Handbook of Family Literacy

Barbara H. Wasik, Barbara H. Wasik

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781136899119
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Éducation
• Subtopic: Éducation générale

The Handbook of Family Literacy, 2e, provides the most comprehensive, up-to-date coverage of family literacy of any available book. It documents the need for literacy education for children and parents, describes early literacy and math development within the home, analyses interventions in home and center settings, and examines the issues faced by fathers and women with low literacy skills. Cultural issues are examined especially those for Hispanic, African American, American Indian, Alaskan Native, and migrant populations. Noted experts throughout the United States, Canada, England, the Netherlands, Germany, New Zealand, and South Africa analyze the commonalities and differences of family literacy across cultures and families. Key features include the following.

Comprehensive – Provides updated information on the relation between early childhood literacy development, parenting education, and intervention services.

Research Focus – Provides an extensive review of experimental studies, including national reviews and meta-analyses on family literacy.

Practice Focus – Provides a comprehensive treatment of family literacy interventions necessary for program developers, policy makers, and researchers.

Diversity Focus – Provides detailed information on cultural and diversity issues for guiding interventions, policy, and research.

International Focus – Provides an international perspective on family literacy services that informs program developers, researchers, and policy makers across countries.

Evaluation Focus – Provides detailed guidelines for ensuring program quality and fidelity and a valuable new evaluation perspective based on implementation science.

This book is essential reading for anyone – researchers, program developers, students, practitioners, and policy makers – who needs to be knowledgeable about intervention issues, family needs, program developments, and research outcomes in family literacy.

Part I
Overview of Family Literacy

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The introductory chapter in this handbook provides a conceptual and empirical foundation for the sections that follow, beginning with information on how the concept of literacy has evolved over time from a focus only on reading and writing to a more plural view that takes into account the functions of literacy and the interactions between culture and literacy. The authors, Barbara Hanna Wasik and Barbara Van Horn, build on their collective experiences in family literacy, early childhood, parent education, and adult education to examine family literacy, both as a phenomenon of family life and as a framework for literacy services. Several major variables with a direct bearing on family literacy in the United States and globally are discussed, including (a) demographic data on the literacy levels of adults, (b) children’s literacy levels, (c) the influence of parents on children’s literacy, and (d) the impact of immigration on child and adult literacy education. Literacy levels of parents are highly predictive of child outcomes and for this reason they become a significant factor when considering children’s literacy development. Also, parent interactions with children are well documented as significant factors in children’s language and literacy development. Children’s early literacy levels, in turn, are also highly predictive of school outcomes; without intervention children who begin preschool or elementary school with low literacy skills are likely to maintain their relatively low status throughout their schooling. This empirical evidence, expanded upon in later chapters, provides the strongest rationale for involving parents in literacy interventions with their children.

This overview chapter also includes statistics on current immigration status in a sampling of countries to illustrate the need for basic literacy skills on the part of many adult immigrants. The children of adult immigrants are often at risk of low school performance and experience added challenges when entering the formal educational system. By providing both parent and child services, family literacy programs are uniquely positioned to assist these families. The statistics documenting large numbers of both immigrant and nonimmigrant adults and children without basic literacy skills add to the empirical research of parent influences on child development that supports the role for family literacy programs. The statistics also provide urgency to learning how best to help parents and children gain the literacy skills important for accessing educational and work opportunities, as well as opening doors for other life opportunities.

1
The Role of Family Literacy in Society

Barbara Hanna Wasik and Barbara Van Horn

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The intergenerational transfer of literacy has intrigued educators, researchers, and policy makers, and served as a fundamental rationale of family literacy programs. Children who come into the world without language learn one of thousands of languages, depending upon the family into which they are born. Not only does the family determine the child’s early language, but a family’s culture, beliefs, and traditions also influence the way children use words for discourse (Heath, 1983). Their family’s literacy levels also influence whether children develop strong language skills as well as reading and writing skills. Some parents provide a strong foundation for language and literacy at home, having many print materials available and modeling the use of reading, writing, and math in daily life. Other families communicate primarily through oral language, with storytelling being an important way to share family or cultural history. Regardless of a family’s desires for their children’s success, some parents, especially those with limited literacy skills or formal education, do not have the knowledge or skills needed to adequately support their children’s early language and literacy development. As a result, these children often struggle with and do not master school-related literacy skills, putting them at a lifelong disadvantage related to educational outcomes, future employability, and social and health status.

Internationally, the impact of literacy on economic and social indicators is of increasing interest. The relationship between educational attainment and income has been well-documented in the United States and other countries (Blanden & Gregg, 2004; Day & Newburger, 2002; Hertz et al., 2007). Further, business and industry leaders continue to stress the need for more highly educated adults to fill positions, many of which require at least some postsecondary education or training. These positions require more advanced academic skills (e.g., reading and writing, mathematics and numeracy, technology, problem-solving) and are more likely to pay family-sustaining wages than positions that do not requires these skills. This global need for better skilled workers has raised awareness and increased commitments to adult literacy. Studies on literacy and health outcomes have also highlighted the importance of literacy for understanding medical information (Moon, Cheng, Patel, Baumhaft, & Scheidt, 1998), for compliance with medical procedures and for patient safety (Immink, & Payongayong, 1999; Moon et al., 1998; Williams, Baker, Honig, Lee, & Nowlan, 1998), and for more positive child health outcomes (DeWalt, & Hink, 2009; Sanders, Federico, Klass, Adrams, & Dreyer, 2009; Sandiford, Cassel, Montenegro, & Sanchez, 1995), underscoring the broad implications for literacy far beyond schooling and employment.

One of the compelling global issues of literacy education is whether we can reach the goal of having all young children become literate before they reach adulthood, able to function at their full potential in society. To reach this goal, we need to know the best way to reach out to families to collaborate in this process as well as the best services to provide to families for assisting their children. We also need to examine the most advantageous combination of services.

Family literacy is a term with multiple definitions used to refer to both the type of discourse within families as well as to services that are provided to enhance the literacy skills of family members. In this chapter, we first consider definitions of literacy and how these have broadened over time, then we review several influences on the development of family literacy interventions, namely theoretical positions related to child and adult development; data on adult and child literacy levels; the relation between parent and child literacy skills; and immigration.

Definitions of Literacy and Family Literacy

Literacy Definitions

In the early part of the 20th century, the term “literacy” was defined by the terms “reading” and “writing” and was seen primarily as a set of skills gained through schooling. This conceptualization of literacy as a set of skills has been described by Baron as “One of the most powerful metaphors for literacy in public discussions of reading and writing” (2007, p. 161). Elaborating on the metaphor of skills, Barton noted that “It underpins the way politicians and the media discuss literacy issues” and it is also “[b]ehind discussions and headlines on falling standards, the need to improve the teaching of reading and the ‘problem’ of adult literacy …” (2007, p. 161). Through his examination of the role of schools, Barton observed that though school literacy is only one of the ways literacy is defined, it is a prevalent and pervasive concept of literacy.

This emphasis upon literacy as a collection of skills, moving from a simpler set to a more sophisticated and complex set, has roots in the early part of the twentieth century when psychologists became interested in studying skills such as cognition and intelligence. This concept of literacy has continued to influence the research on literacy and has been a dominant force in the study of both child and adult literacy, as we will examine in more detail later. Although literacy is still conventionally defined as the ability to read and write, the meaning of literacy has expanded to encompass a set of complex, multidimensional skills that begin at birth and develop over a person’s lifetime.

A second factor influencing definitions of literacy is a focus on the functions of literacy. This emphasis on functions began to appear as early as World War II, when the United States Army used the term “functional literacy” to indicate “the capability to understand written instructions necessary for conducting basic military functions … at a fifth grade reading level” (Sharon, 1973, p. 148). Further examples of the focus on the functions of literacy were seen in 1991, when the National Literacy Act of the United States federal government defined literacy as “… an individual’s ability to read, write, and speak in English, and compute and solve problems at levels of proficiency necessary to function on the job and in society, to achieve one’s goals and develop one’s knowledge and potential.” This definition was later expanded to include a person’s ability to function in his or her family (The Workforce Investment Act of 1998). These legislative definitions call attention to the adult learner not only as worker, citizen, and community member, but also as parent and family member, and they are consistent with the expanded concept of literacy in the National Institute for Literacy’s Equipped for the Future (EFF) project. EFF identified four categories of skills adults need to conduct the primary roles in their lives: communication skills, decision-making skills, interpersonal skills, and lifelong learning skills. Examples of these four areas illustrate that literacy can be described as a formal skill within an educational setting as well as skills necessary for informal everyday situations, such as problem solving and decision making (Stein, 2000).

The U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) sponsored the 1992 National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS) and the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) (Kirsch, Jungeblut, Jenkins, & Kolstad, 1993; Kutner, Greenberg, Jin, Hsu, & Dunleavy, 2007). Both studies defined literacy as “using printed and written information to function in society, to achieve one’s goals, and to develop one’s knowledge and potential” (Kutner et al., 2007, p. 2). Literacy was tested directly in each survey by having adults apply reading and math skills as they would in common daily tasks. In 2004, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) proposed plural operational definition of literacy:

Literacy is the ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate, compute and use printed and written materials associated with varying contexts. Literacy involves a continuum of learning in enabling individuals to achieve their goals, to develop their knowledge and potential, and to participate fully in their community and wider society.

(UNESCO, 2004, p. 13)

This change in conceptualization of literacy over time, moving from a more restricted definition of literacy encompassing reading, writing, and calculating skills, to a plural conceptualization that takes into consideration the meanings and dimensions of these competencies has been traced in a UNESCO report (2004). Though this broader view has been promoted by the United National General Assembly as part of the global effort towards Education for All and is endorsed by many theorists, it has not yet permeated actual literacy efforts in many nations (UNESCO, 2004).

In the following section we examine the concept of family literacy, followed by a discussion of family literacy interventions. We then examine four factors that influence policies and practices related to family literacy, both in the United States and internationally: theoretical concepts, demographic data on adult and child literacy proficiency; parent influences on child literacy interactions; and immigration.

Family Literacy Definition

The term “family literacy” was first used almost 30 years ago to describe discourse within the family (Taylor, 1983). Research findings have informed our understanding of how discourse and dialogue within the family influence children’s language and literacy learning as well as how distinctive family patterns can be, even among families living in similar circumstances or locations. In her detailed ethnological study of families in North Carolina, Heath (1983) showed how family values and communication patterns contributed to differences among children in two very small communities just a few miles apart, and how children in both these small communities differed from children who grew up in the nearby town. Her observations about the use of oral language and print among all three groups of children and their communities provided one of the most nuanced documentations of cultural differences related to language and literacy and how these differences influenced children’s performance in school.

As discourse, family literacy is inclusive of the oral and written communications within the family and it encompasses the family’s efforts to support the language and literacy development of their children. Indeed, it is this definition that often puts some professionals at odds with others, as some wish to keep a focus on interactions that are unique to the family, while others see the need for skill development essential for success in educational and work place settings. This bind is noted by Faircloth and Thompson in this handbook as they discuss the tension between the traditional literacy practices in Native American families in contrast to literacy skills needed for education and economic success. Similarly, Scott, Brown, Jean-Baptiste, and Barbarin stress the need to be inclusive of family beliefs and values when considering services to families. Furthermore, using the oral traditions and cultural heritage of families can provide a creative and empowering means of helping families develop reading and writing skills important for many everyday functions, and can potentially serve as a foundation for more advanced literacy development (e.g., Adra, 2004).

On a broader level, the literacy skills of families are central to the literacy proficiency of neighborhoods and communities; viewed collectively, they determine the literacy levels of individual countries around the world. That the family is instrumental in these highly significant international phenomena is no surprise, given the extensive documentation of the correspondence between parental literacy levels and children’s literacy skills. Other social organizations, especially schools, certainly carry a significant responsibility for producing a literate society, but they can accomplish their mission better when ...