Portuguese Families Role in Literacy Development and Home Curriculumenrichment
7th International Conference of the European Research Network about Parents in Education DIVERSITY IN EDUCATION ERNAPE 2009 ISBN 978-91-86238-82-2
Portuguese Families’ Role in Literacy Development and Home CurriculumEnrichment
M. Adelina Villas-Boas (mariadelinavb@gmail) University of Lisbon,
School of Psychology and Sciences of Education,Portugal
Abstract
This quasi-experimental study lasted for one year with the aims: (1) help children be aware of their cultural, linguistic and urban background with the collaboration of their own families; and (2) use that information to promote their further knowledge and achievement in reading and writing also in cooperation with the families.Two classes of 2nd graders were randomly selected to be the experimental and control groups. The students and their families came from a semi-urban a area.The teacher of the experimental class held regular meetings with parents and fourteen different activities were agreed to be developed in partnership. Each activity followed three steps: (1) conversation between parent and child, (2) writing of text in the computer at home, and (3) reading and editing the text at school. The final outcome was a book entitled “When my mother/father was a little child…”Questionnaires were used as pre and post-tests both to measure the differences in parents’ home environment and in children’s literacy development. The results indicated significant differences in the two considered factors.
INTRODUCTION
It has been acknowledged that the intergenerational gap has been increasing in the existing society. It may be considered one of the aftermaths of migration either from one country to another, or from one place to another within the same country (Ogbu, 1992). However, it can be also due to many other reasons which may include reduced number of family members or social class upgrading. The current trend to “the reconstitution and reconstruction of the middle classes”, which was pointed out by David (2003, p.84),especially affects mothers who “feel under pressure always to look for the best or trying to ensure their child’s advantage” (p.86). In addition, it prevents or neglects any family conversations on parental past.
It is the case that it has been emphasized that when children’s family and cultural roots become less strong, their social, emotional, and educational development may be negatively affected (Fenster, 1982).Notwithstanding, the results of several studies on promoting parental involvement in their children’s academic activities at home have shown that, among other side effects, parents often have acknowledged that the relationship between them and their children had improved (Villas-Boas, São Pedro & Fonseca, 2000; Villas-Boas, 2001; 2003).
These benefits on the home environmentseem germane inasmuch as Bloom (1982), Walberg (1984) and, more recently, Redding (1992) and Wang et al.(1993) have emphasized the importance of the home factors which constitute a homecurriculum and which “predicts academic learning twice as well as the socio-academic status of families” (Walberg, p.400). For Redding, who studied the relations among family history, family social status, family values, norms of attitudes and habits, children skills and academic productivity, the home curriculum describes “a cluster of parent-child behaviours that are to be found to be common in families where children succeed in academic learning” (p.1). For the purpose of this study, Bloom’s identification of those factors as: (1) Work habits at home;(2) Academic guidance and support;(3)Stimulation to explore and discuss ideas and events; (4) Language development in the home; and (5)Academic aspirations and expectationshas been selected.
As far as learning is concerned, the importance of literacy development must be considered inasmuch as literacy events not only gradually build up children’s knowledge, but also their skills of understanding of a large range of literacies (Barratt-Pugh, 2000). Also, according to Adams (1998, p.203),”the success of beginning reading instruction is the key to education, and education is the key to success for both individuals and a democracy”. As literacy events are believed to be socially constructed and culturally specific (Barratt-Pugh, 2000), teachers must not only be sensitive to family cultural values, but also can engage parents and children in activities that foster their readiness to reading and writing. Some studies have indicated that, if those activities take into account the children’s need for background knowledge and contribute to enrich that background knowledge through an intensive exposure and practice with meaningful texts in meaningful contexts, the literacy development is encouraged (Menyuk & Brisk, 2005).
THE CONTEXTS OF RESEARCH
This research has been developed as an International Project with common objectives: to help children be aware of the diversity of their cultural backgrounds with the collaboration of their families, andto use that information to promote their academic development. Also, the same experimental design was followed. The research involved a quasi-experimental design with samples which were divided into the test and the control groups.
Two main questions were asked in all the studies: (a) Is it possible to increase literacy or mathematics development byhelping children be aware of their cultural, linguistic, and urban background with the collaboration of their families? (b) How these activities influence their home environment? The same questionnaires on home environment (Bloom, 1982) and on literacy development (Villas-Boas, 2002)were used as pre and post-tests in order to permit a further comparative analysis of the results. Also, the age of subjects was similar. They all should come from 1stto 4th grade students.The students and their families came from rural, semi-urban and urban areas.
This was a means to increase our knowledge on the issue of parental involvement in literacy learning taking into consideration the diversity of parents and their cultural backgrounds and, at the same time, the activities that best foster their involvement and the benefits both for the children’s learning and the home environment.
So far, three countries, Cyprus, France and Portugal (two research units, Lisbon and Minho) have been participating in the research project. The first study was developed in the University of Lisbon, followed by the replications of the study inthe European University of Cyprus and, then, in the Minho University and in the Artois University by the Team DIDIREM from the University of Paris-Diderot, France.
In these two further studies new developments have occurred with the aim of extending the research. In MinhoUniversity the aim was to extend the research in order to study differences that might occur due to the factor age. Thus, another sample includingkindergarten children was used and a qualitative approach was developed. Also, in the French study, the extension of the research included a different subject matter. As the studies in literacy in mother tongue had shown that the influence of the family involvement appeared to be strongly significant, this contribution wonderedwhether the same results could be obtained with mathematics. A new questionnaire was developed in order to be used as pre and pos-test to measure the mathematics development.
In conclusion, this International Project aspires to set a frame for discussing how the comparative analysis of the studies developed in different countries and in different subject matters may provide useful information on the understanding of school-family relationships and provide a basis for programs to assist the diversity of families to support children’s learning.
METHODS AND PROCEDURES
Thus, the objectives of this quasi-experimental study, which is part of the larger, above mentioned International Project, are twofold: 1st, help children be aware of their cultural, linguistic, and urban background with the collaboration of their own families, and 2nd, use that information to promote their development in reading and writing. Two main questions were asked: Is it possible to increase literacy development by involving parents and children in cultural conversations about their common grounds? How do these activities influence their own home environment?
Thirty-six 2nd graders from two different classes constituted the sample which was divided into the test (18 students) and the control (18 students) groups. The two teachers’ experience was similar and both classes were familiar with the use of computers to process written texts. The majority of the students came from medium class families but about one third of the students came from high class families. They all lived in a small town in the roundabouts of Lisbon. Most of the families followed a traditional model and only three children in the test group lived with only one of the parents. Teachers considered they all had favourable home environments for children’s learning and usually came to the school meetings.
The intervention in the test class lasted for one school year. First, the teacher tried to build a partnership with parents of thetest group. Thus, to implement that partnership,at the beginning of the school year,the teacher had a meeting with parents to inform them about the kind of activities they would be asked to be involved in, and to discuss the final product (a book written by the children which would be called “When my mother/father/grandmother …or else… was a little child…”) and they were also asked to decide which parent or family member would be participate in the activities. Each activity involved conversation between parent and child focussed on the diversity of their common background. This conversation was followed by literacy enhancing activities at home which were then worked over at school in order to produce the referred publishing outcome.
At the end of the meeting, parentswere pre tested on the home environment processes that influence school learning according to the already mentioned Bloom’s five modifiable factors of the home curriculum (1982)
The children from the two classes were also pre tested on their literacy development (Villas-Boas, 2002).
Fourteen activities were, then, periodicallydeveloped. Each one followed the same three steps:
(1st Step) Parents were asked to talk with their children about a specific subject of their choice about their own infancy or visit some place of their choice when they were children themselves. The focus was on:
- Preferential trips, monuments, toysand play, stories, gifts and food;
-The way they spent Sundays and holidays;
- The songs, guessing-games, sayings, and clothes they were familiar with.
(2nd Step) Each child wrote a text about the previous conversation or visit in his/her computer, at home.
(3rd Step) Each text was corrected at school with the teachers’ help and, then, rewritten and edited.
At the end of the school year, every student came out with his or her own book which was illustrated by the students before being printed.
Finally, parents and children were post-tested using the respective questionnaires that were used as pre-tests.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The data from both the parents’ and the students’ testing were statistically analyzed. The results of the literacy tests indicated that although there were no differences between the two classes in the pre-test, there were significant differences (p<0.01) between the means of the two groups in the post-test, showing that the experimental group had done much better. They developed not only their reading skills, but mainly their writing skills.
The Shaperò-Wilk test and the T-test were used to measure the differences (globally and separately) of the five factors of the questionnaire on the home curriculum, which were scaled as “Not Important”, “Important” and “Most Important” for this purpose.
The results indicated global significant differences between the two groups as Figure 1 indicates.
Figure 1- Home curriculum evolution
Significant differences for each of four factors also occurred, showing that parents valued (1)Work habits at home (p<0.01),(2) Academic guidance and support (p<0.05),(3) Stimulation to explore and discuss ideas and events (p<0.01), and (5) Academic aspirations and expectations (p<0.05) as “Important” or “Most Important” more frequently than in the pre-test.
Only Factor 4 - Language development in the home didn’t indicate significant differences. It was thought that this result may have come out because this was the only factor that parents already had valued as “Important” or “Most Important” before the intervention.
The qualitative analysis based on informal conversations between the teacher, the parents and the childrenindicated that most children had little or none information on their parents’ past.
Parents thanked the teacher for having given them the opportunity and the subject to talk with their children. Some even acknowledged that “talk” was not enough, and further trips and visits should be complementary activities to be accomplished.
It was found out that they wished a follow-up activity to replicate the experiment with the other parent or other family member. A step-father, an aunt and a grandmother participated in four follow-up activities which were exclusively selected by the family. These activities were developed in the first term of the following year and a second but smaller book was printed.
CONCLUSION
We concluded that, in this case, children’s literacy development has increased and the intergenerational gap had been reduced.
We think that the implications of these findings have both theoretical and practical importance.
So, I’d like to emphasize theemergence of an hypothesized theoretically model (Figure 2) indicating that Home -School Partnership affects directly and indirectly School Achievement, inasmuch as it affects the quality of the home factors or home curriculum (HC) and increases Parent-Child interaction which, in turn, positively contributes to Student or School Achievement. Thus, a more favourable HC acts as a powerful intervening variable which contributes to reduce the intergenerational gap and reinforces the effect of the independent variable HSP (Home -School Partnerships).
Figure 2 - Hypothesized interactive model of the factors affecting achievement
Practical implications deal with the information which constitutes a basis for programs to assist medium to high class families, and not only low class families, given that through an adequate intervention, home-school partnership can improve not only school achievement, but also the Home curriculum itselfthus diminishing the intergenerational gap between parents and children.
Finally, a second practical implication is thatthese effects indicate that a vast field of further research is needed on this subject: research with: similar samples in other countries which are in process now, but also research with older students and research using other strategies also involving common subjects and interests.
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