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Report prepared by Hubisis Nwenmely and Viv Edwards for Lambeth Education, December 2000
A case study approach was used to explore family perceptions of issues around literacy in the African-Caribbean community of South London. The boys and girls included in the study covered a wide range of ages, social backgrounds and levels of achievement in reading and writing. Participant observation and interviews with parents and children and children’s school reports allowed us to build up a picture of the literacy environment in each family. Because the study is based on a very small number of families, its findings cannot necessarily be generalised. The clear patterns which emerge, however, suggest that the opinions expressed by parents and children in the four case study families may well be replicated in many other African-Caribbean families, both in South London and nationally.
The issues which emerged as important for an understanding of the needs and literacy practices of African-Caribbean parents and their children are summarised below.
While traditional Caribbean values clearly influenced the kind of support which parents offered their children, they also espoused many of the attitudes and strategies associated with more progressive British education. There is no evidence that the underperformance of Black children can be explained in terms of philosophical differences. Black families place emphasis on values associated with both traditional and progressive ends of the spectrum.
All parents reported that they regularly supported their children’s learning in a variety of ways. They also drew attention to how difficult it was to respond to children’s needs when they were in full-time work and when they were dealing with more than one child.
All four families used a range of commercial materials in addition to books brought home from school or the library. With the exception of one household, books, educational games and study guides were kept in the children’s bedrooms rather than in the living areas. Teachers making home visits might therefore draw inappropriate conclusions about the importance of reading in African-Caribbean households on the basis of the paucity of books on display.
Parents approved of the homework policies operating in their children’s schools. Without exception, they reported that they tried hard to ensure that their children’s homework was completed, although the actual regime varied from one family to the next.
Children received support not only from their parents but also from the wider family and community. Two of the four families commented on help offered by members of their extended families. Three families referred specifically to sibling support. Observation of family interaction added weight to the picture offered by parents during interviews. Supplementary Saturday schools, Sunday schools and after school clubs were also cited by parents as important sources of support for their children’s learning.
The parents in the present study had all underachieved in mainstream schooling. Their ultimate achievements, however, lend support to the notion that African-Caribbean children have often been victims of institutionalised racism. Parents were very conscious of the need to help their children develop strategies for dealing with racism. Several stressed the importance of self-confidence as a means of resisting negative stereotypes and low expectations.
The findings of the present study will clearly be helpful to teachers interested in a better understanding of the literacy learning needs of African-Caribbean families. They also have the potential to contribute to more effective home-school relations.
There is an urgent need for professional development which stresses the enormous diversity of experience and opinion within the Black community. It is essential that teachers challenge stereotypes which portray Black families as unduly strict and traditional in their approach to education or as unsupportive of their children’s learning. This study also provides valuable insights into parents’ perceptions of institutionalised racism as well as the coping strategies which they themselves have developed and which they actively encourage in their children.
Any professional development in this area needs to engage teachers in supportive and non-confrontational dialogue with parents. Such an approach should help in challenging widespread assertions about what does – and does not – happen around literacy learning in African-Caribbean families. It might be possible, for instance, to use the findings of this study as the focus for teacher action research projects along similar lines to those already organised by Lambeth Education in collaboration with the University of Reading on Reporting to parents.
Professor Viv Edwards
National Centre for Language and Literacy
The University of Reading
Bulmershe Court
Earley
Reading RG6 1HY
Great Britain
Tel: 0118 378 8820
email: V.K.Edwards@rdg.ac.uk