Working with parents to promote children’s literacy: a family literacy project in Uganda

Abstract

This article discusses the importance of family practices to children's acquisition of literacy and describes attempts to influence such practices through the institution of family literacy programmes. One of these is the Family Literacy Project in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, which both served as a model and provided material for a similar project at the Kitengesa Community Library in Uganda. The Kitengesa project is described in detail with particular emphasis on an exercise involving the translation of children's books into Luganda. The project as a whole and the translation exercise in particular elicited a warm response and seem to have been beneficial for both the adult participants and their children. The authors conclude that the project should be continued and extended but that more books are needed that are easy enough for such audiences and that reflect their African experiences.

Home language, school language and children's literacy attainments: A systematic review of evidence from low‐ and middle‐income countries

“…Also less studied are the dynamics between parent and child. Homes can be responsive to children's achievements by investing more in enrichment activities when children show success or in remedial support when they fall behind (Wagner, ; Ishihara‐Brito, ; Parry et al ., ). Reciprocally, child characteristics can have cascading effects on HLLE attributes.…”

“…‘Learning by Observing’ and ‘Pitching In’ [LOPI], Rogoff, ), and confidence and trust in the local school system and social networks (e.g. Cambodia: Eng et al ., ; Ethiopia: Jirata & Kjørholt, ; Ghana: McCoy et al ., ; Turkey: Baydar et al ., ; Uganda: Parry et al ., ). Added to these are issues of access to useful resources for school education at home and in the neighbourhood (e.g.…”

“…it is extremely difficult for parents who do not speak English to support their children's learning; and typically such parents consider that they have neither the right nor the responsibility to do so—literacy is in the teacher's sphere and not the parent's. (Parry et al ., , p. 3)…”

“…it is extremely difficult for parents who do not speak English to support their children's learning; and typically such parents consider that they have neither the right nor the responsibility to do so—literacy is in the teacher's sphere and not the parent's. (Parry et al ., , p. 3)

… assistance with homework, reading and revising, mainly focused on the need to know that children had additional work from school which they could attempt and complete with the assistance of household members … illiteracy may have incapacitated parents’ attempts at promoting literacy activities among their children in grades 1–3. (Abuya et al ., , p. 525 & 527)

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The Profile of Vocational High School Students Literacy Skill As a Case Study in Electronics Workbench (EWB) Learning Media Implementation in Semarang City

“…By implementing this media, it is expected that students' IT literacy skills will increase. Some parents in Uganda have trained their children to literate their literacies by applying an exercise in the form of a digital project [7].…”