Further benefits and challenges of FL programs
Multiple benefits of FL programs
Freire (1997) believed that it was human hope that underpinned education and the drive for freedom to live without oppression. Evidence from research into FL points to the hope (and love) that parents have for their children and by extension for themselves and their families. Participants in FL are hoping for a different future for their children and through their participation in FL they recognise, even unconsciously, their power and influence to bring about change across generations. Once parents become involved in FL these affective drivers have been shown to multiply across social, cultural, political and economic domains.
Transformed learning identities
The adult education philosophy that underpins FL practice can be a liberating and transformative experience for parents who return to learning as adults. Harmful memories of education and learning can be highly stressful leaving many people with unmet literacy needs[1], vulnerable about their learning identity. These spoiled learning identities are carried forward into new learning spaces and so play a pivotal role in the success of new learning. Evidence suggests that these vulnerabilities can be reduced through adult education pedagogies and culturally sensitive FL interventions where parents are encouraged to use their personal experience as positive resources rather than being viewed as lacking knowledge (Tett, 2018; Duckworth and Tett, 2019).
Through participation in family learning parents become more confident in themselves and may feel empowered to give greater consideration to their own learning needs. Not only do parents report seeing themselves differently they also describe being seen differently by their families and by those in their local communities, including their children’s school communities (NIACE, 2009).
Active inclusion
In terms of active inclusion goals, FL provides an effective means of attracting new adult learners who are motivated by their desire to support their child’s learning development. Very often the desire to help their children with school readiness and schoolwork motivates parents to re/engage in learning themselves (European Commission, 2013). Parents in FL programmes across the EU describe making new friends, experiencing improved mental health and inclusion in a whole new dimension of their communities (Hanemann 2015).
Individual and family literacy gains
A range of studies provide evidence that quality FL interventions lead to significantly raised literacy levels in participating adults (NESF, 2009; Carpentieri et al, 2011; Flanagan, 2016). Furthermore evidence suggests that parents who engage in FL programmes are more likely to complete their programmes than those who enrol in adult-only education programmes leaving them with a greater chance to make life better for their families by acquiring new language and literacy skills alongside job-related skills (Family Strengthening Policy Centre, 2007).
Sustainability
In Turkey, longitudinal studies have produced robust evidence of long-term cognitive and non-cognitive gains for disadvantaged children resulting from FL interventions (Bekman, 2003; Kagıtcıbası et al, 2005, 2009). Follow up studies of the Turkish Early Enrichment Project (TEEP) after seven years, and again after 19 years, found that the combination of intensive parent education and early childhood education produced better parent child relationships, meant parents had higher expectations of their children, and that children had fewer behavioural problems (Kagıtcıbası et al, 2005; 2009). In a study of FL across the UK, the wider gains of parental involvement in FL interventions were identified as including: mothers’ confidence in child rearing practice, parental employment, self-confidence and parents’ increased involvement with their children’s schools (Brooks et al., 2008).
Family literacy has also been found to give children a measured advantage over those not impacted by such an intervention, thereby halting and redressing cycles of educational disadvantage (Carpentieri, 2011, Goodall and Vorhaus, 2011). Robust quantitative evidence suggests that policymakers should more actively support the ‘widespread proliferation of family literacy interventions’ (Carpentieri et al, 2011: 11). Parents in FL programmes value the support of learning alongside other parents and the sustainable nature of developing skills that they could practice and develop over the long term throughout their child’s schooling (NALA, 2016).
Affective gains
Family literacy interventions which take place outside of school hours and occur in the home or local community environment complement and lay the groundwork for future school activities. Significantly they highlight the joy, pleasure and closeness that is involved in developing children’s literacy which contribute to closer learning relationships between children and parents. Initiatives such as ‘Every Czech reads to Kids’ sought to encourage a celebration of reading for pleasure. It has since grown into an EU wide project ‘All of Europe Reads to Kids’ which aims to promote a love of reading across the EU through a range of activities and programmes. The EURead task force behind the project believe that reading is a prerequisite for full participation in today’s media led and culturally diverse society. Such programmes aim to contribute to cultural change in which reading and learning is viewed by all families, including disadvantaged families, as enjoyable parts of daily life.
Book gifting
Recognising that not all families are in a position to purchase books. A number of successful programmes now gift books to families and there are many examples of book gifting across Europe. One such example in Linköping in Sweden is a group called ‘The friends of children’s books’, (Barnbokens Vänner). Every new born child in Linköping gets a book as a gift from the group, and once a week one of the group members reads aloud to children at the local library. In the UK, a recent Social Return on Investment (SORI) study of a book gifting programme, Bookstart, found that the initiative had produced an estimate of savings to society over the next 37 years of £614 million on an investment of £9 million (Just Economics, 2010).
Home / school relationships
Where FL programmes are located in schools there is the potential for a fundamental culture shift in the relationship between parents and school staff (Tett, 2017). The relationship, which has traditionally been quite separate, can become one of recognised partnership where the school views the inclusion of the parent as the most effective way to enhance the child’s learning experience. For non-native speakers, the embedding of family learning associated with the school system and curriculum has been found to be invaluable. Parents learn to name and become included in the culture of school as well as new language skills that describes those events. The language of the school system, attendance, homework completion and how to participate in parent meetings and the wider school community are core learning elements of such programmes. Thus beneficial outcomes accrue to children, parents, teachers and the whole school where FL is integrated in the life and practice of the school and where parents are respected as knowledgeable experts in their children lives.
Lifelong learning
A forthcoming national study of FL in Ireland (NALA, 2019) found that as a result of a carefully facilitated return to learning, many participants became ambitious for themselves, as well as their children, and continued in education and eventually into employment. This provides evidence that delivers on the broader strategic EU aspirations of developing a knowledge economy, increased participation in lifelong learning, and an end to intergenerational cycles of inequality and deprivation. Participants, some of whom took part in accredited programmes, learned transferrable work skills of good timekeeping, project completion and how to manage good group working relationships. Most importantly, they lifted the lid on their own potential and became open to wider opportunities than previously imagined.
Challenges in family literacy
Designing learner centered FL
The diverse social, political, economic and cultural contexts of the EU, and within which FL interventions occur, inevitably shape FL. Just as there is no one representative family across Europe, there is no one ‘off the shelf’ model of FL. Efforts to replicate or transfer programmes across contexts have proved problematic (Eldering and Vedder, 1999; Manz et al, 2010). This suggests that programmes need to be customised, culturally sensitive, designed and facilitated with a clear focus on the specific and unique needs of heterogeneous parents and this has resource implications for policy makers and providers.
Resourcing relationships
In a context of Upskilling Pathways the journey to engaging with the beginning of the pathway, the skills assessment phase, may be more challenging for those who have experience of educational disadvantage which may have left them with unmet literacy needs and vulnerable learning identities. Extensive pre-engagement and outreach work, which has trust and relationship building as its focus, needs to be factored into FL programmes. This crucial work tends to be an invisible and unrecognised part of engaging learners. This lack of recognition also means that the work and time involved in building and maintaining relationships is not resourced and left very much to the good will of those involved. Nonetheless, relationships are central to every aspect of FL success. Here again there are implications relating to the resources needed to rebuild trusting relationships in order that those who have benefitted least from education can feel enabled to take those first steps towards new learning opportunities for themselves and their families.
Family literacy and gender
The gendered nature of FL is an area that merits greater attention and as yet is under-researched (Hegarty, 2016a)
See the video below:
‘Valuing Parents: Linking Policy and Practice’, a Family Learning Conference organised by the Further Education and Training Division of Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board.
Reflecting a discourse that equates ‘parent’ with ‘mother’, FL learning care work has traditionally been viewed as women’s work (Rose, 2007). Indeed, literacy and literate activities have been construed by ideals of masculinity as of lesser value (Francis & Skelton, 2001; Renold, 2001), passive and belonging in the feminine domain (Martino & Berril, 2003). Such thinking influences and limits the relationship some boys and men have with literacy, and in turn effects fathers’ involvement in FL learning care work (Karther, 2002). Fathers who actively support and nurture the emergent literacy skills of children describe personal growth in their own confidence and self-esteem (Clark, 2009). Engaging in literacy practices with children strengthens father child relationships and this is clearly demonstrated in the literature (Ortiz, 2004). A further benefit identified by fathers is increased personal involvement and interest in learning and reading (Karther 2002). Clark (2009) found that fathers’ reading encouraged children to see it as an enjoyable and interesting activity and suggests that the emergent literacy practices of children are directly related to the time fathers spend reading to them.
From another perspective, boys and men are excluded from care in a range of ways and are underrepresented in many FL activities (Owens, 2000). Discrete provision for fathers and sons, like Fathers Reading Every Day (UK), have had some degree of success in engaging male family learners but the gendered care roles within two-parent heterosexual families, remain stubbornly in position. Many father only programmes have been designed to overcome traditional gender barriers (Hegarty, 2016b) and there are signs that some of these are proving successful. One successful EU initiative, The Big Book Share encourages male prisoners to share books with their children through the recording of stories so that children hear their absent Dad’s voices reading stories to them. Research shows that fathers can and do contribute to a literacy friendly family environment. When fathers learn the strategies and are given the resources needed to support their children, they will do this learning care work (Saracho, 2007).
Building family, school relationships
Traditionally the role of facilitating childhood literacy learning has been seen as rooted firmly within the school system. Many parents still do not see themselves as having a clear role in this regard nor do they feel they have the knowledge and skills for the job. Feelings of inadequacy can be reinforced through the parent’s relationship with the school, leaving many parents feeling excluded from their child’s learning development. Such power imbalances can be tricky to negotiate and require new thinking. It is not about parents learning to fit with schools, but rather schools, parents and communities learning to work collaboratively with each other and where parents are viewed as people with important contributions to be made to children’s learning, rather than as problems (Tett et al, 2001; 2017).
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[1] The term ‘unmet literacy needs’ is used ‘to avoid the implication of individual deficit in phrases like people with literacy difficulties, essential skills deficits … and so on’. (Feeley, 2014: 5)
