In conclusion, I believe that this research adds to the literature in the field of family literacy. The traditional deficit view of family literacy with its assumptions about the lack of literacy in some homes was shown to be inadequate. My study offers an alternative platform for thinking about literacy in low-income homes that recognizes the importance of the sociocultural context and values the strengths of families. This model will be presented later in this chapter. It should also be noted that this study had limitations; these will be discussed in detail later, along with implications for further study and practice.

Discussion of the Findings

The response to each of my research questions will now be discussed individually:

Research Question 1 : How do family literacy
practices unfold in low-income families?

Family literacy practices are many and varied and are dependent on the family's sociocultural context. Like Barton and Hamilton (1998), Cairney and Ruge (1998) differentiated between literacy practices and literacy events. They subdivided literacy practices into four categories: (a) literacy for establishing or maintaining relationships; (b) literacy for accessing or displaying information; (c) literacy for pleasure and/or self–expression and and (d) literacy for skills development. Each literacy practice was then associated with a number of literacy events. These are summarized in Table 13 on the following page.

One of the central findings of this study confirmed results from previous research that there is a failure to appreciate and understand the strengths of all families and the multiple ways that families use literacy at home. The current findings support the view that all families strive to provide opportunities for their children to engage in literacy and family members regularly engage in Cairney and Ruge's (1998) variety of literacy practices. Further, how parents engage in literacy activities with their families may be a function of what they recall from their own childhood experiences. The research also revealed that non–mainstream parents may hold high aspirations for their children, but may overlook opportunities to model literate behaviours for their children and not recognize the importance.