Globalization has magnified the world and we are able to see
more and more societies with diverse groups of people with varying cultural
beliefs, values, traditions and practices. This diversity is also very close to home existing in the
classrooms/centres with the children, families and colleague interacting and
working together. From here, we
can see the different learning styles of each person and this provokes the
necessity of understanding how different social contexts, to which each
individual is embedded in, affect how s/he represents, communicates and
interprets the world. Literacy
enables us to make our representations, communications and interpretations
palpable. As educators of and
learners with children, if we cannot acknowledge that literacy practices are
different for all children we are not only ignoring aspects of their mental and
emotional strengths but we are also suppressing their overall development. To successfully and ethically support
children’s literacy learning, it is important to “understand what reading and
writing goes on in the home” (Barton, 1989, p. 1) and to understand what values
are placed in such practices which motivate or discourage children to
participate.
Barton (1989) speaks about the “literacy brokers” (p. 7) in
children’s lives and these could range from the parents, older siblings to the
grandparents, aunts and uncles all of which interact and engage in various
literacy related practices – “reading and writing…listening, viewing and
drawing, as well as critiquing” (Jones Diaz, 2007, p. 32). These relationships are important to
acknowledge because significant learning occurs in these interactions. “[R]eading
and writing [are] not just an individual affair; often a literate activity
consists of several people contributing to it” (Barton, 1989, p. 7). The narrowed view that literacy exists
in isolation or that it is a “skill” (Comber & Reid, 2007, p. 46) that can
be taught and eventually mastered within just reading or writing places little
value on the learning that does occur in children’s social contexts and
therefore restricts the possibilities of different literacy experiences that
children can use to make meaning and to express themselves.
With all this in mind, I question how we respond to immigrant
parents/families who are resistant in sharing their literacy practices at home
for fear of being judged as not “doing enough” or because their priority is to
have their child master reading and writing in English? How can we honour their wishes and also
ensure that we are not imposing our emergent ways by wanting to know how
literacy is practiced at home?
Reference:
Barton, D.
(1989). Making sense of literacy in the home.
Jones Diaz, C.
(2007). Literacy as social
practice. In L. Makin, C. Jones
Diaz, & C. McLachlan (Eds.), Literacies
in childhood: Changing views, challenging practice (2nd ed. pp.
31-42). Marrickville, NSW:
Maclennan & Petty – Elsevier.
Comber, B., & Reid, J. (2007). Understanding
literacy pedagogy in and out of school.
In L. Makin, C. Jones Diaz, & C. McLachlan (Eds.), Literacies in childhood: Changing views,
challenging practice (2nd ed. pp. 43-69). Marrickville, NSW: Maclennan &
Petty – Elsevier.
