7th International Conference of the European Research Network about Parents in Education DIVERSITY IN EDUCATION ERNAPE 2009 ISBN 978-91-86238-82-2
WE WILL WRITE THE BOOK OF OUR CHILDHOOD… AND BUILD A CLOSER RELATIONSHIP
Teresa Sarmento
IEC – Universidade do Minho, Portugal
Abstract
The objective of this research is to analyze the children-parents-teachers dynamics through the activation of the project “Bringing generations together through linguistic, urban and cultural heritage”. This integrates teachers from two different schools – one from an urban environment and the other inserted in a rural environment (in which are included both an experimental and a control class for each unit) -, as well as a kindergarten in an urban environment (six classes). This latter project is organized in three central phases: 1) interviewing and pre-testing; 2) developing parent-children relation initiatives, including the production of a childhood memory book; 3) applying the final interviews and post-tests. Throughout the school year, a research team will attend periodic meetings in order to discuss the dynamics of each group. The result analysis will be presented both in quantitative and qualitative data. The first aims to compare the quantitative data with data from parallel investigations whereas the second hopes to reflect on the unpredicted dynamics such as the involvement of teachers who are not part of the project, the different participation of teachers, the children’s part of the process and the educational practices expansion based on the reflection upon the central project.
Introduction
The collaboration between schools and families, more specifically among the children, the parents/the ones in charge of education and the teachers, is a reality already implemented in Portugal quite enough, particularly in the two first education levels, i.e. in preschool education and in the 1st cycle. There are many national and international studies on this subject (Perrenoud, 1987; Edwards, 2000; Silva, P. 2007; Sarmento, T. e Marques, 2007; Sá, V. 2004; Zenhas, 2006; among others), with main incidence in the parents and/or teachers’ representation on this relationship, about the organisation of the school for its promotion, about the roles of top leaderships (headmasters of the institutions) and intermediary ones (group directors, class teachers) in the promotion or withdrawal between families and school, about parental associativism, about collaboration and practices of citizenship, residually about the role of children in the mediation of this relationship, among other aspects equally investigated. It is less common to find research about the reflexes of the schools-families collaboration in an area of specific content as, in the present case, in the promotion of literacy. The invitation we have received in terms of participating in a project with this aim was, therefore, warmly welcomed, insofar as it allows us to advance to new areas of approach and to develop, in an integrated way, methodologies of quantitative and qualitative research.
From the start we identified as main objective of the project: a) evaluate the influence of the schools-families collaboration on the promotion of literacy; b) analyse the practices of collaboration between schools and families; c) interpret the participation in projects as modality of continuing education in context.
In order to make viable the realisation of these objectives, we have invested in a collaborative methodology with the elements participating in the research–teachers, educators, research assistants[1]– having periodic meetings to the assessment and reflection about the phasing of the project, as well as to the systematisation of the relevant data that was collected. In a brief presentation of the followed process, we may say that it included various phases: 1) preparation of the research team, presentation of the proposals to parents; 2) interview of adhering parents and completion of the test by children; 3) performance of the tasks by children and parents, with the collaboration of the professionals in the release and socialisation of them; 4) continuing and final evaluation and of results[2], with application of post-test.
Theoretical bases that sustain the research project
This research project starts from using the Test of Early Reading Ability (Kim Reid, Wayne P. Hresko, Donald D. Hammill, 1981). adapted to the Portuguese population by Mª Adelina Villas-Boas, now called Teste de Desenvolvimento da Literacia – TDL (Literacy Development Test), which, according to the author, has “the required conditions to evaluate the nature and the support for the development of literacy” (2002, 13).
The authors of the base test assert that it allows them to evaluate the efforts that the children, from 3 years old on, make to discover the meaning of the written text, the arbitrary conventions of reading and writing, and to learn the alphabet and its use. Reading and writing are understood as paramount in our present society, for what they mean in terms of empowering tools of intelligence and communication, at service to the development of literacy, i.e. of “the capacity of processing information from reading and reading in daily life” (Villas-Boas, 2002, 15).
Continuing with reference to Adelina Villas-Boas, there are three main premises to define the nature of the reading process: 1) the child builds reading knowledge from the interaction he or she establishes with the written word; 2) knowledge of reading is an evolution process of expansion, elaboration, and differentiation of linguistic basis; 3) the use of graphic language to communicate something is the first and most important evidence of understanding the meaning of writing (Borus, 1984, in Villas-Boas, 2002).The first premise focuses on the relation of the axiom of the construction of knowledge through interaction with the environment, which allows the child to appropriate the meaning of letters and words, and the process of acquiring them. Thus, progressively the child is able to establish relations between a sound and a graphic representation of it, either in its global composition (the word) or in its unitary division (the letter). Even if the process of acquisition is differentiated among children, it is common the relevance it has to all the opportunities to establish relations of correspondence between spoken and written words, and, for young children, their pictorial representation. The second premise advances towards reconstruction, based on written symbols, of the ideas and knowledge that one wants to transmit. This phase demands that they exercise selective processes in which each one chooses the words and sequences of them that best represent their thoughts. Here, some individual components take place from the mobilisation of words that best depict the interpretation of the situations that each one makes, conjugating with their cognitive references. In a first phase, reading corresponds to an unconscious or mechanic knowledge, however, as long as their knowledge advances, this reading becomes more deliberate (Trumbull, 1984, in Villas-Boas, 2002). Being this an evolution process, the more intentionalised it is in the educational practices, more opportunities there will be for the children to become ‘good readers’, i.e. to be able to use writing and reading in the best way for their personal satisfaction and for the solution to questions in their daily life, as well as for communication they might develop with others. According to Goelman et al. “the first encounters of children with literacy happen in social contexts with meaning” (1984, in Villas-Boas, 2002), which makes viable a better understanding of the instrumental and symbolic value of reading and writing. According to Vygotsky (1984) these acquisitions happen from the interiorisation of the social interactions, for the literacy richness of the contexts lived by the children will be highly influential in the acquisition and development that they can perform in this area. A family that reads stories to children, where they contact with constant readers (parents or siblings) that have at their hand books or other written material which they feel pleased to contact with, is promoter of the literacy of children. These strategies fit themselves in the third premise, according to which the main purpose of reading and writing is communication; the richer of experiences their life context is, more opportunities they have in terms of becoming good communicators, i.e. able to transmit and receive adequate and meaningful information in their daily lives.
Presentation of the Literacy Development Test and its use in this project
In a brief presentation of the Literacy Development Test – a supporting tool in this research project, leaning on its adapter to Portuguese reality, we may say that it occurs in three dimensions of literacy development: the graphic-phonetic conscience, the conscience of the conventions of writing, and the conscience of semantic information. Among the 50 existing flash cards, there are sixteen items with which we intend to make evaluation of the first dimension, with situations referring to: a) knowledge of the name of the letters and other symbols; b) reading; c) correction of tests/discovery of mistakes. For the second dimension, there are four items, two that evaluate the physical relationship with the text/book, and two other about arbitrary conventions of the text itself. The conscience of semantic information, third dimension, is focused on thirty items, which are organized in three categories: situation contexts; relation between words and speech comprehension. To fill the test out three kinds of answer are requested: a) identification of symbols and conventions related to written language; b) silent reading; c) reading aloud. In practical terms, the test is filled out individually, in a place that pleases the children and respecting their pace of response. Answering to the test terminated when the child makes five mistakes in a row over the flash cards or when the test is completed.
The research project also integrates an interview with the parents/the ones in charge of education (EE), both in the beginning of the project, before starting the test, and at the end, after doing all the tasks related to the making of the book about their parents’ life experiences, tasks to be done by the children with their parents, at home. The tasks on which the book is developed refer to places where their parents used to go when they were children, toys and games, favourite food, Sunday activities, songs of their time, vacations, riddles and proverbs, monuments they visited, toys they received, parties, favourite clothes and colours, stories they used to listen to, presents they received, and their free-time activities[3].
The development of the project Bringing generations together through linguistic, urban and cultural heritage
The participation in the project happened from the voluntary enrolment of two 1st cycle teachers and six female infant teachers that displayed great interest in integrating the study. In each group, the teachers showed the proposal of realisation to the parents, making sure all parents of the children integrated in the 1st cycle accepted while, in the kindergarten classes, there were some parents who joined but others who were not available to do so. In some cases, as we will develop in another stage, along the project, there were some children who could mobilise their parents, who initially were not supporters, to participate in some activities. Beyond the groups integrated in the research, the test was also performed with other groups or children (in the case of the kindergarten classes), in order to compare the data in relation to the participation or not in the project. In the following chart we systematised the concise information considered relevant to the knowing of the participating elements in the study.
Context / Educational Level / Nº of children/families / Social, economics and cultural conditions of families / Type of Professional / Number of years of Professional experienceTotal / Participants / Total / On the present school
Urban Context / 1ºcycle / 2º class / 22 / 22 / Middle / Teacher of 1º CC - Teresa Sousa / 20 / 3
Rural Context / 1º cycle / 3º + 4º
classes / 22 / 22 / Middle -Low / Teacher of 1º CC – Joaquim Marques / 30 / 2
Pre-school / Class of 3-5 years / 15 / 15 / Middle -Low / Pre-school teacher – Raquel Amorim / 24 / 16
Urban Context / Class of 5 years / 25 / 8 / Middle -High / Pre-school teacher - Alice / 7 / 5
Class of 4 years / 24 / 6 / Middle / Pre-school teacher - Irª Alice / 24 / 24
Pre-school / Class of 3 years / 25 / 1 / Middle -Low / Pre-school teacher -Joana / 13 / 6
Class of 4 years / 25 / 8 / Middle -Low / Pre-school teacher - Mª Manuel / 7 / 4
Class of 3 years / 26 / 16 / Middle -High / Pre-school teacher - Ana / 4 / 3
Class of 5 years / 23 / 5 / Middle / Pre-school teacher –
Cristina / 4 / 0
The type used for the definition of socio-economic and cultural conditions of families means the following: Middle-Low = low educational attainment, economic balance; Middle = level educational and economic equilibrium; Medium-High = higher education, economic balanced.
While in the schools of the 1st cycle the research assistants and the coordinator of the project were the ones who carried out the tests, in the kindergartens, regarding the age of the children and the opportunity that the educators have to count on the education assistants during the school term, we decided to let the latter perform the test with the children.
As we have said before, the development of the research project with the children was followed by a reflection process between teachers and educators to assess its implementation and, progressively, amplify the reflection on the collaborating pedagogic practices between parents and professionals from the seed sowed by the dynamics created in the project. The first purpose of these encounters was to know the theoretical corpus that sustains the project, as well as to learn how to use the questionnaire and prepare the interviews with the parents; afterwards, in order to socialise the progress of the project in its instrumental aspects and in the issues that might eventually surface. For example, the fact that some classes of a kindergarten just participate in the project of some children soon surfaced the problem of how the other children would feel for not being integrated in it. This problem was analysed in its both ethical and pedagogic slant. At an ethical level, we reflected if it would be acceptable to share the results of part of the group with the totality of it, when it is known that non-participant children do not do it on their own will but rather because of their parents’ decision; will these children not feel excluded and discriminated in this process? The pedagogic slant forced us to outline strategies that would make the participation of all children viable in the performance of some tasks; for example, even the children whose parents decided not to participate had the opportunity to draw or report somehow tours and visits they had done with their families.
The team meetings were also for the mutual recognition of the work done in each cycle involved – pre-school and 1st cycle – being aware of the importance of the adequacy of the project to each one of the cycles and, even inside each cycle, to the curricular project of each class. At last, these moments of meeting also allow us to make both a continuous and a final evaluation of the results, from which two components can be highlighted: promotion of literacy and promotion of collaborative practices of schools with families.
A project generator of collaborative practices and promoter of literacy – data analysis
In this provisory presentation of the data analysis we will work based on a qualitative approach built on three references: the answers of the parents to the interview; the analysis of content of the tasks already determined; the reports of the educators and teachers in the periodic meetings.
In general terms, we might say that the participation of the members of the research team was marked by accentuated dynamics, manifesting a strong involvement in the project. The appropriation of it was done in a progressive way, with each professional trying to adapt the introduced proposal to the reality of their group and the education level they worked at.
The child educators stated they had no adaptation difficulty, once they are not subjected to a study plan or a programme that constraints their action. In Portugal, the pedagogic action of pre-school education is steered north by the curricular orientation for pre-school education, for the autonomy of the educators allow them to advance without any problems into proposals that deserve their attention. At the same time, the collaboration practices with the families are a common reality at this education level (Davies, 1989; Homem, L. 2002; Sarmento, T. and Marques, J. 2002), for the enrolment of them happened quickly. In any way, as we can read in the characterisation chart, we find differences in the number of participants per class. Some parents justify themselves to the educators saying that they have little time and that they do not want, therefore, hinder the tasks; others revealed some fear by the fact that the project is linked to the University and they fear their ‘not adequacy’ to it.
The teachers of the 1st cycle have linked the research project to the curricular project of the class, adapting the realization of each task to the ongoing programmatic content in each scholastic phase. In organisational terms, regarding the more uniform model with which this education level works, oriented by a national programme, and also regarding the fact that Portuguese school is going through a very big and afflicted re-structuralisation, the teachers of the research team had to face some annoyances to continue in their purpose to implement the project. In one of the cases, some negative reactions from other teachers of the school were generated, who took the development of the project as a strategy of the co-worker to highlight positively what can be favourable to her in terms of the teachers’ evaluation[4]. These conflicts ended up by being subverted by the children’s parents, who appropriated the importance of the project for the promotion of communication with their children and the teacher, and started to take actions that forced the enlargement of it. For example, when the children took home the task about their parents’ gastronomic tastes, there was a mother that sent a recipe for a typical dish from her birthplace, which initiated the elaboration of a recipe book with the collaboration of the other parents. Beyond this, other initiatives were adopted by the parents, such as the organisation of a party with the presence of all the children, parents and teacher, in which they could remember the traditional games they played in their childhood. Face to the evidence of the enthusiasm and positive reflexes in their school success derived from the parental involvement, other teachers got interested in the collaborative process. Ended the tasks proposed by the base instrument, the teacher was forced to create other that allowed to promote the interest and engagement of children and parents.