In Canada

In English-Speaking Canada, several provinces, including Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario, have each published a document presenting their best practices. Alberta has produced Setting the Compass: A Program Development and Evaluation Tool for Volunteer Programs in Alberta (Skage and Schaetti, 1999) and British Columbia, The BC Framework of Statements and Standards of Best Practices in Family Literacy (Rasmussen, n.d.). In Ontario, the group Action for Family Literacy Ontario published Family Literacy in Ontario: A Guide to Best Practices (2005). These documents are valuable tools for two reasons: they serve as official documents that define the standards of quality for offering a program and as foundation documents for the preparation of position papers.

On tht Francophone front, the publication L'alphabetisation familiale au Canada: Profils de pratiques efficaces, by Thomas (1998), provides an overview of the Canadian programs that have proven effective. In 2003, the Coalition regionale de l'Ouest et du Nord pour l'alphabetisation en français (CRONAF) published the Rapport sur les pratiques optimales en alphabetisation, describing 62 best practices, 36 of which are transferable to other adult training programs. That same year, the Coalition francophone pour l'alphabetisation et la formation de base en Ontario in collaboration with the Centre FORA published a guide called L'alphabetisation familiale: c'est l'affaire de tout Ie monde (Brunet, 2003) to support the implementation and the evaluation of programs in Ontario. In 2004, Duguay, Bernard and Deschênes - Doucet published the Repertoire commente: Materiel d'animation en alphabetisation familiale (2004), which documents 20 models used in family literacy in French Canada in both majority and minority settings and gives information on the materials available for group animation in family literacy.¹⁸ In 2007, the FCAF published its Guide de pratiques exemplaires en alphabetisation familiale en contexte francophone minoritaire, which is based on a detailed inventory of writings on the subject. This guide should serve as a support of the programs offered in French by the FCAF's member organizations working in the Canadian provinaes and territories, but it will need to be amended in light of new information that has come out of the current report.

Elsewhere

Numerous publications on family literacy promote best practices and contribute a social perspective that takes into account the contexts of family life and culture (Anderson, 1995; Auerbach E. R., 1989; Auerbach, A, 2003; Brown, 1998; Caspe, 2003; Heath, 2001; Klassen-Endrizzi, 2000; Pahl and Kelly,2005; Vernon-Feagans et al., 2004; Voss, 1996).

The solio-contextual approach to family literacy is based on the principle that to maximize the effectiveness of family literacy programs, the family's social reality must be acknowledged and their knowledge and experience made known and developed (Auerbach, 1989; Neuman, 1996; Neuman and Gallagher, 1994; Potts, 1994; Topping, 1986; Wolfendale, 1994). This kind of intervention is much more durable because it is integrated into family life and has significance for family members.

¹⁸ Note that an up-to-date description of family literacy models in French available across Canada is currently available on the FCAF website: www.fcaf.net