Abstract
This chapter examines how family literacy practices change, and specifically the role of parents’ ideas in that change. The rationale for this examination is that changing family practices is as much about shifting cultural identity as it is about demonstrating developmental relationships (McNaughton, 2005). Our concern comes from an applied developmental perspective (Lerner et al., 2000); that is, from a need to understand how best to optimize the conditions for socialisation. In our case this is optimizing circumstances to increase schooling success for children in families whose practices do not take the canonical forms which are developmentally associated with success in school literacy. But if we are right about how family interventions are cultural interventions then the relationship with what ‘is’ the case and what ‘ought’ to be the case needs very careful consideration; particularly in terms of the conditions under which change is both effective and justified. In the following discussion we examine this issue from the point of view of the ideas of the parents in the change process.
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© 2009 Stuart Mcnaughton, Meaola Amituanai-Toloa, and ‘Ema Wolfgramm-Foliaki
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McNaughton, S., Amituanai-Toloa, M., Wolfgramm-Foliaki, ‘. (2009). Family Literacy Activities: What is, What Ought to be and the Role of Parents’ Ideas. In: Foster-Cohen, S. (eds) Language Acquisition. Palgrave Advances in Linguistics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230240780_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230240780_14
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