1998/99 PCERII Funded Research Abstract
Research Title: Family and Community Literacy: The Intersecting Worlds of Chinese and Asian Immigrants
Research Team: Linda Wason-Ellam (University of Saskatchewan) - Principal Investigator
Research Domain(s): Education
Chinese immigrant students live their lives within the intersecting worlds of family, community, and school networks. When these children come to Canadian schools with diverse languages and literacy traditions, they do not have equal status with learners from the dominant culture. In this ethnographic study, the researchers will describe the diversity of family literacy practices in three Chinese immigrant homes within the cultural contexts of a Saskatoon urban community school setting with a large number of recent immigrant and refugee families. They will describe how these families come fact to face with schooling, its beliefs and its meanings, which are not always in rhythm with their expectations and practices. By exploring family and community literacy in a natural setting, what and how it means, the study will shed light on the social-cultural environments of literacy development and the possible occasions for language in Chinese immigrant families. In addition, the researchers will address the sub questions:
- What does literacy look like in the homes of Chinese immigrant families?
- What are the parental assumptions about their role as teacher
- What are the integral links between the home and community and other institutions?