The Power is in the Partnership: Families as Partners in Bilingual Bicultural Family Literacy Programs
Author(s)
Gresilda Tilley-Lubbs
ABSTRACT
This paper presents a research project that involved Mexican and Honduran families in a family literacy program through a service-learning course of cross-cultural education for teacher education candidates The study examined how the families in the program articulated their purposes for participating in the program and how they changed their attitudes toward education and toward the program, moving from a stance of participant to stakeholder in the program. The paper also describes the dissonance that occurred when the program incorporated an online language learning program. Despite the dissonance, however, the instructor posits that a family literacy program that regards the families as partners offers numerous possibilities for strengthening children’s education.
This paper presents a research project that involved Mexican and Honduran families in a family literacy program through a service-learning course of cross-cultural education for teacher education candidates The study examined how the families in the program articulated their purposes for participating in the program and how they changed their attitudes toward education and toward the program, moving from a stance of participant to stakeholder in the program. The paper also describes the dissonance that occurred when the program incorporated an online language learning program. Despite the dissonance, however, the instructor posits that a family literacy program that regards the families as partners offers numerous possibilities for strengthening children’s education.
Cite this paper
nullTilley-Lubbs, G. (2011) The Power is in the Partnership: Families as Partners in Bilingual Bicultural Family Literacy Programs. Creative Education, 2, 288-291. doi: 10.4236/ce.2011.23039.
nullTilley-Lubbs, G. (2011) The Power is in the Partnership: Families as Partners in Bilingual Bicultural Family Literacy Programs. Creative Education, 2, 288-291. doi: 10.4236/ce.2011.23039.
References
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[1] Anderson, J. (1999). Service-learning and teacher education. URL http://www.ercidigests.org/1999-1/service.html. [2] August, D., & Shanahan, T. (Eds.) (2006). Report of the national literacy panel on language minority youth and children. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. [3] Cochran-Smith, M. (1999). Learning to teach for social justice. In G. A. Griffith (Ed.), The education of teachers: Ninety-eighth yearbook of the national society for the study of education (pp. 114-144). Chicago: University of Chicago. [4] Dewey, J. (1997). My pedagogic creed. In D. J. Flinders & S. J. Thornton (Eds.), The curriculum studies reader (pp. 17-23). New York, NY: Routledge. [5] Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York, NY: Continuum Publishing. [6] Freire, Paulo, & Macedo, D. (1987). Literacy: Reading the word and the world. South Hadley, MA: Bergin and Garvey. [7] Gadsden, V. (2004). Designing and conducting family literacy programs that account for racial, ethnic, religious, and other cultural differences. URL http://www.ed.gov/pubs/FamLit/design.html. [8] Gonzalez, N. E., Moll, L., & Amanti, C. (Eds.) (2005). Funds of knowledge: Theorizing practices in households, communities, and classrooms. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. [9] Grant, R. A., & Wong, S. D. (2003). Barriers to literacy for language- minority learners: An argument for change in the education profession. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 46, 386-394. doi:10.1598/JAAL.46.5.2 [10] Greenberg, J., & Moll, L. C. (1990). Creating zones of possibilities: Combining social contexts for instruction. In L. C. Moll (Ed.), Vygotsky and education: Instructional implications and applications of sociohistorical psychology (pp. 319-348). Cambridge: Cambridge University. [11] Heaney, T. (1996). Adult education for social change: From center stage to the wings and back again. URL http://www.nl.edu/academics/cas/ace/resources/TomHeaney_Insight.cfm [12] Jasis, P., & Jasis-Ordó?es, R. (2004) Convivencia to empowerment: Latino parent organizing at la familia. The High School Journal, 88, 32-42. doi:10.1353/hsj.2004.0023 [13] Krashen, S. (1997). The comprehension hypothesis: Recent evidence. English Teachers’ Journal (Israel), 51, 17-29. [14] Merriam, S. B. (1998). Qualitative research and case study applications in education (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. [15] Nieto, S. (1999). The light in their eyes: Creating multicultural learning communities. NY: Teachers College Press: Multicultural Education Series. [16] Pierce, M. S., & Brisk, M. E. (2002). Sharing the bilingual journey: Situational autobiography in a family literacy context. Bilingual Research Journal, 26, 575-597. doi:10.1080/15235882.2002.10162579 [17] Smylie, M. A., Bay, M., & Tozer, S. E. (1999). Preparing teachers as agents of change. In G. A. Griffith (Ed.), The education of teachers: Ninety-eighth yearbook of the national society for the study of education (pp. 18-62). Chicago: University of Chicago. [18] Tilley-Lubbs, G. A. (2007). The intersection of the academy and the community: Researching relationships through community-based education. In A. Wurr, & Hellebrandt, J. (Eds.) Learning the language of global citizenship: Service-learning in applied linguistics. Bolton, MA: Anker. [19] Ward, J. V. (1997). Encouraging cultural competence in service-learn- ing practice. In J. Schine (Ed.) Service-learning: Ninety-sixth Yearbook for the Society for the Study of Education, Part I (pp. 136-148). Chicago: University of Chicago. [20] Wood, W. J. (1998). Santa Clara University’s Eastside Project: A pilgrimage toward our own humanity. In E. Zlotkowski (Ed.), Successful service-learning programs: New models of excellence in higher education (pp. 189-209). Bolton, MA: Anker.