Our Teacher
Research: Past & Present
Helping
all students achieve higher standards
Opportunities for Learning
and Interactions that Promote
Literate Actions
and Practices: An Ethnographic Study of a
Family Literacy Program
By
Sandra Bravo
Teacher's Network Policy
Institute
Santa Barbara, California
Educational reform is a constant theme in American educational policy. Policy
makers have launched ambitious efforts to change schools and the way schools
prepare students and their families. This idea is made apparent by numerous
past and present efforts to improve education. Additionally, there has been
a substantial effort to include parents in the educational process of their
children. These efforts have created family programs to bridge the gap that
exists between home and schools. Unfortunately, there is no recent research
that indicates how these programs are being implemented, and how they are affecting
students and their families. What are the opportunities for families to become
involved? What are the roles and relationships and the patterns of interaction
when teachers, parents, and students work together in these programs? These
questions are focus to this study. The proposed study will not only examine
how family literacy programs are implemented across California, it will also
examine how these programs promote or constrain parents to becoming involved
in schools.
This study suggests the need to examine two questions: If the school system
wants parents involved in school, what are they doing to make school more
accessible to parents? What do schools provide as opportunities for parents
to get involved
in their children's education? Schools often question why some parents are
not involved in school. Research indicates that first, many parents are intimidated
by the school system (Valdés, 1996), and some may not know how to help their
children. Secondly, there are not a lot of opportunities for parents or families
to be involved. Underlying these questions is a view of parent involvement
that rests solely on the shoulders of schools, and not on interactions between
home and school. There is a limited view of what home-school interactions
entail. Research shows that parent involvement programs have been centered
on either
increasing the involvement of parents in learning activities at home (Epstein,
1984; Allexsaht-Snider, 1995), or in using parents in various capacities
as school volunteers, along with attempts to teach parenting and other school
skills to parents.
This is view of parent
involvement is important to study because there
are many positive outcomes when parents and
schools interact. When parents are involved,
children perform better academically, they
are more motivated to learn, have fewer discipline
problems, and have higher self-esteem (Epstein-Becker,
1982). It is crucial to address this issue
when looking at program development. The information
found in this study would be relevant to school
districts because it will help guide the way
programs are implemented and evaluated. At
the state and federal level, it will provide
data that will support the need for such programs.
This study will examine how a family literacy
program makes learning opportunities accessible
to parents. As part of this program, parents
participate in classroom-learning
activities that provide various opportunities to interact with their children
and teachers. In looking at family literacy programs, we will examine the opportunities
that are made accessible or constrained. By the accessible opportunities, there
is a big assumption made that the parents will not only learn literacy skills,
but also will also learn the language of school, or school literacies. By analyzing
their actions and interactions through time and space, we can determine if
parents take up what is being offered through different contexts. If applicable,
we can make visible the different opportunities for parents and children's
learning.
This study will also examine
the ways parent involvement is supported or
constrained and are committed to developing
home-school relationships that may support
student's academic progress. To examine these
factors, we will explore the processes and
practices of home involvement used by each
school to identify the institutional practices
and interpersonal relationships needed to promote
positive parent-home involvement. The study
will focus on three aspects:
- the interactional relationships
between students, parents, teachers, administrators,
and other community members,
- the way knowledge is
constructed in a program of home-school involvement,
and
- the way parents are
afforded opportunities to appropriate academic
strategies and take on the role of teachers
as they practice these newly acquired literacy
skills with their children.
Through an ethnographic
approach that studies the interactions and
interpersonal relationships between all members
of the family literacy program, this study
will address the following questions:
- What are the opportunities
in which parents can and do become involved?
- What are the roles and
relationships and the patterns of interaction?
- How are parent-school
relationships constructed? and
- What supports or constraints
these relationships?
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