UNDERSTANDING FAMILY LITERACY - CONCEPTUAL ISSUES FACING THE FIELD

This article identifies issues in the development of family literacy a s an area of research and Practice. While the relative absence of theo retical frameworks in the field presents problems in developing long-t erm agendas, it creates opportunities for literacy specialists to exam ine conceptual issues for developing a field and determining its scope . The discussion here explores these issues within the context Of rece nt child/adult literacy, family development, and family-support effort s, summarizing research and program factors that contribute to popular conceptions of family literacy. To examine the relationship between f amily development and literacy, five conceptual issues derived from th e literature and from field observations are presented. In discussing these issues, the article suggests that two related questions be exami ned: (1) what constitutes literacy support to families with varied cul tural, social, and political histories and (2) how the concept of fami ly support is defined and interpreted by literacy specialists who have vastly different notions about the purposes of literacy within famili es and about who decides what the purposes should be. The article conc ludes by providing conceptual considerations for the development of a framework and suggesting an integrative, interdisciplinary approach, d istinctive but based in the larger family-support movement. Such an ap proach brings together the common issues in K-12 and adult literacy an d should provide for intensive instructional and human support to fami lies. As this is done, literacy efforts at the level of research, prac tice, and policy focus on historical, social, and cultural issues faci ng families, including changing family forms, poverty, and reciprocal relationships in families as they occur in shared and nonshared home e nvironments.