book to the home for the

father and child to look at while he told a story he made up to go along with the pictures.

This example illustrates three aspects of the FLITE program's approach to literacy

(Griswold and Ullman 1997, p. 16): (1) the range of purposes for literate behaviors is

broad, (2) learning experiences can be generative, and (3) learning does not have to be

an individual experience.

POWER CONSIDERATIONS IN LITERACY

OUTCOMES

Power issues, particularly those that are education related, can influence a family's

literacy practices (Puchner 1997; Tett and St. Clair 1997). Parents who cannot speak

English or who believe that they have no right to interfere with a school's practices may

avoid contact with the school and its teachers, which tends to perpetuate the literacy

status quo (Tett and St. Clair 1997). "If parents are to be genuine partners in their

children's education, then they must be able to share power, responsibility, and

ownership in ways which show a high degree of mutuality" (p. 111).

Morrow and Young (1996) note the importance of power sharing within the family

through their description of the Family WRAP (Writing and Reading Appreciation for

Parents and Pupils) program, an inner-city school district program involving

African-American and Latino families with children in the first to third grades. In this

program, parents and children were partnered in reading, writing, and storytelling

activities, with interaction being the key ingredient. Throughout the program, parents

were asked for their input. As a result, the parents began to realize that they shared

power, not only with their children in learning, but with the school in creating a literacy

program that was meaningful to them. The parents became "more willing to share their

ideas..., ask questions, and express their concerns" (Morrow and Young 1996, p. 17).

Through their involvement in WRAP, they "felt more comfortable about coming to school

and participating, and had more self-confidence about being able to help their children"

(ibid.).

THE COMMUNITY CONNECTION TO FAMILY

LITERACY

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Communities have become diverse in cultures, workplaces, interests, and political

orientations. "Family literacy practitioners, in the process of program design, and while

making choices of curriculum, will have to look at the existing conditions of families in

question, in the context of both history and subaltern history of race- and class-related

experiences of those families" (Bhola 1996, p. 41). They need to look into how the

workplace fits into the lives of the families.

In some communities, literacy programs are conducted on the job. Winthrop University

in Rock Hill, South Carolina, for example, has a literacy program for its custodial,

gardening, and refuse collection department employees, some of whom have less than

a sixth-grade education. Participants attend 2-hour sessions each week for a 12-week

period during which they and their families engage in literacy activities that involve the

reading of children's, work-related, and personal literature (Richards 1998). The "Using

Children's Literature" module of the program involves participants in reading activities

that include prediction, characterization, sequencing, inferencing, and imagery. During

class, the participants record their reactions to the readings in a log book; at home, they

read and discuss the books with family members. The "Using Work-Related Literature"

module involves participants in reading about hazardous materials and safety on the job

and in the home. The "Using Personal Literature" module involves participants in writing

and sharing stories about their life experiences with others in class and, later, with their

children at home. The three modules of this program reflect an exemplary effort to

connect home, school, and workplace literacy applications.

SUMMARY

The importance of centering family literacy in the context of its "real-world" application in

the home and of drawing upon the experiences and strengths of the families being

served is highlighted by the examples described in this Digest. The successes of these

literacy programs reinforce the notion that generalizations about literacy program

participants are unfair. They underscore the need to bring together in mutual respect

and collaboration members of the family unit, school, and community.

REFERENCES

Auerbach, E. R.. "Toward a Social-Contextual Approach to Family Literacy." HARVARD

EDUCATIONAL REVIEW 59, no. 2 (Summer 1989): 165-181.

Bhola, H. S. "Family Literacy Development and Culture: Interconnections,

Reconstructions." CONVERGENCE 29, no. 1 (1996): 34-45.

"Book Notes. Review of Many Families, Many Literacies: An International Declaration of

Principles, edited by Denny Taylor." HARVARD EDUCATIONAL REVIEW 68, no. 2

(Summer 1998): 268-269.

Crowther, J., and Tett, L. "Literacies Not Literacy." ADULTS LEARNING 8, no. 8 (April

1997): 207-209.

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ED423429 1998-00-00 Family Literacy: Respecting Family Ways. ERIC Digest No. 203. Page 5 of 6
Griswold, K., and Ullman, C. M. NOT A ONE-WAY STREET. THE POWER OF

RECIPROCITY IN FAMILY LITERACY PROGRAMS. Bronx: City University of New

York, 1997. (ED 413 420)

Morrow, L. M., and Young, J. PARENT, TEACHER, AND CHILD PARTICIPATION IN A

COLLABORATIVE FAMILY LITERACY PROGRAM: THE EFFECTS ON ATTITUDE,

MOTIVATION, AND LITERACY ACHIEVEMENT READING RESEARCH REPORT NO.

64. College Park, MD, and Athens, GA: National Reading Research Center, 1996. (ED

398 551)

Puchner, L. D. FAMILY LITERACY IN CULTURAL CONTEXT: LESSONS FROM TWO

CASE STUDIES. Philadelphia: National Center on Adult Literacy, University of

Pennsylvania, 1997. (ED 412 376)

Richards, R. T. "When Family Literacy Begins on the Job." EDUCATIONAL

LEADERSHIP 55, no. 8 (May 1998): 78-80.

Tett, L., and St. Clair, R. "Family Literacy in the Educational Marketplace: A Cultural

Perspective." INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LIFELONG EDUCATION 16, no. 2

(March-April 1997): 109-120.

Developed with funding from the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S.

Department of Education, under Contract No. RR93002001. Opinions expressed do not

necessarily reflect the position or policies of OERI or the Department. Digests may be

freely reproduced.

Title: Family Literacy: Respecting Family Ways. ERIC Digest No. 203.

Document Type: Information Analyses---ERIC Information Analysis Products (IAPs)

(071); Information Analyses---ERIC Digests (Selected) in Full Text (073);

Descriptors: Adult Basic Education, Adult Literacy, Community Influence, Context

Effect, Educational Environment, Educational Needs, Empowerment, Family

Environment, Family Influence, Family Life, Family Literacy, Family School

Relationship, Functional Literacy, Literacy Education, Power Structure, Workplace

Literacy

Identifiers: ERIC Digests

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