Reading in Families: A Research Update (original) (raw)
Related papers
School Psychology Quarterly, 1993
Two research projects linking family processes with children's competence in school were described to provide examples of the methodological issues related to investigations that cross the systems of the family and school. The issues discussed included gaining cooperation from the school, recruitment and consent procedures for families as subjects, data collection and measurement challenges, and family-school-researcher reciprocity. Common to both projects was subject recruitment through the schools and the collection of data in both the home and school setting. The subject populations for the projects, however, were highly distinctive with regard to socioeconomic status and diversity. Discussion of the issues common to these projects points to consistencies in the organizational constraints posed by school-based family research, whereas the distinctiveness of the projects and samples highlights the unique challenges presented to researchers as they attempt to better understand the diversity of family-school processes within our culture. The family and the school are considered to be the primary socializers of children. As such, both families and schools have the ability to enhance or compromise the mental health of children. This is supported by numerous research studies that have demonstrated that children with various types of learning and behavior problems tend to come from homes or schools that are disadvantaged or deviant in some respect (Rutter, 1985). The past decade has witnessed an increased concern with the mental health needs of children related to the belief that the primary socializing institutions of the family and the school are at-risk. Social changes, including limited economic growth and constrained financial resources, These investigations were funded in part by grants from the Spencer Foundation in Chicago, Illinois,
1982
Addressing the question of why some children manage to continue successfully through the later stages of literacy acquisition while others are unable to meet the challenges presented by fourth and fifth grade reading tasks, an 18-month, in-depth study was conducted of the home environment factors influencing the reading comprehension of second, fourth, and sixth grade students. Analysis of the data, based on interviews with family members, students' reading scores, and in-class observations of student behavior, indicated that word recognition and vocabulary were influenced by the cognitively enriching activities some homes provide, and related strongly with children's time with adults rather than with other children or watching television. Reading comprehension, though not unaffected, was less powerfully dependent on such enrichment, but was related to the emotional climate in the home. More than word recognition or vocabulary development, reading comprehension appeared to require complementary supports from home and school--the positive self-concept that develops in an emotionally positive home and the direct instruction and skill practice offered by the school. The emotional climate of the home also related closely to the students' word production in writing tasks. (MM)
Family-School Relationships: Concepts and Premises. Sharing Ideas
1999
This paper discusses how families and schools can work together to better care for and foster learning in children who are deaf and hard of hearing. Four dimensions of the family-school relationship are addressed with 16 basic premises proposed. First, three premises offer a philosophical basis for family-school relationships and include adoption of an ecological perspective, redefinition of the role and preparation of the teacher, and a commitment to interprofessional cooperation. Second, family involvement. is considered in five premises that emphasize empowering teacher attitudes, parent choice of type of involvement with schools, recognition of parents' varying needs and resources, school programs that target parents' strengths and priorities, and family partnerships with professionals. Third is the area of family support, information, education and skill development with seven premises. These address the importance of families' changing priorities and support needs, family support that is empowering, information sharing, effective parent-child interactions, and involvement of professionals with specialized skills and abilities. (Contains approximately 50 references.) (DB) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document.
Models of School-Family Relations
Oxford Research Encyclopedia, Education , 2020
For educators located in the Global North or South what it means to work with families in inclusive settings is often a reflection of fundamental conceptions of the very nature of schooling and learning. These conceptions, whether implicit or explicit theories, inform teacher practice, interaction, communication, and involvement when it comes to students’ parents, families, and communities. Understanding how theories of learning relate to family engagement and inclusive practices allow for (a) an accounting of established knowledge and practices, and (b) more innovative future directions for engaging parents, families, and communities in schooling. Three specific theories of learning (behaviorist, sociocultural, and critical) demonstrate stark differences in how the roles of parents and family are understood in their children’s education. Each of these theoretical lenses produce different answers to the question of what it means to work with families. They entail different conceptualizations of parent/family engagement and inclusion, the challenges to this engagement and inclusion, and the tools used to address these challenges. Families can be positioned as passive recipients of knowledge, contributors to knowledge, or as knowledge-makers. Regarding their child’s schooling, parents can be seen as supporters, contributors, or collaborators. They can be situated on the periphery of schooling or in the center. Contrasting and complementary elements of behavioral, sociocultural, and critical theories of learning provide insight into traditional, relational, and transformative approaches to working with families, presented through three visual models. These theoretical approaches entail practical implications as well, both reflected in standard educational practices and in extant findings in the field of educational research. This theoretical/practical approach allows for insight into why, in application, there is dissonance in perspectives among educators about how to work with families and what this work may entail and look like, and provides suggestions for how families and communities might come to play a more central role in the education of their children.
Families as social contexts for literacy development
New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 1993
This chapter presents an overview of a number of ways in which social interactions within the family support literacy acquisition. There has, of course, been a substantial amount of research devoted to this topic, much of it starting from the observation that middle-class and highly educated families typically produce more successful school learners than do working-class families. A major site for looking at family interactions has been book reading, on the assumption that early exposure to literacy promotes later literacy skills. The research I discuss here differs from previous efforts in two major ways. I have not engaged in social class comparisons, preferring to compare within relatively high-risk samples the families who successfully support their children's literacy development to those who do not. And I have focused less on literacy-specific interactions than on language interaction in general as a source of skills that are relevant to literacy.
The Role of Family and Family Context in the Learning Process of Children
VIETNAM JOURNAL OF EDUCATION, 2022
The family is regarded as the essential institution since it is where young children first acquire acculturation, values, and a sense of belonging. Childhood influences one's life direction. Parents are usually the most significant teachers. A family's influence on education extends beyond childhood. The family is the first significant educational institution in the context of other community groups. Thus, the context of family influences children's education and learning process directly and indirectly. This article concentrates on how family context may affect the learning process of family members. It also explains how the family socioeconomic status shapes children's learning process and the way the relationship between parentschool and family members within family institutions affects schooling. The findings show that family definitions vary with beliefs and societal evolutions and the degree of the relationship between family socioeconomic status and academic achievement differs by various factors. They reveal that family interactions provide a valuable social and emotional backdrop for children as children to gain confidence, feel safe, and explore their surroundings. They also show school-family partnerships help children grow intellectually, socially, and emotionally; and effective home-school relationships take time to build.
Family Literacy: The Missing Link to School-Wide Literacy Efforts
Reading Horizons, 2007
Everyone has a literacy component to their lives. Family literacy refers to the ways people learn and use literacy in their home and everyday lives. Many times there is a disconnect between family and school literacies. Schools do not have systematic ways of tapping into the ...
Family Reading Habits and Children's Progress in Reading
1977
This study examined the_influences of the home,on children's attitudes toward reading, perceptions'of reading, reading habits, and reading achievement. Participating in the study were 38 low-income white children (and their parents) from nine first-grade classrooms involved in the Florida Parent Education Follow Through project. Data were obtained from child:en and parents through interviews and direct-observation procedres, including the videotaping of parent and child, reading a book together. Findings showed that the total scores of children's attitudese perceptions, and reading habits were not significantly related to their reading-achievement scores; that children who were read to at home watched less television; that the availability of books from various sources was significantly related to reading-achievement scores; that parents of low-achipving children corrected their ohildren in a negative way.more often than did parents of high achievers; that children who had been read to made greater use ct the public library; and that children who were rc,ad,to more frequently/also saw adults real more frequently at home and had 'more children's books at home.
2012
The study had twofold purposes. The first one is to establish the underlying structure of family literacy practices at the different grade levels kindergarten, first, third, fifth, and eighth, for children who were followed in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-1999 (ECLS-K). The second purpose is to investigate the relationship between family literacy practices and reading achievement. The children for the ECLS-K study were a nationally representative sample of students enrolled in both public and private school kindergarten programs from diverse socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds across the United States. Variables related to family literacy practices were obtained through the use of exploratory factor analysis. After controlling for race, gender, and socioeconomic status, relationships of family literacy factors, ability, and reading achievement were analyzed using multiple regression.