Everybody Knows Your Name: Women Participants in Family Literacy Programs

By Stacey Crooks

Why I didn’t do the homework Because the phone is ringing The door is noking The kid is yumping The food is burning Time runs fast

Rosa   in Auerbach, 1989

To think about…   What do mothers get out of our

programs?   What assumptions/discourses

practitioners do we bring to family literacy practice?

  (How) can research address such questions?

Me   Feminist   Adult Literacy and ESL Practitioner   Graduate Student   (Mother)

What is family literacy?   The ways family members use literacy

in their daily lives

  Programs that “recognize the influence of the family on the literacy development of family members, and (try) to have a positive effect on them”

Thomas, 2001

Origins of project   Practical Experience   Academic Research

  What is a family literacy program?   Who are family literacy programs for?

Literature:   Participatory approaches   The participatory model is based on the

idea that “for literacy to be relevant, what goes on inside the classroom must relate to students’ lives outside the classroom” (Auerbach, 1992, p. 22).

Literature: Critiques   Deficit Discourses   Adults in family literacy program   Women and Family Literacy

  Invisibility of women   Discourses of mothering

Problem   “What do family literacy programs

means to the women who participate in them?”

Purpose   Better understanding of why women

participate and what the impact is.   Recommendations for research and

practice   Value the experience of women as a

source of knowledge

Research Questions   Why do women participate in the family

literacy programs and what makes their participation worthwhile

Research Questions   How has participating in family literacy

programs at the Neighbourhood Family Centre impacted women participants?

Research Questions   How does the construction of the

participants as mothers within family literacy programs affect their experience of the program and the changes that result from their participation?

Methodology   Phenomenology

  Through dialogue and reflection the meaning of the lived experience of participants will be revealed

  Feminism   Women’s lives made visible   Women as creators of knowledge and

theory

Methods   Participants

  Women participants in family literacy programs

  2 years   Data Collection/Analysis

  2 interviews   Themes

Context   Neighbourhood Family Centre

  Family resource centre   Direct parent, direct child   Low intensity but many programs   Other services

Jennifer   With children you kind of work your life

around them and I try not to be, if I’m going to work that day, then I don’t go out. You know, I stay home with them. We cook supper and we read stories or we go to the park or you know, so I find that my time isn’t my own.

Jennifer   “I was just so happy to have somewhere

where I could meet other moms and just, you know, have those couple hours, even in the morning, just to relax a little bit”.

Melanie   I wasn't too sure on what I was going to

encounter or who I was going to meet kind of thing. Like I almost had the feeling that it was going to be a lot of older people, like a lot of older moms, like there wasn't going to be a lot of teenage moms and everything like myself

Melanie   It was like sitting around in somebody's house

having coffee kind of thing and that' how it's been ever since. You go in there and it’s like the movie Cheers -- everybody knows your name and you're just right at home.

  You can sit down with the kids and pretend to be a kid or you can sit and have coffee and have adult conversations with the adults or you can do a little bit of both if you want.

Leslie   I love being home. I love the advantage I

have to do things at my pace and not have to be out of the house at eight o'clock in the morning. I like that and I mean, to be home for your kids is just the ultimate. I don't know if they appreciate that right off the hop but they will.

Leslie   I think us daycare ladies are pretty much the

mainstay there.   And now if I stay home, it's like, what do I

do? You know I enjoy going out and going to the programs and taking the kids and the kids love it. They absolutely love going.

Themes   Experiences

  Feeling Comfortable   Feeling Connected   Feeling Supported   Feeling Valued

Cycle of experience

Women come for the first time

The women feel connected

The women feel supported

The women feel valued

The women feel comfortable

The women re-enter the world

Cycle of experience

Women come for the first time

The women feel connected

The women feel supported

The women feel valued

The women feel comfortable

The women re-enter the world

Themes   Impacts

  Social Networks and Community Participation

  Relationships with Children   Sense of Self

Findings   “The discussion…made the double-

edged nature of their positionality visible--as women and as mothers” Tisdell, 2001

Findings   Women as mothers (and caregivers)

  “You know I enjoy going out and going to the program and taking the kids and the kids love it. They absolutely love going” - Leslie

Findings   Mothers as women

  The people at the Centre “care about you as a human being” - Melanie

  “Women are very resilient. I think it’s amazing what they can heap on themselves and just keep going” - Jennifer

Questions for Research   What would a feminist family literacy

program look like?   How do discourses of motherhood

shape our expectations?

Questions for Research   Who participates/doesn’t participate?

Why?   How is experience related to outcomes?   What is the impact on the community?   How does context affect program

success?   What does participation/engagement

mean to participants?

Recommendations for Practice   Consider Gender   A trusting environment   A participatory approach   Women as mothers and as women   Focus on experience   Document outcomes

Feminism and Family Literacy   “Answering the needs of women

seeking to change, expand, or escape their traditional roles may seem beyond the limit of family literacy programs, but … it may be critical for them to address these needs, especially if the broader program goal of participant self-sufficiency and autonomy is taken seriously” (Cuban & Hayes, 1996).