Success Stories

Staying Power in Family Literacy

Creating a family literacy program that has staying power for both the families and staff means finding a way for all to realize their competence in literacy.

Family literacy teachers need to maintain “social respect, personal regard, perceived competence of the participants, and perceptions of basic integrity” (Mendoza et al., 2003, p. 73). The Sunset Park Even Start Family Literacy Partnership was the focus of a Family Literacy Forum & Literacy Harvest article in the fall issue, 2003. Strategies from the program included using reflective practice in professional development for the staff. Initially, this strategy was met with uncertainty. The staff, of differing cultures, felt that “a good professional was someone who did what was asked of them” (Kamber and Tan, 2003, p. 9).

This is much the same problem the parents, of Spanish and Asian descent, were having with being involved with their child’s education. The beliefs were that the teacher is the expert and will be the person educating the child. Parents felt comfortable asking about their child’s behavior but not about accomplishments and the curriculum. Teachers thought the parents were not interested and uninvolved. In addition, Asian Indian families view preschool programs as teaching conduct and academics and do not understand the use of play as a learning strategy in developmentally appropriate programs (Joshi, 2005). At home, the parenting style was not supportive for the child, who was also presented with two contradictory messages—the home culture and the school culture. As children grow older with the conflicting messages, the children would be raising questions and more culture and assimilation issues might arise in the family structure.

The cultural issues impact all components of a family literacy program. The same values are brought to the home visits, to adult education, to parenting, and to early childhood and interactive literacy activities. How did the family literacy program address these cultural issues?

The Sunset Park staff used the process of reflection in their professional development. The staff was interested in connecting theory and practice, as well as improving the outcomes for the families they worked with. Part of their professional development of learning about what research indicates works in emergent literacy, included writing, in a reflective manner, weekly about what they did. The reflective writing ranged from exploring the ideas that were shared, resources used, and teamwork activities attempted to evaluating their own role and discussing if the outcomes worked. As the staff realized their own growth and competence, they were able to examine “their concerns about parents’ traditional role expectations” (2003, p. 7). Using their literacy training, the staff adapted materials to the specific needs of families and enabled the parents to begin sharing books and literacy activities with their children. Both the staff and families, given the tools of knowledge and reflective practice, are able to move from zones of comfort to cocreating proficiency which is both a social foundation and program outcome.

“Authentic learning partnership” is the key to family literacy according to Kamber and Tan (2003, p. 6). Maintaining motivation in families through the program strategies of verbal connections between teachers and student families and utilizing family expertise strengthens commitments (Ramirez et al., 2004). Staying power in family literacy can be found through education with mutual respect for all of the participants in the program and program staff.

Kamber, M., Tan, N. (2003). Reflecting Culture in Reflective Practice: How Literacy Professionals Improve Family Outcomes by Learning across Cultures. Family Literacy Forum & Literacy Harvest, 10, 5-11.

Mendoza, J., Katz, L., Robertson, A. S., and Rothenberg, D. (2003). Connecting with Parents in the Early Years. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois. Retrieved February 14, 2005 from http://ceep.crc.uiuc.edu/pubs/connecting. html.

Ramirez, A., Lizarraga, F., Ramirez, C., and Magisos, A. (2004). Retention in Family Literacy: Encouraging Internal Motivation. Connecting: The World of Family Literacy, 4(2) 9-14.