Social policy makers need to listen to those working in the field of family literacy if they truly want the public policy agenda to move forward. Practitioners are the ones who interact with those living in low–income circumstances and understand their needs. They, rather than the politicians, should be the ones to define the pertinent issues facing these people. With literacy practitioners' background and understanding from working in this context, they are in a better position to outline the future direction for social policy. The establishment of government working groups and task forces which would include those on the frontlines who would be able to examine these issues and make recommendations to the government would be helpful in this regard. The role of policy makers would then be to help create the economic, political and social conditions that will support literacy practitioners and educators to develop well-designed programs which would use a broad definition of literacy and enable those families living in poverty to move beyond their present life circumstances.

In a discussion with Cheryl Brown, an experienced family literacy worker in New Brunswick (personal communication, July 28, 2003), she delivered some helpful insights from her experience gained from working with low–literate families in the community. She refers to what she calls the "reducing barriers" approach where she would like to envision community social workers and case managers working closely with families in need to offer individualized support to them in the areas required. However, she was quick to point out that in reality this is not how the system works. In fact, reportedly, more times than not parents are put though what she feels is a needless intimidating appeal process. This includes a requirement for these low-literate individuals to write extensively and be judged on the product. Brown, as a practitioner, discusses the idea of child care and health care benefits extending until the families are able to become self-sufficient. She also recognizes the need for some safety nets for these families, as oftentimes they may experience unexpected setbacks.

Limitations of the Study

This research study was limited to those families living in low–income circumstances which had at least one child enrolled in the Core French program in a primary grade at one selected neighbourhood school. Children in Core French follow the curriculum in English with French taught as a separate subject for one period of instruction each school day from the first grade onward. Children attending French Immersion classes were not included in this study because I did not have sufficient competency in the French language to fully understand the subtleties of the interactions between the teacher and the students in the classroom setting. The French Immersion Program is an alternate approach for anglophone children to learn French by becoming immersed into the French language as the language of instruction in all curricular areas (Department of Education, 2001).