Modalities, Sites and Practices of Family Literacy: A Qualitative Interpretation of Family Photographs through Interviews and Observations

Abstract

This qualitative arts-based research study explores family literacy experiences that occur in homes with adults and children through interviews, observations, and the visual analysis of photographs that document such experiences. I employ visual methodologies to examine how families view, experience, and talk about family literacy and literacy in their social and cultural lives. This study is guided by the following questions: 1) What social and cultural practices do families employ as they engage in literacy experiences in their homes? 2) How and where are social and cultural family literacy experiences visually represented? 3) How can visual representations of family literacy experiences be interpreted? The research that investigates sites of family literacy within the home, is limited in general, and even less research has used visual methodologies to examine literacy within the home. I chose to study family literacy sites, practices and experiences because I want to understand how society and culture influence literacy skills.

The narration and photographic interpretations produced themes that included: 1)family literacy is seen and examined by the adults in the families as "reading and writing"; 2) family literacy is seen and examined by the children in the families as "singing, playing, games and bedtime"; 3) the major place within the home for literacy is the bedroom and the site where literacy experiences occur is often the bed; 4) limited time is a factor for both personal reading and family literacy experiences; and last 5) multimodal forms are used throughout the day by all participants, both child and adult. The recommendations invite all families, community educators, policy makers, and artists to explore literacy with enthusiasm at the possibilities and avenues in which it can be viewed, used and lived.