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Family literacy practices and beliefs about literacy among parents of children of preschool age and investigate the factors, that are relevant and facilitating the transition to school literacy

The main purpose of the research is to explore family literacy practices and beliefs about literacy among parents of children of preschool age and investigate the factors, that are relevant and facilitating the transition to school literacy. In Greece, there have not been any researches of a wide-ranging scale on this issue so a more systematic study, in a variety of socio-cultural categories of families, needs a meaningful investigation and will cover the relevant research gap and will make a significant contribution to scientific community, teacher education and family literacy programs.

The research, started in January 2018 and will last until June 2018. It takes place in the 13 kindergartens of the city of Pyrgos, in the western Greece. The sample of the study consist of  (a) 168 parents of five years old children b) their children  and c) the kindergartens teachers. In order to address the purpose of the research we use a mixed-method approach, combining qualitative and quantitative data. According to the preliminary results of the quantitative data we can categorize parents in two groups according their literacy beliefs: Facilitative and Conventional parents. Research is still go on…

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Authors

  • Chrysoula Tsirmpa - tsirmpa.chrysoula@hotmail.com

4 thoughts on Family literacy practices and beliefs about literacy among parents of children of preschool age and investigate the factors, that are relevant and facilitating the transition to school literacy

  • Dear Chrysoula Tsirmpa,

    Your poster is very intersting and touches upon an important topic. I was wondering if you are familiar of the qualitative research by Annette Lareau (2002, 2003, 2011)? Your preliminary results remind me very much of her research. She named these two kind of parenting strategies “concerted cultivation” and accomplishment of natural growth”. In contrast to your reserach, she observed and interviewed parents of school children and had no specific focus on literacy activities.
    Did you coin the concepts “conventional” and “facilitative” parenting beliefs or is it based on theoretical work of other researchers?
    Do you have already answers to your “subquestions? I am particular curious about your results to the question about perceptions and motivations of infants for reading. Would be great if you could keep me updated on this.

    Best regards from Germany,
    Karoline

    • Dear Karoline,
      Thank you very much for your comments about my poster and my research and forgive me for my late answer, but I had this mail only yesterday. I read about the research of Annette Lareau, and I agree that my preliminary results remind too much of this research. Almost all the researches that I have read about family beliefs distinguish parents in two groups. I used the terms “Conventional” and “Facilitative’, upon the research of Weigel et al. (2006), because I find these terms more convenient to the two groups of greek parents.
      Concerning the subquestions, I haven’ t the results yet, as the research is still going on. But I would say that through the interviews that i have done until now, I recognize easily in which group mother belongs, without knowing it from the beginning. That confirm, for the moment, the fact that beliefs are related with practices and facilitative parents occupy more with their children, emphasize more in reading with children and generally have different beliefs about literacy than conventional.
      I will inform you for my results as I have them.
      Thank you very much.
      Regards from Greece,
      Chrysoula

  • Chrysoula,

    I love your poster! I also study home literacy practices and would love to talk with you about collaborating on this work in the future. Having a comparison of Greek familial practices and American familial practices would be fascinating!

    My email address is lcutler@udel.edu. Email me if you are interested in speaking further!

    -Laura Cutler, University of Delaware, USA

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