The School of Education

Parental Involvement in Early Literacy Development: Using Media Texts

Jackie Marsh

KEYWORDS: literacy, popular culture, parental involvement, media

Introduction

This project arose from work undertaken jointly with Philippa Thompson, Head of Nursery at Birley Spa Community Primary School, Sheffield. The purpose of the project was to develop literacy materials and resources which could be borrowed from nursery and used within the home in order to promote children's literacy development. However, rather than having books and printed texts as the focus of these resources, as is often the case, this project explored the possibilities offered by the use of media texts as a means of promoting literacy development, given the growing importance of media texts in young children's lives.

Conceptual focus

Many parental involvement programmes have been predicated on schooled notions of literacy (Auerbach, 1983; Cairney, Lowe, Munsie, Ruge and Buchanan, 1996). Instead of introducing resources and ways of working which are concomitant with families' home literacy practices, particular constructions of literacy have been imposed onto families (Cairney, et al., 1996; Tett and Crowther, 1998). However, towards the end of the twentieth century, it was becoming increasingly clear that literacy is a social practice which is shaped by particular members of a group or community (Barton, 1994; Barton and Hamilton, 1998). In attempting to map out the socio-cultural literacy practices which shape children's lives within any one community, we should try to ensure that this knowledge informs schooled literacy practices. This may counteract the dislocation between home and school literacies, which has been carefully documented over the years (Heath, 1983). This project, therefore, arose out of the desire to identify what the literacy practices of a particular group of children were and then use that information to develop a programme, aimed at promoting parental involvement in literacy, which drew from families' 'cultural capital' (Bourdieu, 1977).

Research processes

The parents and carers of all 78 children who attended Birley Spa nursery were asked to complete a literacy diary for 1 month, which documented children's reading practices in the home. These practices included the reading of media texts and computer games. 29 families returned the forms, with 18 families completing the diaries for all four weeks. The content of the diaries was analysed in order to determine patterns in the reading choices of these 3- and 4-year-olds. 15 parents were interviewed in greater depth about their children's literacy activities. The information from this stage of the project was used to inform the development of appropriate resources which were, in this case, 'media boxes'. Media boxes are a concept developed by Philippa Thompson (Thompson and Marsh, 2000) and contain literacy resources which are focused on a popular children's television programme or film. It became clear from the data collected in Stage 1 of the project that media texts were predominant in children's reading diets and that the resources developed should reflect this. This work built upon previous studies (Marsh, 1999, 2000), which demonstrated the importance of popular culture in young children's literacy development. In the final stage of the project, parents and children borrowed the media boxes and their responses to them were recorded through the use of video recording and interviews.

Research outcomes and dissemination

The patterns determined from the first stage of this study suggested that popular culture and the media were deeply embedded within this particular group of children's daily literacy lives in the home. Work which was initiated utilising these texts appeared to draw on the children and parents' cultural capital (Bourdieu, 1977) in a way which would not have been possible had the standard texts of the nursery been used to inform this literacy programme. This factor appeared to provide the parents in this study with enthusiasm and confidence in the material and motivated the children to engage in the work. Children and parents felt that the project had been highly enjoyable and successful for them and, for the nursery teachers, the project appeared to present a means of bring home and nursery literacy practices a little closer together.

The research has been disseminated in various ways. The teacher involved in the project, Philippa Thompson, received a TTA Teacher Researcher bursary which funded her attendance at a national UKRA conference in order that she could co-present the paper reporting the study. Articles written by the project team have been published in academic and professional journals.

User relevance

A number of nursery and schools in various LEAs are now developing the concept of media boxes and using them in order to promote parental involvement in literacy. Families from the Read on, Write Away Project, based in Derbyshire, attended a day at the Sheffield Showroom Independent Cinema in which they were introduced to the concept of media boxes by Philippa Thompson. The Showroom secured funding from the British Film Institute in order to disseminate information about the media box project during the Showcomotion Children's Film Festival in July 2000.

The project has a number of implications for nurseries and schools. It provides information about the televisual literacy practices of young children and develops theoretical understanding about the way in which family literacy programmes can draw from families established literacy practices and 'funds of knowledge' (Moll, Amanti, Nell and Gonzalez, 1992).

Indicative publications

Barton, D. (1994) Literacy: An Introduction to the Ecology of Written Language. Oxford: Blackwell.

Barton, D.and Hamilton, M. (1998) Local Literacies: Reading and Writing in One Community. London : Routledge.

Kress, G. (1998) Before Writing: Rethinking the Paths to Literacy, London: Routledge.

Pahl, K. (1999) Transformations: Meaning Making in a Nursery, London: Trentham.

Street, B. (1997) The Implications of the New Literacy Studies for Education' in English in Education, Vol. 31, 3, pp 45-59.

© Jackie Marsh, University of Sheffield, November, 2001

References

Auerbach, E. (1989). Toward a social-contextual approach to family literacy.
Harvard Educational Review, 59, 165-181.

Barton, D. (1994) Literacy: An Introduction to the Ecology of Written Language. Oxford: Blackwell.

Barton, D. and Hamilton, M. (1998) Local Literacies: Reading and Writing in One Community. London : Routledge

Bourdieu, P. (1977) Outline of a Theory of Practice, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Cairney, T.H., Lowe, K., Munsie, L., Ruge, J. & Buchanan, J. (1996). Developing Partnerships: The Home, School and Community Interface (Vols 1-3), Canberra: DEET.

Heath, S.B. (1983) Ways With Words: Language, Life and Work in Communities and Classrooms, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Marsh, J. (1999) Batman and Batwoman go to School: Popular Culture in the
Literacy Curriculum, International Journal of Early Years Education, Vol 7, 2,
pp117-131.

Marsh, J. (2000) Teletubby Tales: Popular Culture in the Early Years Language and
Literacy Curriculum, Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, Vol.1, 2, pp119-136.

Moll, L. Amanti, C. Neff, D. & Gonzalez, N. (1992) Funds of Knowledge for Teaching: Using a Qualitative Approach to Connect Homes and Classrooms, Theory Into Practice, 31,2,pp132-41.

Tett, L. and Crowther, J. (1998) Families at a disadvantage: class, culture and literacies, British Educational Research Journal, 42,4, pp449-460.

Thompson, P. and Marsh, J. (2000) Media Boxes, Primary English, Vol. 5, 3, p6-9.

Jackie Marsh,
University of Sheffield,
School of Education,
388 Glossop Rd,
Sheffield S10 2JA

email : j.a.marsh@sheffield.ac.uk

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