Fathers and Family Literacy: More than the bed-time story

Sue NicholsFatherhood in a Changing

World SeminarUniversity of South

AustraliaJune 19th 2007

New images of fatherhood

Fathering “involves being there for the child.”

Children “require attentive and sustained nurturing”.

Fathers as the new work-home jugglers

Peter Brand is a master of the work-family juggle. In the morning he dresses his three-year-old son and one-year-old daughter and drops them off at day care. At the end of the day, the 30-year-old senior manager … struggles to leave the office not at 8 or 9 but by 6pm. That gives Brand plenty of time to eat dinner with the kids, scrub them in the bath (or do dishes if his wife Marcy is handling that), and let Dylan, 3, choose a bed time story and a prayer – before Brand logs on to do more work.

Brady 2004 Business Week

Between work and sleep: reading time & play time

The bed-time story: a father’s job? Symbolic of father

participation Literacy that

dovetails with 9-5 work schedules

Consistent with leisure orientation to childcare

Consistent with children’s rights discourse

Men’s views on reading I hated reading. And I still don't really enjoy

reading unless it's something that I'm really interested in. (Doug)

I hate novels. I cannot pick up a novel and read it. (Stanley)

We were always out playing sport, we didn't have time to sit down and go and read. (Wayne)

I'm not one for picking up books. I'm not a novel reader or anything. (Neil)

Mothers as reading supervisors I think it’s really important for Marco to read to

the kids, not just be a female role, that only Mum reads to them. (Alicia)

I actually told R’s teacher that I hate to read. “I can’t stand reading, I’ll get my husband to do it”. (Roz)

He would never just have picked up a book and said, ‘I’ll read you a story’. It would have been, ‘How about you read a story?’ (Linda)

Obviously it’s Terri’s influence, I guess mainly, about reading to the kids and a lot of the stuff I read to the kids was the first time I’d heard it. (Luke)

Rosemary I always read stories to the kids anyway and I like Daddy to read stories to them (laughs).

Sue And do you like to read stories to them Stanley?Stanley No I don’t. (Rosemary laughs)Rosemary There was one poem that I like him to read to

the kids. The poem actually read ‘Cross patch, draw the latch, sit by the fire and spin’ and he used to read ‘Cross patch, draw the latch, sat by the fire and spun.’ And I used to sit there and wait for it every time! (laughs)

Stanley laughs.Rosemary He’s not, he doesn’t read the word.Stanley And that’s what I’m scared of.

But doesn’t the research say?

Children (4/5 years old) who were read to three or more times in the last week by a family member were more likely to:

read or pretend to read (77 percent vs. 57 percent).

count to 20 or higher (60 percent vs. 44 percent)

write their own names (54 percent vs. 40 percent)

recognize all the letters of the alphabet (26 % vs 14%)

Nord, Lennon, Liu & Chandler (1999) based on National Centre for Education Statistics (US) reports

Yes, but also …

Children who were told stories three or more times in the last week were also more likely than those who were not to:

read or pretend to read (79 % vs. 68 %)

count to 20 or higher (60 % vs. 54 %)

write their own names (54 % vs. 49 %)

recognize all the letters of the alphabet (28 % vs. 20 %)

Nord, Lennon, Liu & Chandler (1999) based on National Centre for Education Statistics (US) reports

The oral tradition: an under-recognised literacy resource

Sporting literacy & numeracy

Reading: sports magazines & sections of newspapers administrative information eg calendars web-sites

Watching sport on TV or in person: scoring reading play reading in-process texts eg diagrams listening to commentary & commentating,

Competing/ gaming: Tipping Betting Fantasy Footy

Writing: Online chatrooms & forums Keeping notes

FAST Literacy Program

Some literacy activities that fathers have reported to have participated in with their children include:

reading environmental print, maps, dictionaries bedtime stories, spelling names and tracing letters Using the computer for spelling or writing activities.

When creating the activity list, we considered these and other strengths that fathers bring to the classroom with them. The FAST literacy activities have been designed with the following focuses:

active and/or ‘play’ based easily transferred to the home environment fathers strengths father and teacher friendly

www.newcastle.edu.au/engagingfathers

Family literacy for dads in prison

Training included modelling, viewing videos of fathers reading, discussion & information about family literacy

Range of literature to share with children

Fathers encouraged to take lead in interaction

Drawing & writing in journals with partners & scribes if needed

Fathers planned at-home activities for children

Genisio (1996)

A dad’s thoughts on writing a poem

When I realized it would be for my children I began to think about just how vulnerable I wanted to be in this. I wrote it out 2-3 times. I was honest and focused on who I really am as compared to how I’d like to be. I feel I have a very good understanding of myself to share with my boys.

Extending family literacy for inclusivity

Build on the oral tradition Link literacy to activity – while doing,

in process Don’t take a limited view of

‘masculine’ interests & the literacy opportunities they present

Tailor approaches to male carers in different circumstances

References (2001) Fathers Matter Too, Special Issue of Early Childhood

Matters, The bulletin of the Bernard van Leer Foundation, No. 97 February 2001

Brady, D. (2004) Hopping aboard the Daddy track: Suddenly, achieving a work-life balance isn’t just a women’s issue. Business Week Vol 3907 p. 100

Genisio, M. (1996) Breaking barriers with books: A fathers’ book-sharing program from prison Journal of Adult and Adolescent Literacy 40(2) 92-100

Nichols, S. (2000). Unsettling the bed-time story: parents’ reports of home literacy practices, Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood 1:3 http://www.triangle.co.uk/ciec/index.htm

Nichols, S. (1994). Fathers and Literacy. Australian Journal of Language and Literacy 17(4): 301-312.

Overington, C. (2005) Modern dads revel in hands-on parenting. The Weekend Australian Sept 3-4