East is east, west is west? Home literacy, culture, and schooling (original) (raw)
Related papers
Home and School: Children's Lived Experience of Literacy *
2009
The proposed research forms the next phase of an ethnographic study on Singapore children’s literacy experience carried out by the principal investigator (first author). In the earlier study, currently on-going and entitled ‘Malay Children’s Lived Experience of Literacy’ (henceforth referred to as MCLEL), the focus is on Malay children. The study, started in January 2005, examines the literacy development of eight Malay children in and out of school in kindergarten and subsequently in primary one. As the research unfolds, the principal investigator becomes increasingly aware of the importance of undertaking a similar study on Chinese children given that no comparable study on these children has been done thus far. This, at the moment, is a regrettable gap, more so given the heavily socially stratified nature of this group.
Based on the theoretical perspectives of socio-constructivism and language socialization, this study reports two Chinese Canadian first grader's experiences of language and literacy learning in and out of school in a unique sociocultural setting where they were "the mainstream." The article examines the students' reading and writing practices in school and at home, as well as their parents' and teachers' thoughts, beliefs, resources, and concerns regarding their literacy learning. The findings suggest that there exists great linguistic and cultural discontinuity between the Chinese children's school and home language and literacy experiences. The children view school and home literacies as separate entities rather than a continuum. Such perceptions further widened the gaps between their development of "school literacy" which is mediated through English language and culture and that of "home literacy" which is mediated through Chinese language and culture. These children's learning experiences were also influenced by the conflicts between the school's cultural values and those of their families, which include dissensions on biliteracy expectations, homework, parenting, and instructional approaches (e.g., the use of drawing and free play). Living between two separate worlds of school and home, the students are often burdened with the consequences of the cultural clashes and become "sites of struggle" between teachers and parents, and hence, are placed in a dangerous position for potential failure at school.
A cross-sectional study was carried out to discover South Asian parents' beliefs concerning their role in their children's literacy development, and to investigate the ways in which these beliefs influence family literacy practices. The investigation revealed that parents have a strong sense of responsibility for their children's development of literacy skills. The majority of parents taught the ABCs and numbers to their children before they started school. However, shared reading and library visits were not commonly practiced by the sample group. Parents were involved in their younger children's literacy development through instruction, and older children's literacy development through encouragement and supervision. Families maintained their cultural heritage and language through telling oral stories, encouraging their children to learn traditional songs and dance, and by enrolling their children in mother-tongue language classes. There is a need for the inclusion of cultural forms of literacy in classroom curriculum and instruction. Strong homeschool partnerships are necessary to build on diverse students' home-literacy experiences.
2014
The purpose of this research is to describe the home literacy beliefs and practices of eleven families and explore what discrepancies exist between their reading related behaviors depending on their ethno-cultural self-identification. American families of Haitian, Jamaican, and Cuban descent with a first grade child were sought. The focus of this study was the home as an educational context and shared activity surrounding storybook reading and other literacy related events, based on sociocultural theory and cultural discontinuity theories. A collective case study design was utilized for this descriptive and exploratory qualitative study. Interviews, participant observation, and photography were used to collect data from 24 family members. Themes were identified across the three ethno-cultural groups examined in this study. Families represented in this study revealed their belief that maintaining a strong school-home connection would increase their children's academic achievement. Further, their practices give us a glimpse as to how to bridge this home-school connection to support their children's early literacy skills.
2010, N°10, pp. SOCIETY, FAMILY AND LEARNING. THE ROLE OF HOME LITERACY ENVIRONMENTS
2016
This paper explores the relation between society, family, and learning. In particular, it addresses the features of home literacy environments in low income families and their impact on children’s pre-literacy skills and knowledge. Sixty-two four/five-year-old children and their mothers were randomly selected for this study. The mothers were interviewed using an adaptation of a family literacy environment survey (Whitehurst, 1992). The children were assessed with specific tests to examine the scope of their 'early literacy'. The results revealed significant variability in the features and practices of home literacy environments as well as in the children’s emerging pre-literacy skills and knowledge. The correlation between the two variables shows low to moderate statistical significance. The implications of such findings are discussed. Additionally, the purpose of isolating relevant features of the children and their home environments is to identify specific indicators rel...
Linguistic Landscape, 2024
Building upon previous research on family language policy, this study explores the homescape, pertinent to the Chinese home literacy environment within Chinese transnational families. It categorizes various forms of Chinese literacy homescape and examines parental perspectives and agency in the design, creation, and adaptation of the homescape within their households. The study draws on ethnographic data from four Chinesespeaking families residing in France and Germany. Data includes sound recordings of family interactions, photographs, in-depth interviews and field notes from discussions with family members. Adopting the lens of ethnographic Linguistic Landscape, the study categorizes the Chinese literacy homescape into four sensory modalities: highly visible, semi-visible, soundscape, and digital and interactive. Findings reveal that parents employ highly strategic and agentic approaches when designing the Chinese literacy homescape, demonstrating their keen awareness of the unique characteristics of the Chinese writing system and the specific challenges their children face when learning to read Chinese.
South African Journal of Education, 2011
Major sociocultural contexts of learning such as families, communities and schools are imbued with power, and power favours some more than others. Given that schools are important sites of social and cultural reproduction, one of their major tasks is to teach learners to be literate. However, literacy is often viewed only as schooled literacy in the dominant language, and the role of the home has been undervalued in the past. In this paper I examine, through a sociocultural lens, the role played by the home and community in literacy learning. Through data elicited from observations of family interactions and conversations, as well as interviews with family members in two immigrant households, I examine their home and community literacy practices and ask how these practices intersect with schooled literacy. I conclude that immigrant children have far greater language and literacy skills than presumed, and that schools need to recognize language and literacy practices that children engage in at home and in the community, and emphasize that social justice for all requires educational shifts.