WHITLOWE R. GREEN COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
Doctoral Defense Announcement
ABSTRACT
ADULT PERCEPTIONS OF THE INTERGENERATIONAL
FAMILY LITERACY PROGRAM AND TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP
PRACTICES: A MULTIPLE CASE STUDY
Loretta Agusta Terry, B.B.A., Texas Southern University;
M.Ed., Prairie View A & M University
Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. Lisa K. Thompson
ABSTRACT
Researchers have described the lack of basic literacy skills among adults as an important
issue with implications linked to the intergenerational cycle of illiteracy within families (Ntiri,
2009; Mandara, Varner, Greene & Richman, (2009). Further, researchers have pointed out that
more than 90 million adults in the U. S. with low literacy skills have continued to be unable to
perform basic reading tasks and these adults lacked an understanding of the meaning or urgency
of this issue (Binder, Snyder, Ardoin & Morris, 2011; Kutner et al., 2007; National Research
Council, 2012). The lack of basic literacy skills among adults negatively affects their ability to
perform simple everyday literacy tasks, obtain employment, and affected their ability to support
their children’s learning and literacy development (Wasik, & Van Horn, 2012).
Low literate adults enrolled in adult education and family literacy programs have
expressed a desire to support their children’s academic success as one of the reasons for their
enrollment in the program (DeBruin-Parecki, 2009; Shiffman, 2011). According to Smith
(2010), comprehensive family literacy programs served an estimated 50,000 families in the U. S.
and combined early childhood education, basic adult education, parent/child together time and
parenting education components. Despite this substantial number of families served in family
literacy programs, few studies in the literature investigated adults’ perceptions of the adult
education component of the program.
This multiple case qualitative study explored the perception of adult participants in the
intergenerational family literacy program in an urban city in Southwest, Texas. The lack of
research investigation of the perception of adult participants enrolled in the adult education
component of the intergenerational family literacy program created a gap in the research of
program. Additionally, data collected from the family literacy program leaders explored their
roles, practices, and how their leadership influenced literacy transformation within families. The
study presented the research findings obtained from data collection involving two family literacy
program sites, six purposefully selected adult participant cases, and two site leaders.
Adult case participants’ perception of the family literacy program emerged through
multiple data sources which included: in-depth interviews, case notes, field notes, document
reviews, observations, and researcher journaling. Themes developed in this study pertaining to
the central research question included: goal-directed expectations, personal literacy learning
objectives, and parent-child literacy engagement. Themes emerging from data pertaining to
research sub-questions one and two included: improved literacy comprehension, self-initiated
practice, multiple ways of literacy acquisition, capacity to lead children’s literacy development,
role efficacy, and changed learning perception. Four major themes emerging from research subquestion three related to leadership practices included: ensuring educational needs of parents;
learning opportunity encouragement; implementation of policy; parental support and promoting
parent child time (PACT).
For more than three decades, family literacy programs emphasized on enhancing literacy
skills of the whole family (Swick, 2009), which recognized parents as their children’s first
teacher (Shiffman, 2011). This study revealed that the family literacy program continues to be a
viable opportunity for families and intergenerational literacy engagement. In spite of federal
budget cuts that depleted funding and staffing of many intergenerational family literacy
community programs (Li, 2011), adult participants in this study voiced positive perceptions. The
adult participants’ role efficacy comments revealed that the family literacy program provided an
opportunity for parents to improve basic literacy skills, build literacy self-esteem, and understand
the importance of engaging in literacy development with children.
Additionally, research data collected from two family literacy program site
leaders determined how their leadership roles and practices influenced adult participants’
motivation to transform literacy practices within their families. Moreover, knowledge generated
from this study potentially may impact change in the approach to the adult education
component of the family literacy program, enhance program design (Doyle & Zhang, 2011;
Jacobson, 2011) as well as empower teacher and educational leaders. While this study offered a
naturalistic forum to understand the meaning of the family literacy program through the voiced
perceptions of economically disadvantaged adults, there continues to be a need for future
research.
References
Binder, K. S., Snyder, M. A., Ardoin, S. P., & Morris R. K. (2011). Dynamic indicators of basic
early literacy skills: An effective tool to assess adult literacy student? Adult Basic
Education and Literacy Journal, 5(3), 150-180.
Doyle, A., & Zhang, J. (2011). Participation structure impacts on parent engagement in family
literacy programs. Early Childhood Education Journal, 39, 223-233.
doi:10.1007/s10643-011-0465-x
Jacobson, E. (2011). Examining reading comprehension in adult literacy. Adult Basic Education
and Literacy Journal, 5(3), 132-141.
Kutner, M., Greenberg, E., Jin, Y., Boyle, B., Hsu, Y., & Dunleavy, E. (2007). Literacy in
everyday life: Results from the 2003 national assessment of adult literacy. NCES 2007
480. Washington, DC: National Center for Educational Statistics. Retrieved from
http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2007/2007480.pdf
Li, G., & Christ, T. (2007). Social capital and home literacy engagement: Case studies of lowSES single mothers’ access to literacy resources. English in Education, 41(1), 21-36.
Mandara, J., Varner, F., Greene, N., & Richman, S. (2009). Intergenerational family predictors
of the Black-White achievement gap. Journal of Educational Psychology, 101(4),
867-878. doi:1037/a0016644
Shiffman, C. D. (2011). Making it visible: An exploration of how adult education participation
informs parent involvement in education for school-age children. Adult Basic Education
and Literacy Journal, 5(3), 161-170.
Smith, J. (2010). Changing lives one family at a time: The Even Start family literacy model. The
Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin, 26-29.
Swick, K. J. (2009). Promoting school and life success through early childhood family literacy.
Early Childhood Education Journal, 36, 403-406.
Wasik, B. H. & Van Horn, B. (2012). The role of family literacy in society. In Wasik, B. H.
(Ed.), Handbook of family literacy (2 ed., pp. 3-17). New York, NY: Taylor & Francis
Date:
March 11, 2015
Department:
Educational Leadership and Counseling
Time:
10:00 am
Location/Room:
240 Delco
Dissertation Chair:
Lisa K. Thompson, Ph.D.
Committee Members:
Patricia Hoffman-Miller, Ph.D.
Bernadine Duncan, Ed.D.
Laxley W. Rodney, Ph.D.