Troubling Our Assumptions About Family Literacy: What Do We Know and How Do We Know It?

Session Submission Type: Symposium

Abstract

This symposium of family literacy scholars focuses on the roots of knowledge about literacy, families, and epistemologies related to research and practice. In particular, these three papers explore epistemological assumptions related to storybook reading, major texts in the field, and the ways diversity is conceptualized and treated. Together, these studies invite researchers to revisit what they know about literacy in families by documenting the complex range of home book sharing practices within families, analyzing the landscape of past and present early childhood literacy research, and attending directly to diversity within family literacy texts and within the field. We argue that when family literacy scholars recognize the basis of their beliefs, they can grapple with their assumptions and refine their practices.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Critical Perspectives on Early Childhood Education

Chair

• Catherine F. Compton-Lilly, University of Wisconsin - Madison

Papers

• Introduction to the Session - Catherine F. Compton-Lilly, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• So Many Ways to Share a Book: Researching Diverse Home Book Sharing Practices Among Diverse Families - Kate Heron Pahl, The University of Sheffield

• Major Works in Family Literacy: Where We Have Been and Where We Are Going in Early Literacy - Jennifer Rowsell, Brock University; Kate Heron Pahl, The University of Sheffield

• Home Literacy, Diversity, and Epistemological Assumptions - Catherine F. Compton-Lilly, University of Wisconsin - Madison; Rebecca L. Rogers, University of Missouri; Tisha Y. Lewis, Georgia State University

Discussant

• Deborah Rowe, Vanderbilt University