Organizing the Physical Environment

In this section, I look at how the organization of the physical environment can support and promote literacy experiences in the home. I took detailed field notes about the environment to help me develop an awareness of the multitude of challenges and barriers these families face in their environment on a daily basis. Snow and her colleagues (1991) have pointed out how financial and psychological stress and disorganization within homes may serve as underlying factors contributing to reading difficulties.

In the following sections I discuss a variety of aspects of the physical environment. I open with a description of the characteristics of the neighbourhood and follow with more specifics about the housing situation and the use of addictive substances and dangerous items in the homes as they relate to health practices and coping strategies. Although the parents set aside a place for their children to do their schoolwork, there are still limitations in resources in the physical environment to support educational pursuits. I include a brief discussion of resources for writing and artwork, resources for reading, computers and education-oriented resources, and affordable transportation. The key findings are summarized in Table 8 at the end of this section.

Present Neighbourhood and Past Locations

Houses in this low-income neighbourhood are situated close to one another and most yards are small. The overall noise level is high with approximately 400 children in this crowded neighbourhood of about 110 homes. The children gather in the open courts or in the park area between the houses. Jill discusses some of the problems, "But like the officer had said the other night…99.9 percent of the children in here are all trouble…In this area, they're all trouble. They think that they rule the neigbourhood. Like the bigger ones love to pick on the younger ones…"