This retrospective ethnographic study, conducted in a small community on the Navajo Reservation in northeastern Arizona, investigates the sociocultural environments of fifth grade Navajo children who have become successful readers. The purpose of this research study is to begin the process of identifying and describing in detail the characteristics of the home environments leading to this success. The study also investigates social and cultural factors beyond the homes and families, and includes a brief look at the role of the schools and the community in reading development for these identified students. Successful readers were identified by classroom teachers and each was given an individual reading evaluation based upon miscue analysis, to verify their reading proficiency. Data on the sociocultural environment was gathered through open-ended interviews with fifteen selected students, their parents, their teachers, and the school principal, as well as through searches of the students' school records. Data from this study suggests a much higher success rate for Navajo children than is commonly reported with standardized achievement tests. This study exposes some of the myths of Navajo and other minority failure by identifying instances of Navajo success. Social conditions, such as single parent families, low income, alcoholism, and unemployment did not prevent the development of literacy for these children nor did linguistic differences and limited amounts of written material in the homes. Teachers, parents, the principal, and the students themselves identified the home, rather than the school, as the most important factor in these children becoming successful readers. Within the home, the development of literacy was assisted through child initiated activities and questioning, and supportive adults' responses, rather than through direct instruction. Literacy, for each child in the study, was achieved in different ways. In addition to general findings, four case studies are presented, providing a detailed view of some of the multiple ways of becoming literate in this Navajo community.

This study examined the role of family literacy practices in children’s development of literacy skills in Botswana. The study addressed one main research question and seven sub-questions. The main research question was “how do parents promote early literacy development of children?” Purposive sampling was used to obtain the sample for the study and fourteen parents of the University of Botswana Child Development Laboratory participated in the study. This qualitative study used in-depth interviews with the participants, and questionnaire for data collection. The interviews were recorded, transcribed and analyzed in line with the phenomenological approach. The findings indicated that parents of the University of Botswana Child Development Laboratory owned and used various literacy materials and resources to enhance their children’s literacy skills development. It also became apparent that the parents engaged various unstructured activities to enhance children’s literacy development in their homes. Furthermore, the study identified time constraint as a major challenge that parents faced. / Department of Family and Consumer Sciences

The rationale for this study was to evaluate the home literacy environments of educators and non-educators to investigate whether educators provide "richer" home environments than non-educator mothers. This research explores the mothers' perceptions of their children, views of reading, methods of promoting a positive reading environment, dealing with personal demands and emotions, and their expectations related to promoting reading. The participants in the study are 2 elementary school teachers with preschool children and 2 non-educator mothers with preschool children. Results indicated that being an educator is not an isolated characteristic of providing a rich home environment. The educational attainment of the mother was discovered to have greater influence on home literacy environment than the mother's profession. Higher educated mothers provided richer home environments than their less educated counterparts.

No description available.

No description available.

Research has shown that the more active parents are in their child's education the more likely their child is to achieve academic success. Based on these findings this research project focused on how parent volunteers influenced their child's literacy growth. It is hypothesized that as the parent spends time in the classroom they are given more opportunities to interact with other members of the classroom community. It is believed that this interaction will influence the way in which the parent works with their child and have a positive influence on their child's literacy growth.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.