Hispanic children in the United States are more likely to fall behind in several literacy measures even before they enroll in prekindergarten programs. There are some structural and non-structural factors that have a direct impact on Hispanic children’s early literacy skills. Among the non-structural factors this mixed-method study explored Hispanic caregivers’ beliefs about education as well as their literacy practices at home. The study compared two groups: diverse Hispanic caregivers with 4-year-old children enrolled in the Voluntary Prekindergarten Program (VPK) and diverse Hispanic caregivers whose 4-year-old children were not enrolled in VPK. A total of 125 diverse Hispanic caregivers responded to two surveys: the Parental Reading Belief Inventory and the Adaptation of the Stony Brooks Reading Survey. Twenty Hispanic parents were later interviewed to better understand their beliefs about education as well as their literacy practices at home. The surveys and interviews revealed playing games, drawing pictures and looking at books with their children were the most common literacy practices in which Hispanic caregivers engaged. All participants in the study stated how much they value their children’s education. Some, particularly caregivers whose children were participating in VPK programs, were more likely to engage in their children’s education and experience fewer barriers to reading at home. Country of origin played an important role in differentiating Hispanic parents in their beliefs about education as well as in their literacy practices at home. From the diverse group of participants in the study, Mexican caregivers were less likely to perceive themselves as playing a key role in their children’s education and they also shared experiencing more barriers in their literacy activities when compared with parents from Cuba and Puerto Rico. Overall, enrollment in VPK was dependent upon the type of barriers to reading activities that Hispanic parents experience as well their country of origin.

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Parent-teacher communication is a key element of parent-teacher relationship and of family involvement. Such communication influences children's wellbeing and academic success. There are many gaps in the literature regarding the dynamics of parent-teacher communication and how this influences family and school literacy practices. Using a qualitative design, this case study focused on the communication of a family from a culturally and linguistically diverse background and the children's teachers. The study examined the conceptions of communication and perspectives on parent-teacher communication of a mother and three teachers. The study also examined the diverse ways they communicated literacy practices and expectations to one another and the outcomes derived from their communication. Findings of this study revealed that parent-teacher communication is a complex process influenced by multiple factors related to the microsystems of school and home and the varied ways they interact. The study found a disconnection between parent and teacher communication conceptions and approaches.

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Diese explorative, ethnographische Arbeit squizziert die historische Entwicklung der Senga-Rolle und -kommunikation bei den Baganda im 20. Jahrhundert. Die Senga ist bei den Baganda die Tante väterlicherseits, Bezugsperson und Beraterin in allen Lebensphasen ihrer Nichte in Bezug auf Sexualität, Weiblichkeit und heterosexuelle Beziehungen. Die soziale Rolle der Senga ist in diesem Sinne eine Strategie des lebenslangen Lernens. Die Senga-Rolle ist auch in anderen bantusprachigen Gesellschaften Ostafrikas bekannt. Das 20. Jahrhundert stand in Uganda unter dem starken Einfluss der Missionierung und Kolonisierung, für die Schriftsprache ein zentrales Element der Kommunikation war. Die Senga-Rolle hat sich im Zuge dessen stark ausdifferenziert: von einer rein familiären sozialen Rolle zu einem sektorübergreifenden sozialen Feld, insbesondere für Frauen, wobei Schriftsprache eine wichtige Rolle spielt.

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The purpose of this study was to identify the family literacy practices of low socioeconomic, LEP, Hispanic families, with parents who had low levels of parental education and whose children were successful in math and reading. An ethnographic approach was employed by the researcher to gather, collect and analyze the data. The researcher interviewed and observed the home environment of 10 Hispanic families with deficit factors whose children were successful students in math and reading. Additional interviews of 5 experienced Bilingual Certified Language Acquisition Development [BCLAD] teachers were conducted. A discussion of the results reviewed findings of interest from the study. These findings were as follows: (a) families implemented a variety of purposeful and effective strategies within the context of their home environment to support and develop their children's Spanish and English literacy, as well as their own; (b) families and school shared common expectations and values in regards to academic achievement; (c) families aspired to a better life; and (d) the effectiveness of the school in providing resources to meet the needs of children and parents contributed to the families' efforts to support and develop literacy. The relationship between the findings of the study and prior research have also been included in the discussion section. This study provided school administrators with recommendations to assist families with deficit factors in their efforts to foster their children's success in math and reading. Suggestions for additional research were also offered.

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With the dominance of the Web in education and English language learning, new literacies have emerged. This thesis is motivated by the assumption that these literacies need to be integrated into the Egyptian pre-service EFL teacher education programmes so that EFL student teachers can cope with the new reality of language teaching/learning. Therefore, the main objective of the present study is to develop a theoretical understanding of the relationship between Web-based new literacies and the teaching of TESOL in a way that supports the possibility of expanding Egyptian pre-service EFL student teachers’ language-related literacy practices by integrating some Web-based new literacies into their education programme, with specific reference to the context of Assiut University College of Education (AUCOE). This requires accomplishing minor objectives represented in: (1) identifying the range of those Web-based new literacies that Egyptian EFL student teachers need in this ICT-dominated age; (2) identifying those Web-based facilities beneficial to them, and why and how they can be beneficial; and (3) generating framework for EFL curriculum design based on both literature and empirical data. To accomplish this, a design-based research (DBR) methodology drawing on a pragmatic epistemology is developed and employed as the main research paradigm informing this design study. Thus, the research design involves a flexible three-stage research framework: (1) the preliminary phase, which acts as a theoretical and empirical foundation for the whole study, and informs a preliminary design framework; it involves reviewing relevant literature and obtaining empirical data through documentary analysis (100 documents), online questionnaire (n=50), and semi-structured interviews (n=19); (2) the prototyping phase that involves two iterations (36 participants in the first iteration, and 30 in the second) conducted in the Egyptian context to test the proposed design framework. Each iteration acts as a micro-cycle of the whole design study, and thus involves its own objectives, learning design, research methodology and procedures (in line with the main DBR methodology), and results; (3) the assessment/reflective phase which, based on the prototyping phase results, presents a final design framework for expanding EFL student teachers’ language-related literacy practices. This has implications for the EFL curriculum design process within the Egyptian context in general, and AUCOE in particular. Results indicate that throughout the two iterations, it has become evident that the process of expanding EFL student teachers’ language-related literacy practices by integrating some Web-based new literacies into the AUCOE pre-service programme is quite feasible once some design principles are considered. Some significant conclusions and educational implications are provided, along with some main contributions to knowledge in TESOL/TEFL, language-learning theory, research methodology, and educational practice as far as the Egyptian context of pre-service EFL teacher education is concerned.