IV. History of Family Literacy

It is impossible to say where research in emergent literacy and experiments in early childhood education leaves off and research on family literacy first begins. As early as 1908, educators in the U.S. were suggesting that children's learning in school begins with parents reading to them at home (Huey in Morrow and Paratore 1993). The term "family literacy" was first coined by Denny Taylor in her doctoral dissertation in 1981 (Taylor 1993, 551), but initiatives aimed at supporting families in their literacy development pre-date Taylor's work.

Rather than attempt to document the comprehensive history of family literacy, we have provided an outline of significant events in order to set family literacy in Alberta In a larger context.

A. General History

1967 - The Plowden report produced by the Department of Education and Science (U.K.) argued for the concept of a partnership between home and school, and influenced a number of initiatives. Many of these aimed to provide parents with a range of reading strategies to use with their children. (Cairney 3)

1969 - The Home Instruction Program (HIPPY) was developed at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel. It began as a research project examining the feasibility and effect of home-based educational intervention involving mothers and their preschool children from educationally disadvantaged parts of the country. In 1975, the project moved from research to operation on a national scale, and by 1989 had expanded to five other countries.

1973 - The Avance Parent-Child Education program began in San Antonio, Texas. Its goal was to reduce the disproportionately high dropout rate among the Mexican-American community. Program components included parenting/parent education, prereading/language development activities, and other topics related to family and community development.

1980 - Haringey study (England) - Six schools in working-class neighborhoods participated in this experiment. Parents were invited to take part in a two-year program of listening to their children read two to four times a week (Toomey 223-224).

1980's - Peter Hannon and others work at Sheffield, England in the study of home factors in school reading attainment, focusing on young children in poor urban areas. (Hannon 6)

1980's - P.A.C.E.: Parents' Aid for Children's Education. Secondary literacy program started in a secondary mixed comprehensive school in an East London working class district. Three quarters of the school's pupils were from ethnic minorities. The project focused on giving assignments that invited explicit help from parents (Sandler 1985).

1982 - The Home Instruction (HIPPY) program, originally developed in Israel in 1969, was introduced to the U.S. in Arkansas.