Trends in the Home Literacy Environment of Primary School Children in the Caribbean

• In Event: Deconstructing Inequities and the Marginalization of Learners in Caribbean Educational Systems

Abstract

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) 2017 defines literacy as the ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate, and compute, using printed and written materials associated with varying contexts. Literacy involves a continuum of learning in enabling individuals to achieve their goals, to develop their knowledge and potential, to participate fully in their community and wider society (Montoya, 2018). The Home Literacy Environment (HLE) has been identified as an important literacy variable in the enhancement of several educational and developmental outcomes (Burgess et al., 2002). HLE refers to the activities that are assumed by family members at home which pertain to literacy learning, as well as the literacy resources in the home. In this paper, we explore an elaboration of this concept as Sénéchal and LeFevre (2002), scholars from whom the Home Literacy Model originated. Based on their proposition, this study is designed to describe the trends in the field of the home literacy environment that currently exists in the Caribbean context. First, we discuss how this model describes two distinct types of activities which both detail the various actions parents engage in as it regards a child’s literacy development (Sénéchal, 2012). In doing so, we attend to key notions such as those by Clark and Hawkins (2010) which note that parental involvement in a child’s process of literacy learning produces positive results. Second, we allude to observations by Wasik and Van Horn (2012) which point out that, the intergenerational transfer of literacy has proven to have positive effects on children to the point where policy makers across the world have implemented family literacy programmes to ensure that children can benefit from familial discourse. To further facilitate our examination, we then describe the observed quantitative trends in the HLE of primary school children ages 9-13 in the Caribbean by utilizing secondary analysis of data which was collected for a larger study on school climate in the Caribbean. Fourth, we analyse the socioeconomic status of the families of primary school students’ and how it correlates to their practices of home literacy as well as the resources these students have access to in their homes that support their literacy practices. Based on these analyses, we present the findings concerning HLE which indicates the factors within the HLE that influence children’s reading development. These are: (1) parental literacy involvement (PLI) in their children’s activities and (2) home literacy resources. As Cheung, Dulay, et al. (2021) have recently observed and as indicated by our findings, the “majority of studies and frameworks that inform our understanding of home literacy … environments have been conducted in Western societies” Consequently, this essay seeks to determine if advances in understandings regarding trends observed within a Caribbean context are comparable to or differ from those seen internationally and in keeping with the AERA theme that focuses on “Dismantling Racial Injustice and Constructing Educational Possibilities: A Call to Action”.

Authors

• Allison A. DaSantos, Caribbean Educational Research Centre

• Jonielle Alleyne, University of the West Indies - Cave Hill