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039-0600-0008
May 1996
Authors: Susan B. Neuman, Tracy Hagedorn, Donna Celano, & Pauline Daly
Source: American Educational Research Journal, Winter 1995, Volume 32, No. 4, pp. 801-827.
Participants: Nineteen African-American adolescent mothers, all of whom had toddlers in an early intervention program.
Purpose: The purposes of this study were to 1) address the
challenge of creating a collaborative approach to parent
involvement; 2) elicit adolescent parents' beliefs about learning
and early literacy; and 3) provide illustrations of ways in which
parental beliefs may be incorporated within a framework of
developmentally appropriate practice, helping to assist parents
in fulfilling their aspirations for themselves and their
children.
Method: The adolescent mothers were enrolled in an ABE program
that included free day care for their young children. Mothers
engaged in focused discussion to learn how they perceived their
educative roles and practices. Prior to engaging in the peer
discussion groups, mothers were interviewed to determine their
perceptions on learning and literacy development. Other materials
were collected for the discussion groups: pictures of children
from different countries working, playing, and learning; short
video scenes from area preschools of children playing and
learning with their peers and adults.
Groups of mothers were randomly assigned to one of four interview
discussion groups. Sessions totaled approximately 10 hours. The
leaders began with a general overview of the topic and ended with
"I'm interested in your views about your children's learning and
what kind of schooling you'd like them to have." If participants
seemed to echo each other's comments, the moderator would ask,
"Does anyone see it differently?" To prompt participants for
evidence to support a position, she would say: "When you said you
teach your child--tell us how you do that." Researchers observed
and took notes of the discussion groups. After each session, they
compared notes, shared observations, and considered the
questioning route to explore whether questions should be
eliminated, revised, or added to ensure divergent perspectives
and interactions of greater depth.
Data gathered from the discussions and interviews were analyzed
using the constant comparative method and organized into
categories. Four members of the research team independently
identified themes or categories across the discussion groups.
Then they compared categories and examined similarities and
differences. Next, they linked categories that appeared to
reflect a common perspective. This analysis provided shared
beliefs that could facilitate a more collaborative process of
involving parents in their children's early education.
Researchers sought to capture participants' attitudes,
perceptions, and opinions.
Results: The analysis indicated that these adolescent mothers did
not share a common world view, but instead reflected several
different child development perspectives, broadly defined along a
continuum of transmissive, maturational, and transactional
beliefs. On the transmissive side of the continuum, comments
seemed to reflect the belief that knowledge was finite, defined
as a set of skills, and transmittable from those who had it to
those who did not. Children were expected to master what was
taught by the adult. In the middle of the continuum was a more
maturational view of learning, where learning was not confined to
a set of tangible skills but incorporated within a broader
definition of education. Children were thought to have an innate
potential for learning that enabled them to develop their
individual capacities. Learning was seen primarily as the result
of physiological development. Less emphasis was placed on what
children should be learning than on ensuring that they were
provided with a safe and nurturing environment within which to
learn. At the other end of the continuum was a more transactional
view. Children were thought to actively construct knowledge
through direct experiences and through manipulation of objects
and interpersonal interactions. This view seemed to empower both
the child and the parent in child-centered activities. Children
were thought to act as the creative agent with adults
facilitating and guiding the learning process, which focused on
meaning-making.
Participants shared several basic beliefs about schooling and literacy:
Belief 1: "You gotta teach them something." Mothers wanted their
children to thrive both socially and intellectually, and they
wanted the schools to teach both practical life skills and
academically-oriented skills.
Belief 2: "I want my child to be safe." All mothers wanted their
children to be in a safe environment. School was valued by many
mothers because it provided a refuge from the unpredictable
atmosphere of the street. They placed strong emphasis on their
children learning a variety of interpersonal skills, from
cooperation to autonomy, that might facilitate social negotiation
both in and out of school.
Belief #3: "A good teacher is keeping that respect." All regarded
respect as a critical component for establishing and maintaining
family/school relations. Mothers respected teachers who were
nurturing, maintained order, were willing to attend to children's
individual needs, and taught them skills.
Belief #4: "What I'm doing, I'm doing for her." All of these
teenage mothers sought to be positive role models for their
children.
Conclusions: Parents in this study reflected basic beliefs highly
compatible with those of many school professionals. They clearly
valued educational achievement, security and independence in
learning, respect from and for teachers, and information that
might enable them to enhance their children's learning. They also
indicated very specific beliefs about how best to educate their
children.
Professionals should be willing to incorporate a range of
pedagogical teaching strategies to be more congruent with family
beliefs; similarly, parents should be willing to participate in
activities that may enhance their role as educators of their
children. For example, efforts to respond to adolescent mothers'
shared beliefs suggested changes in the day care and the parent-education program. Changes were designed to incorporate parents' beliefs in order to establish a constructive relationship between
families and professionals. These examples show that establishing
a posture of reciprocity between parents and professionals may
require a delicate shift in the balance of power between schools
and communities. Through a better understanding of parental
beliefs, parental involvement programs may be designed to enable
culturally diverse parents to realize their aspirations for their
children.
Questions for family literacy professionals:
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