| Currently, there is a shift in literacy studies, which takes a 'social turn' (Gee, 2000) away from considering literacy as a set of technical skills learned through academic involvement to a focus on the existence of multiple literacies. Informed by linguistics, anthropology, Vygotskian theory of development, and concepts from the New Literacy Studies, this perspective points to the existence of multiple literacies for each individual-setting combination and defines literacy as a collection of practices that are contextual and social in nature and tied to specific ways of knowing. Literacy development is a process by which children---at home, in the community, and at school---come to participate in particular ways of talking, thinking, and behaving around literacy-based interactions. Following the sociocultural perspective that early literacy is not a matter of learning to read but how children learn and participate in specific social practices through their active involvement in various domains of their lives such as homes and communities, I used multiple qualitative methods to examine 6 families' literacy practices at home and the public library. Based on a sociocultural framework I compared and analyzed practices, including conceptualizations, goals, and opportunities for participation in literacy-related activities to learn how conceptualizations of literacy, institutional constraints and affordances, and underlying goals for interactions shape literacy practices. In library settings, a structured sequence of events, the Library Visit, served to guide parent-child interactions. Analysis of home literacy practices showed the relation between conceptualizations of literacy and parents' perceived level of involvement. In both settings, my study revealed how parents extend their children's participation and how emotional elements of practices influence the preservation of practices across generations. In my study's examination of literacy practices and opportunities for young children's participation in literacy-related activities in home and library settings, directions for future research have emerged, including a call to support school literacy practices that advance, rather than replace, children's understandings developed through their participation in different contexts. |
