| Four Latino family literacy projects in Oregon and California are featured in this study, all of which utilize Spanish or bilingual children's literature. The purpose of this study is to identify common factors that have contributed to successful program development and implementation, as well as the ongoing viability of these projects. Other elements described in this study are: (a) each project's history, (b) challenges faced by each project, and (c) ways each project has had a positive affect on its school community and the families served.; The research design for this study is participatory research, using multiple sources of information: (a) participatory audio-taped dialogues with the coordinators of the four projects, (b) project meeting observations, (c) written or audio-visual project documentation, and (d) participant project survey responses. The main theoretical base for this study was that of critical pedagogy, which provides the framework for analyzing the data collected.; Analysis of the collected data revealed several factors identified by coordinators as contributing to their project's success. The major success factors emphasized were: (a) pre-planning before implementing a project, (b) the importance of receiving input from participants when planning, implementing and developing a project, (c) the need for initial and on-going staff training and (d) having a well organized project plan with a consistent schedule of activities. The coordinators also revealed challenges faced by their projects, which fell into two categories: overcoming barriers to project participation; and overcoming barriers to project development. In order to overcome barriers to project participation, coordinators cited the importance of: (a) valuing the home language and culture of family participants, (b) recruitment of participants by personnel invitation, (c) utilizing a small core group of parents to invite other families to participate, (d) providing project activities that include the whole family as well as extended family members and caregivers, (e) flexibility in project activities, and (f) refreshments and transportation considerations. Coordinators emphasized these points as key to overcome barriers to project development: (a) budgeting priorities, (b) collaborating with local community groups, (c) obtaining stable funding sources, and (d) gaining administrative and staff support. The positive impact of projects identified by coordinators were: (a) increased parent involvement with their child's school, (b) improved relationships between parents and teachers, (c) formation of parent friendships, (d) increased number of parents in leadership roles, (e) positive affects on student achievement and (f) increased parent participation in adult education.; The project coordinators in this study emphasized that successful home-school partnerships can be developed with culturally and linguistically diverse families. Parents everywhere, want the best for their children, and should be given the opportunity to participate in meaningful partnerships with their children's school. |
