Home-School Connections

The present study aimed to recognize schools as institutions that cannot be examined in isolation separate from their sociopolitical contexts. The choice of the curriculum used, the environment itself and the teaching methodologies are all part of the social organization of the school. For instance, as highlighted in the last chapter, schools enact power issues in classrooms and learners must recognize the power, define the rules of the culture of power and learn the code to be successful.

Similarly, schools cannot exist independent from the influences children bring with them from the outside. School personnel need to acknowledge that what happens outside of school pervades everything that happens in school. For schools to be successful in establishing home-school connections for low-income families, staff must come to an understanding that there are many variables in a child's life outside of school subjects that they cannot simply alter. It behooves them to introduce all children to a variety of discourses to increase their awareness.

Research from cognitive science, as summarized by Knuth and Jones (1991), has shown that when the teacher is instructing, the child must continually be trying to make sense of the message. The child makes inferences and interprets the message, linking to past experiences and prior knowledge. The low-income children in this study have not had as many experiences and are placed at a disadvantage compared to the children whose scope of activities have been much more extensive and will have a rich vocabulary and a stronger language base upon which to draw to facilitate comprehension.

Personal traits in the children, such as persistence, are powerfully influenced by the parents and other family members with whom they interact on a daily basis. Parents who provide exposure to literature and foster motivation in their children take a strong role in maintaining shared reading practices. These parents will help shape their child's attitudes as committed readers and beliefs about their personal efficacy by forming their system of shared dispositions or habitus.