To highlight how intergenerationality offers a lens for understanding young children’s literacy practice, this article explores the uses of literacy within one family, the Joneses (all names are pseudonyms). The Jones family is an African American family who lives in Pinesville (population 572; U.S. Census Bureau, 2000), a small rural community in the southeastern United States. The intergenerational histories of lit- eracy embedded within the Jones family comprise a family culture of literacy (Gadsden, 1998, 1999).

Such a family culture becomes a resource that members of the Jones family draw on in their school efforts. Specifically, such a family culture of literacy is a resource that the youngest member of the Jones family, KiKi Reynolds—a kindergarten student and the great-grandchild of the family matriarch, Harriet Jones—brings with her to school each day. The his- tories of literacy practice that comprise KiKi’s fam- ily culture of literacy are par t of a metaphorical backpack that she carries with her to school each day. Although KiKi may never access such a history of literacy practice, the histories of literacy embed- ded within her family are latent, waiting to be ac- cessed through rich and meaningful curriculum and instruction.

In focusing on the literacy practices of an African American family, this article engages with literacy research that has addressed how literacy practice happens within African American families living in the United States (e.g., Ballenger, 1998; Compton- Lilly, 2003, 2004; Cushman, 1998; Mahiri, 1998, 2004; Morrell, 2004; Paratore, 2001; Rogers, 2003; Wilson, 2000). However, in focusing on the literacy practic- es of African Americans within a rural community in the southeastern United States, this article spe- cifically draws on the work of Edwards (1993, 1995), Gadsden (1998, 2000), and Heath (1983). With its particular and complex histor y, insights into how

The Jones Family’s Culture of Literacy Amy Suzanne Johnson

By investigating how families value literacy and the legacies that families have with it, teachers and researchers alike can challenge their assumptions of what literacy means to different people.

I nterest in the ways that families offer a context for literacy learning is not new. For decades, research- ers have been considering the ways that families

influence children’s oppor tunitie s for emerging into literacy through reading and writing practices (e.g., Baker, Sonnenschein, Ser pell, Fer nandez- Fein, & Scher, 1994; Brody, Stoneman, & McCoy, 1994; Edwards, 1993, 1995; Hansen, 1969; Landry & Smith, 2006; Taylor & Dorsey-Gaines, 1988; Wasik, Dobbins, & Herrmann, 2001). Sonnenschein, Brody, and Munsterman (1996) argued, however, that when focusing on family influence on children’s literacies, teachers and researchers must “consider the child as a member of a family system operating with the con- straints of various societal rules and mores” (p. 4).

In addition, Gadsden (2000) posited that teach- ers and researchers must also consider the histories, configurations, and ways of viewing the world em- bedded within families and communities. Doing so, Gadsden argued, requires knowledge of how inter- generationality informs the literacy practices of all children:

Intergenerational literacy draws from beliefs about knowledge, its power, and its contributions to the fu- ture, but is not restricted by such beliefs and expec- tations. It houses vision and implicit meanings and purposes that are constructed and conveyed within families and communities, that are influenced by so- cietal access and barriers, and that become a part of our own social and contextual historiography. (p. 872)

34 The Reading Teacher Vol. 64, No. 1 September 2010

the highest percentage of poverty in the United States (Carl Vinson Institute of Government, 2003). Like many communities in this region, Pinesville’s history is linked to slav- er y, sharecropping, and Jim Crow de jure segregation. Although they are the minority (40%) of the popu- lation, white European Americans own most of the land and business- es and control the local government. The community has never had an African American elected to public office, although African Americans repre sent 60% of the population (U.S. Census Bureau, 2000).

Currently, PCS is the only school in Pinesville. Today, approximately 10% of the students enrolled at PCS are European American, and 90% are African American. Because of its small enrollment, the school has one class per grade level.

Through my professional work at the school, Sally was obser ved teaching in her classroom, and several community science night ac- tivities were designed and implemented. As part of a teacher–student action research group, a commu- nity alphabet book was researched and composed as a children’s book project committed to docu- menting Pinesville’s history. Through such projects, Pinesville’s rich history of using literacy for social ac- tion was disclosed to me.

During the 1960s, Pinesville was one of the first rural communities to organize voter registration drives and efforts for school desegregation. Yet, in professional learning conversations with teachers and students at PCS, this aspect of the community’s history was absent. Such an absence made me curi- ous about the community’s history and its impact on literacy practice, so I recorded field notes on literacy practice and everyday life in the community. Also, I documented the community’s historical record through the review of archived newspapers and oth- er documents that reported on life in the community since the end of slavery in 1865.

Data Collection and Analysis To learn more about how individuals have interfaced with such a history, a life history study was designed

familie s practice and par ticipate in literacy in the r ural South can shed light on how the interplay be- tween histor y and literacy can be pedagogically useful to teachers. L ikewise, a s Mor r is and Monroe (2009) pointed out, the majority of African American families live in the southeastern United States, and African American families who live in other regions often have strong cultural, social, and familial ties to communities in the southeastern United States.

Study Context I first met members of the Jones fam- ily in 2005 as part of a project with teachers, students, and families at Pinesville Community School (PCS) committed to recruiting local com- munity knowledge into science and literacy instruction at the school. As part of this project, one of the educators was Sally Harris, a kindergarten paraprofessional and a mem- ber of the Jones family. Sally and her family attended a community science night activity that was part of this professional learning (Johnson et al., 2008).

At community science night, KiKi (then 3 years old) handled books and engaged in school-based activities. When Sally was asked about KiKi, she re- ported that she, Harriet Jones (Sally’s mother), and Lola Harris (Sally’s daughter) had been working to help prepare KiKi for school. Sally explained that the three women have played a central role in KiKi’s up- bringing and caregiving.

In 2007, using a life history interview format, each of these women agreed to talk to me about their lives and experiences in Pinesville. Analyzing their life history interviews alongside field note data revealed how the Jones family has a particular culture of lit- eracy that has taken shape and been passed down from generation to generation in Pinesville.

Pinesville Pine s v ille i s located in t he area of t he United States commonly known as the Black Belt region, a crescent-band shaped area spanning 11 southern state s and encompa s sing 242 countie s that ha s

PAUSE AND PONDER

■■ How are reading and writing used by members of the Jones family? What are their purposes for using reading and writing?

■■ What has KiKi Reynolds learned about literacy and education from her family?

■■ What resources do your students carry with them to school each day in their metaphorical backpacks?

■■ What steps can you take to supplement your understandings of how your students use literacy within their families? How can you deepen your insights into the family cultures of your students?

35The Jones Family’s Culture of Literacy

the Jones family, and assumed the family members had more knowledge about their lives and experi- ences than I did. From the outset, I stated to the par- ticipants that the purpose of our interviews was for them to teach me about their lives, so I might better understand life within Pinesville. Although I identi- fied myself as a learner and made efforts to connect personally with the participants and see the data through their eyes (Johnson & Cowles, 2009), I recog- nize how my racial and cultural positioning impacts how data are represented and interpreted.

The Jones Family Constellation Gadsden (1998) argued that extendedness is an important feature of African American family con- stellations. As Gadsden (1998) explained, African A mer ic a n fa mil y con s tellat ion s have a dept h and breadth that is uncharacteristic of European American families. In contrast to European American families, which are typically organized according to a triadic, nuclear family model (i.e., mother, father, and child), African American families often extend across several households, with children not being the “possessions of a single, private family” (p. 229). Such a family constellation is characteristic of the Joneses.

Harriet was born in 1943 in Pinesville as the only daughter of Maggie Jones, who lived from 1923 to 2004 and had worked as both a sharecropper and domestic ser vant for some of Pinesville’s wealthi- est European American families. Harriet was raised by an extended group of women that included her grandmother, her mother, and her aunt. When Harriet was 14 years old, she became pregnant, dropped out of high school, and gave birth to her first daughter. Three years later, in 1960, Harriet had her second daughter, Sally. As with Harriet, an extended network of women, including Harriet, grandmother Maggie, and a great-aunt, raised Sally and her sister.

Sally’s daughter, Lola, was born in 1986. At pres- ent, Sally and Lola share a home with Harriet. Sally has an associate’s degree in early childhood educa- tion and works as a paraprofessional in a kindergar- ten class at PCS. Consistent with Harriet’s and Sally’s upbringing, Lola was raised by her mother, her grand- mother, and her great-grandmother. Lola graduated from PCS in 2004 and currently fixes hair, babysits for her young cousin, and is contemplating earning a two -year associate’s degree in early childhood

in which individuals were interviewed about their literacy histories. Participants were recruited for the study using community nomination (Foster, 1997), a form of snowball sampling. That is, after having in- terviewed Sally in Januar y 2007, she was asked to nominate someone from the community whom she believed would be interested in sharing his or her life with me. Sally nominated two individuals, her moth- er Harriet and her daughter Lola.

Sally, Harriet, and Lola were inter viewed two times each. In keeping with life histor y methods (e.g., Goodson & Sikes, 2001; James, 2000; Mishler, 1999) each interview was in depth, covering multiple aspects of the participants’ lives, including general life circumstances, literacy in the home, literacy in school, literacy in community, and church (Johnson & Cowles, 2009). Each inter view lasted approxi- mately two hours and took place in a location of the participant’s choosing: Harriet and Lola were inter- viewed on separate occasions in the family’s home; Sally was interviewed in her classroom at PCS.

The interviews were transcribed and coded us- ing a recursive coding process (Graue & Walsh, 1998) that included codes such as places where literacy was learned, materials used for literacy, people who fostered literacy learning, practices where literacy was used, mother, sister, old ladies, white families’ homes, hand-me-downs, magazines, environmental print, family routines, popular sayings, stories, and shopping. To further consolidate data, codes were conceptually organized into discrete literacy practic- es, and a series of analytic memos were composed in which data were brought together to identify the particular uses of literacy within Sally’s, Harriet’s, and Lola’s lives.

Following in the work of Heath (1983) and Taylor and Dorsey-Gaines (1988), eight distinct uses of lit- eracy were identified: interactional, instrumental, news-related, environmental, financial, spiritual, recreational, and educational. Then, the life history interviews were integrated with field notes and his- torical documents to gain more insight into literacy practices.

My Role as Researcher Before turning to my interpretations of the data, I acknowledge my role as a researcher. Because I am European American and from the Midwestern United States, I positioned myself as a learner in relation to

36 The Reading Teacher Vol. 64, No. 1 September 2010

inquire into each other’s lives, and solidify their bond as mother and daughter: “She asks me how my day was. She tells me that she’s glad to be my mother and that she’s glad that I’m her daughter, and I’ll write back and tell her the same thing.”

Lola also explained how she has helped young KiKi use literacy for interactional purposes. When KiKi’s mother is in the hospital, Lola will help KiKi write letters and cards to Laverne:

Her mom was in the hospital, and she wanted to write a letter to her mama. So, I wrote it out, and I let her trace over it with crayons, and we gave it to her moth- er. She told her “I’ll be glad when you come home. I’ll miss you.”

By writing letters to each other in times of need or “just because,” members of the Jones family solidify their relationships with and express their feelings to- ward one another.

Instrumental Uses of Literacy Within the Jones family, literacy also has been used to manage everyday life (Taylor, 1993). Notably, liter- acy has been used to organize and learn more about managing the family household and the households of others (i.e., the European American families for whom Harriet and her mother Maggie worked). For instance, Harriet and Maggie regularly read maga- zines like Better Homes and Gardens and Family Circle, from which they gathered information on dec- orating ideas and craft and sewing projects.

Across the generations, the women in the Jones family share family recipes and sewing tips with each other, using a combination of printed and oral texts. In fact, Sally recounted how in her family they “had good cooks but no cookbooks.” Her grandmother Maggie and mother Harriet were able to cook from recipes that they “held in their heads,” passed down from generation to generation. Yet, when Sally “start- ed to cook, [she] had to start by recipe.” As a young child, Lola recalled that she would read magazines like Family Circle and select recipes that she wanted to cook with her great-grandmother Maggie:

I used to like go through it and find recipes. I used to ask my grandma, “Grandma, do you know how to cook this?” And she said, “Well, one day we are going to ex- periment. We are going to see if we can do it.”

education, so she can work as a paraprofessional at PCS like her mother.

KiKi is the youngest member of the Jones family. Like Harriet, Sally, and Lola, an extended network of women that includes her great-grandmother Harriet, her great-aunt Sally, and her cousin Lola, raises KiKi. This extended network of care came about because KiKi’s mother (Sally’s niece Laverne) suffers from sickle cell anemia and leukemia, which has resulted in long hospital stays. As Lola explained, “KiKi’s not really around her mother a lot.... She’s around me and my mom. Just like when her mom’s sick and her grandmother’s working, I keep her over here.”

In their home, Sally and Lola have a bedroom for KiKi, where she stays while her mother is ill or in the hospital. Likewise, Harriet, Sally, and Lola have inten- tionally worked to give KiKi the kinds of preschool literacy preparation that would give her a head start in her education. Additionally, Sally works as the paraprofessional in KiKi’s kindergarten classroom.

Uses of Literacy Within the Jones Family Literacy and education are central to the Jones family’s culture and traditions. Within the family, literacy is used in multiple ways through participa- tion in everyday domestic tasks, religious services, and family events. The family members have used literacy to support and build their relationships with one another, perform everyday tasks, maintain their finances, learn more about their local and global communities, attend to their spiritual lives, entertain themselves and others, and pursue education. These multiple uses of literacy comprise a culture of literacy within the Jones family.

Interactional Uses of Literacy Letter writing and reading is one way in which mem- bers of the Jones family have used literacy to estab- lish, build, and maintain relationships (Taylor, 1993). When asked to describe how she uses writing in her home life, Lola recounted how, although they live in the same house, she and her mother Sally regularly exchange letters with each other: “She’ll write me a letter, and then she’s like, ‘Are you going to write me back?’ And, I’ll say, ‘Okay. I’ll write you back.’ I sit down and write her back.” In these letters, Lola explained that she and Sally exchange pleasantries,

37The Jones Family’s Culture of Literacy

newspaper about a community member who had won the lottery:

I think it was Christmas of 2006, and [a community member] won some money.... It was in the newspaper. She won $177,000 on a scratch-off ticket, and that’s how she bought her house. I wish I could find that article. They interviewed her, and she said that all her life, she’s been moving and moving and moving, and she always wanted a home. She finally was able to buy her a home.

Like her mother, Lola reads the local newspaper to find information about other community mem- bers. Recently she read an article “about this guy that my mom used to go to school with. He was killed, like, a week ago.” In this way, reading the newspaper connects members of the Jones family to other mem- bers of their community, helping them share in sor- row and celebrations.

W h a t i s s i g n i f i c a n t about the Jones family rely- ing on the local newspaper for infor mation on com- munity happenings is the historical role this news- paper ha s played within Pine s v ille. In rev iew ing newspapers from the years 1955 to 1965, at the height of civil rights activity with- in the community, a white supremacist stance was represented in many articles within the publication. For instance, the local newspaper historically printed articles that defend segregated schooling. During the 1965 struggle for desegregated schools, an article was printed that was written by a scientist who used “science” to defend separate schools for European Americans and African Americans, claiming that African Americans biologically were less capable of learning at the same pace as European Americans.

New spap er a r t icle s wer e a l s o w r it ten a s a means of undermining the credibility of prominent African American persons within the community. Additionally, during the civil unrest of the 1960s, an article was published that sought to undermine the credibility of a local civil rights activist. In short, the reporter implied that the activist crossed a picket line of Pinesville’s downtown market while demonstra- tors protested unjust hiring practices.

Given the newspaper’s histor y within the com- munity, newspaper reading is not an ideologically

Sally, who worked briefly for an elderly European American who was blind, recollected how she used reading and writing regularly in her domestic work:

One of my little ladies...was partially blind, and she had a rope from her front door to her mailbox. Every day, that was how she’d get her mail. I would read her mail every day and write letters for her.

What is interesting about this use of literacy for Sally is that it occurred in a community in which European Americans officially have worked, through laws and segregated schooling, to limit African Americans’ access to literacy. Sally’s recollections of using literacy as part of her work duties in European American households relates to research that has indicated that European Americans unofficially pro- moted literacy for African Americans to meet practi- cal needs around the household (Cornelius, 1991).

News-Related Uses of Literacy Reading the newspaper to gain information about lo- cal, state, national, and international events (Taylor, 1993) is another important use of literacy for mem- bers of the Jones family. Sally recalled, however, that her grandmother and Harriet did not subscribe to newspapers or magazines, because the white fami- lies that they worked for “were always giving them to them”:

Okay, now the [state newspaper], the only way we got that was at the end of the day. My grandmother would be at her ladies’ houses cooking and cleaning, and if the men finished with the paper at the end of the day, she would bring it home like that. We would have newspapers like that. But magazines! Oh goodness! My grandmother had so many magazines! Once again, the lady that she worked for gave them to her.

Lola also remembered her household filled with newspapers. In particular, she enjoyed “the mini pag- es,” a section of the newspaper particularly aimed at young children. With her great-grandmother and Harriet, she would complete the mini pages activities and read news stories targeted at readers her age.

Sally and Lola described how today they regu- larly read the local newspaper for information about community happenings and politics. Sally stated, for instance, “If you read the local paper, you’ll find out everything that’s going on. We have town coun- cil meetings and commissioner meetings.” Also, she described how recently she read in the local

Reading the newspaper connects members of the Jones family to other members of their community, helping them share in sorrow and celebrations.

38 The Reading Teacher Vol. 64, No. 1 September 2010

n e u t r a l a c t i v i t y. I n fact, learning to read the local newspaper

with a critical eye is one of the ways that literacy

is practiced by Afr ican American persons within

Pinesville (Johnson & Cowles, 2009). Although this specific topic

was not discussed in our life history inter- views, it can be imagined that members of the Jones family have approached the local newspaper with a similarly critical eye.

Financial Uses of Literacy One of the most vibrant uses of literacy within the Jones family has been the use of literacy to record numerals, write out amounts and purposes of expen- ditures, prepare budgets, apply for loans, and fulfill the financial needs of ever yday life (Taylor, 1993). Lola, for example, recalled how one form of writing she regularly saw her great-grandmother Maggie use was related to the family finances: “I would see her write when she would go pay bills, write checks and stuff like that, money orders and stuff.”

Moreover, Harriet, Sally, and Lola each described Maggie as a “genius businesswoman,” who demon- strated for them how to skillfully manage the fam- ily finances. Sally commented on how even though Maggie’s education “wasn’t that high, that woman could manage money better than a banker.... She knew how to read some...but just like I said, for her not to have a higher education, she was a business- woman.” Sally described having a sense of wonder- ment at her grandmother Maggie’s frugality: “I used to sit back and look and wonder, ‘how in the world can she do so much with so little?’”

Maggie was a model for other members of the family on how to manage money and live within a budget. As Sally described,

I remember when she retired, and she got her Social Security benefits...she would always know how to man- age her money to last from one month to the next. I can never remember my grandmother getting a letter in the mail saying that she was delinquent or she was late paying a bill, because she knew how far her mon- ey could take her and what she could afford and what she couldn’t afford.

Sally also recalled how Maggie taught her how to save money versus accruing debt:

She also taught me this: “Just because every time you can go and get something just by signing your name on the dotted line, don’t put your name there, be - cause once you put your name, you are bound to that contract.”

Living frugally and within a budget had signifi- cance within the Jones family, not only because Maggie had meager earnings but also because of the racial politics in the community. For instance, calling in debts was one tactic used by European Americans to prevent African Americans from par- ticipating in civil unrest. During the summer of 1965, the local newspaper continually reported cases in which African American individuals lost their jobs or were placed in jail for not keeping current on their bills or for getting behind in paying off their debts to local European American business owners. Situated within the context of white supremacy, then, Maggie’s frugal living was a means of reducing her family’s de- pendence on European Americans.

Spiritual Uses of Literacy Reading and writing for spiritual and religious pur- poses has been another way that members of the Jones family have used literacy (see Moss, 2003). Harriet recounted, for instance, how each night she and Maggie would read the Bible together: “She wore glasses and she would read the Bible. Me and her would sit there and read the Bible, and we were just so close.”

Similarly, the family regularly engages in prayer together in times of celebration or sorrow. Lola re- called how the family came together to pray when Maggie had fallen ill, shortly before her death in 2005:

Well, when my great-grandmother fell, and she broke her hip and went to the nursing home, all the fam- ily was up to my grandmother’s house. And we just, like, stood around, held hands, and just said a special prayer for her.

Although not an instance in which the family read a print text together, the practice of orally saying a prayer sheds insight into how the family draws on a range of texts in their use of literacy.

In addition to using literacy for spiritual purposes at home, the family also has had a longtime associa- tion with Pinesville Baptist Church, which has served a prominent role in African American education and

39The Jones Family’s Culture of Literacy

When I asked her about the spiritual sayings and Bible passages, she responded that she has a morn- ing ritual of reading the passages aloud to herself. She indicated that they give her comfort and guid- ance to get through each day and that in hard times, such as her grandson’s passing, she has relied on the sayings to help her make sense of the hardships she has endured.

Recreational Uses of Literacy The Jones family has also used literacy for purpos- es of pleasure and enjoyment (Taylor, 1993). Lola recounted how she grew up in a literature-rich en- vironment in which Maggie and Harriet both read for entertainment purposes, preferring “love novels” that they stored on a bookshelf in the hallway of their home. Lola shared about Harriet’s favorite novel, Gone With the Wind, “that was my grandmother’s fa- vorite. She would sit down every night, put her glass- es on, and just read.”

Lola also recalled that Maggie and Harriet regu- larly read aloud to her as a young child, particularly folk and fairy tales, such as “Rapunzel,” “Little Red Riding Hood” (“My grandmother used to read that to me all the time.”), and “Rumpelstiltskin” (“about the little short man”). As an adult, Lola has continued to read for pleasure, preferring books that “help her make sense of things,” like the “Chicken Soup for the Soul” books.

Pinesville does not have a local bookstore, so the family has acquired books through the corner drug- store, the local librar y, and an annual book fair at PCS. Lola recalled how Sally would take her to the library to check out books, which she, replicating the practice of her grandmothers, would store on a little bookshelf in her room. Reading for entertainment is part of the Jones family’s culture. As such, the fam- ily members share their pleasure reading habits and behaviors with each other.

Educational Uses of Literacy Education has played a prominent role in the Jones family. Members of the family regularly use literacy to participate in education, fulfill educational re- quirements, and increase knowledge (Taylor, 1993). Encouraging children to pur sue education and preparing children for the uses of literacy that they will encounter in school are understood as parents’ primary responsibilities. In discussing her parents’

literacy within the community. When Harriet was a child, and little public money was used to support African American education within the community, she attended school in the church. As Sally explained, “My mom went to school in the church. She said you know they had to march, because the blacks weren’t allowed to go to school with the whites. When finally they started marching, the schools started getting desegregated.”

For Harriet, church is also an important part of her family’s culture and traditions. The family regu- larly has attended church services on Sunday and Bible study on Wednesday nights. Harriet described that now as the family’s matriarch, she has started “taking [her] great-grandchildren and carrying them to Sunday school.” Sally and Lola described how they too have regularly participated in church events, read- ing prayers and poems at Sunday services, emceeing special events like the the local woman’s day celebra- tion, and teaching and attending Sunday school. In each of these events, the women recollected using literacy. Sally recounted how in Sunday School, she “would read Bible verses. And our Sunday School teacher would teach us a lesson, and then she would ask us questions.”

Finally, the family has given each other gifts in- tended to support each other’s spiritual experiences. Lola recalled how Sally recently gave her a book of inspirational sayings and essays for young adults: “I was reading it, and like, you had different kinds of scriptures about stress, being depressed.... It just helped me make sense of things.” In all, within the Jones family, using literacy for spiritual purposes has helped deepen family relationships and helped individual family members connect with others in their community and make sense of their own life experiences.

From my first visit to Harriet’s home, I recorded field notes about the display of spiritual texts adorn- ing the walls of her living room. She had posters and calendars from previous years of inspirational say- ings and Bible passages. On the walls, the materials were organized tidily in a grid-like manner, resem- bling the walls of many elementar y school class- rooms. One such poster displayed the Lord’s Prayer, with a photograph of Harriet’s grandson, who had died years before from sickle cell anemia complica- tions, tucked inside the frame.

40 The Reading Teacher Vol. 64, No. 1 September 2010

Sally recollected how one Christmas Lola wanted to purchase for Harriet a figurine of a grandmother and granddaughter sitting together and reading:

I’ll never forget, we were at the Dollar Store one Christmas. [Lola] was 7, and she was looking on the shelf, and she saw a figurine of a grandmother sitting in a chair and the granddaughter sitting in her lap [read- ing a book]. And she said, “Mama, I want that.” I said, “What are you going to do with that?” She said, “I’m going to give it to my grandmother.” I said, “For what?” She said, “’Cause that’s her and that’s me.”

Sally also recalled that while she was preparing school lessons for work, her mother and grandmoth- er would take Lola and read with her. Today, Lola continues this practice of book reading with KiKi. In the evenings and on weekends when Lola cares for KiKi, Lola reads books aloud and discusses them with KiKi.

Sally has also played a role in preparing KiKi for school, claiming that she has been working with KiKi on school-like tasks and that KiKi has always been eager to attend school:

See, she is so ready for school. See, she loves it. You say, “Let’s go up to school and see your auntie [Sally],” and she says, “I go to school. I want to go to school.” Then, when she comes here, it’s so hard to try to get her to leave.

Such experiences within the Jones family reflect a commitment to education and are consistent with re- search on African American families that has detailed a strong commitment to education (e.g., Compton- Lilly, 2003; Gadsden, 1992, 1998; Richardson, 2003; Rogers, 2003; Walker, 1996). Likewise, the Jones fam- ily’s commitment to education reflects the viewpoint that education and literacy “should be liberating, that instruction should and can be thoughtful and respectful, that schools are places where learning is expected to occur, and that teachers are trusted hold- ers of children’s futures as literate adults” (Gadsden, 1992, p. 335).

Understanding Literacy Learners Through the Lens of Intergenerationality This article started with the statement that the his- tories of literacy practice that comprise the Jones family’s culture of literacy are part of a metaphorical

role in her education, Harriet continually empha- sized how they encouraged her to attend and stay in school: “Mama said, ‘Y’all get ready. Y’all going to school. Y’all are not going to stay here.’ She made us go to school, and she kept us in school long as she could.” And, when explaining why she considered her stepfather, Chet Jones, as her father, Harriet re- counted, “My daddy, my daddy that kept food in my home, clothes on my back, and kept me in school, he was named Chet Jones.”

Harriet recalled how in spite of not graduating from high school herself, she worked tirelessly to pre- pare Sally and her siblings for school, explaining: “I always taught mine to learn here at home, and you get your lessons. Then, all you don’t know that I can’t teach you, you just learn up there at school.” Sally re- called how Harriet taught her to read using everyday materials that were on hand within the household, such as magazines and catalogs: “Mostly, my moth- er, she would [use] magazines like you could order dresses out of and stuff like that.”

When Lola was born, Sally was enrolled in an associate’s degree program in early childhood edu- cation. Her training as an early childhood educator meant that she regularly brought home school mate- rials, which she used to teach Lola how to read and write as a young child. According to Sally, Lola

knew how to read, because I used to work with her a lot when she was at home. I used to buy a lot of books and stuff for her. When she started school...I would be at home, and I would have a lot of flannel-board pic- tures I would have to trace with Sharpies and color and cut them out.

Sally’s work as a paraprofessional in kindergarten helped Lola learn the kinds of tasks and practices that she would encounter in school. In fact, when Lola started kindergarten, Sally was her paraprofes- sional. Lola described her initial reaction to having her mother as her teacher:

I didn’t understand that she was teaching. I thought that when I was in the room and she came in, I was like, “Uh oh, I’m in trouble.”...And then someone said, “Ms. Harris.” I was like, “That’s my mom.” I went to her, and I asked, “Are you teaching?”

In addition to being prepared for school through explicit engagement with Sally in school-like tasks, Lola’s childhood was also filled with episodes of story- book reading that took place with her grandmother.

41The Jones Family’s Culture of Literacy

Like me, teachers and researchers can inves- tigate what legacies fa milie s have in valuing literacy. Teachers and re- s e a rcher s a like c a n b e c a r e f u l listeners and take advantage of those moments when they see parents (e.g., parent– teacher conference s, P TA meetings, community events, fam- ily literacy nights) to learn how families interact around literacies and what they value. As a European American researcher, my assumptions about literacy were challenged through my conversations with the Jones family. Richer understandings surfaced regard- ing the ways all families value and share literacy.

As a teacher educator, I share my experiences of the Jones family with preservice and inservice teach- ers, encouraging them to learn more about what families do and build on those activities through meaningful curricular engagements. Likewise, in my undergraduate elementary literacy methods courses, I use a collection of children’s literature that is fo- cused on families as a means of initiating discussions with preservice elementar y teachers about family cultures of literacy practice (see Table 1).

backpack that KiKi Reynolds carries with her to school each day. Such an understanding is consistent with Gadsden’s (1992) claim that an intergeneration- al and community investment or legacy of literacy is a resource that African American children bring with them to schools: “Children enter schools with a legacy of meaning about literacy and educational achievement that is not easily transformed” (p. 335).

KiKi has grown up in a family in which family members have invested in literacy over time, using literacy for a variety of purposes, such as connect- ing with each other, sustaining family practices, con- tributing to their local community, making sense of life, and doing good for other members of the family. Although KiKi may or may not access such a literacy tradition in her life, such a legacy of literacy is part of her cultural background, waiting to be accessed and engaged with through meaningful curriculum and instruction.

As teachers and researchers of literacy, what would happen if we approached the children we teach and learn from as carr ying with them into classrooms the rich and extensive legacies of literacy that have accumulated over time within their families and communities? Teachers and researchers can be learners about students’ families, assuming that all families have cultures in which they pass on view- points and practices. In such a culture, KiKi is ex- posed to viewpoints on the world that she may bring to bear on the texts she encounters. The Jones family has viewpoints on literacy—that literacy is uplifting and empowering, important for building relation- ships with others, a potential pastime, and a practice accomplished with others—to which young KiKi has been exposed since before attending school. Such viewpoints are not isolated within individual family members, but are a shared framework that members of the Jones family pass on to one another.

In considering family cultures, teachers and re- searchers can take for granted that within families, literacy and education are valuable resources. In the Jones family, literacy and education help the family sustain its own culture. Although family members may vary in the levels of education that they pursue or experience as a whole, education is approached as having value and significance. It is within such a culture that KiKi has emerged into literacy. Her fam- ily culture is one aspect of her cultural background that she brings with her to school.

Table 1 Children’s Literature for Discussing Family Cultures of Literacy

Bradby, M. (2000). Momma, where are you from? New York: Orchard.

Child, L. (1999). Clarice Bean, that’s me. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick.

Flournoy, V. (1985). The patchwork quilt. New York: Dial. Flournoy, V. (1995). Tanya’s reunion. New York: Dial. Garza, C.L. (1996). In my family/En mi familia. San

Francisco: Children’s Book. Pérez, A.I. (2000). My very own room/Mi propio cuartito.

San Francisco: Children’s Book. Woodson, J. (2005). Show way. New York: G.P. Putnam’s

Sons.

42 The Reading Teacher Vol. 64, No. 1 September 2010

Notes The author would like to thank peer reviewers for helping make this article stronger. She would also like to thank the following colleagues who have offered their insights on the manuscript: Mary Louise Gomez, Pamela Jewett, Tasha Laman, Julia Lopez- Robertson, Lucy Spence, and Jennifer Wilson. Finally, she would like to recognize the insights of Lisa Stockdale, an elementar y teacher in Cassatt, South Carolina, on the Take Action! piece of this article.

References Baker, L., Sonnenschein, S., Serpell, R., Fernandez-Fein, S., &

Scher, D. (1994). Contexts of emergent literacy: Everyday home experiences of urban pre-kindergarten children (Research Report No. 24). Athens, GA, & College Park, MD: National Reading Research Center, University of Georgia & University of Maryland.

Ballenger, C. (1998). Teaching other people’s children: Literacy and learning in a bilingual classroom. New York: Teachers College Press.

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Using Valerie Flournoy’s The Patchwork Quilt, my students and I identified what the main character, Tanya, has learned from her family. As a class, we used our discussion of this piece of children’s litera- ture to launch us into thinking about the ways that lit- eracy is used within our own families, discussing our own family cultures of literacy. Then, we generated a list of things to listen for when conducting informal reading interviews with young readers, which includ- ed family practices like quiltmaking, cooking, and baking, as well as reading texts such as storybooks, newspapers, magazines, catalogs, cookbooks, bus schedules, tax return forms, digital texts, religious texts, and repair manuals.

In these ways, understanding the intergenera- tional richness of children’s literacy practice should be an important goal for literacy educators. To date, developing biographic literacy profiles (Taylor, 1993), an ethnographic portrait of children’s literacy learn- ing, has been one means through which literacy educators and researchers have sought to under- stand the contexts of children’s literacy learning and practice. An intergenerational approach, such as the one outlined here, asks educators and researchers to widen their lenses from the child’s immediate biogra- phy to how that biography is situated within a family culture of practice.

One way of gaining such insights involves lis- tening carefully to the experiences and stories of children’s family members. Open-ended life history inter views are a means for teachers to encounter such experiences. Life history is a method of inquiry focused on the experiences of one or two individu- als to investigate a phenomenon, such as literacy learning and practice. Classroom teachers can pose questions to family members that seek to highlight the multiple uses of literacy that have existed within the household for generations (see Table 2). Such family information can be used to triangulate other data (e.g., running records, miscue analysis, interest surveys, observational notes, artifacts, reading inter- views, assessment scores) that the classroom teacher collects to form an ethnographic literacy profile of the learner.

Obviously, teachers may not be able to conduct life history interviews with the primary caretakers or families of all of their students, but in the case of chil- dren whose literacy learning most perplexes them, teachers may take a life history stance as a means for making visible a student’s family culture of literacy.

Table 2 Questions for Identifying Family Cultures of Literacy

■ When and where were you born? ■ Tell me a story about your family or about a family

member. ■ What kinds of books did you have available in your

home and family? ■ Who played a role in your learning to read? ■ What do you remember about reading in your family

when you were growing up? ■ What did your parents tell you about learning to read? ■ Tell me about books and magazines and newspapers

that you had in your house. ■ What do you remember your parents or older siblings

telling you about school? ■ Describe your school and community. ■ How old were you when you first went to school? ■ What kinds of materials do you remember reading in

school? ■ Were you given any lessons by anyone on reading and

writing before entering school? Who? ■ Did your parents attend a place of worship? What was

the denomination? How often did you attend? ■ What kinds of materials do or did you read or write in

church? ■ What kinds of traditions does your community have?

Can all people participate? ■ What do you read now?

43The Jones Family’s Culture of Literacy

Goodson, I., & Sikes, P. (2001). Life history research in educational settings: Learning from lives. Philadelphia: Open University Press.

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Johnson, A.S., & Cowles, L. (2009). Orlonia’s “literacy-in-persons”: Expanding notions of literacy through biography and his- tor y. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 52(5), 410 – 420. doi:10.1598/JAAL.52.5.5

Johnson, A.S., Rezak, A.T., Hodges, G., Lawrence, M., Tippins, D., & Bongkotphet, T. (2008). Textual encounters of three kinds: Engaging in reading through community astronomy night. The Reading Teacher, 62(1), 54–63. doi:10.1598/RT.62.1.6

Landr y, S.H., & Smith, K.E. (2006). The influence of parenting on emerging literacy skills. In D.K. Dickinson & S.B. Neuman (Eds.), Handbook of early literacy research (Vol. 2, pp. 135– 148). New York: Guilford.

Mahiri, J. (1998). Shooting for excellence: African American and youth culture in new centur y schools. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.

Mahiri, J. (Ed.). (2004). What they don’t learn in school: Literacy in the lives of urban youth. New York: Peter Lang.

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Carl Vinson Institute of Gover nment, Univer sit y of Georgia. (2003). Dismantling persistent poverty in Georgia: Breaking the cycle. Athens, GA: Author.

Compton-Lilly, C. (2003). Reading families: The literate lives of ur- ban children. New York: Teachers College Press.

Compton-Lilly, C. (2004). Confronting racism, poverty, and power: Classroom strategies to change the world. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

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Edwards, P.A. (1995). Empowering low-income mothers and fathers to share books with young children. The Reading Teacher, 48(7), 558–564.

Foster, M. (1997). Black teachers on teaching. New York: New Press.

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Gadsden, V.L. (1999). Black families in intergenerational and cul- tural perspective. In M.E. Lamb (Ed.), Parenting and child de- velopment in “nontraditional” families (pp. 221–246). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Gadsden, V.L. (2000). Intergenerational literacy within families. In M.L. Kamil, P.B. Mosenthal, P.D. Pearson, & R. Barr (Eds.), Handbook of reading research (Vol. 3, pp. 871–887). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Ta ke Ac T i O N! 1. In writers’ workshop, share examples of photo essays that you find in popular kids’ magazines like Ranger Rick. Plan a minilesson about how photography can be used to enhance nonfiction narratives and essays.

2. Give students disposable or digital cameras to photograph the people, places, things, or practices that are important in their lives. Use online sources for tips on how to use photography with children. Later, organize one set of the photos by student in a photo file box with the photo CD as backup. Give each student a set of their photos to create a photo essay.

3. Using two-pocket, three-pronged folders and clear acetate page protectors, create a photo storage book for each student. Put a piece of card stock in each protector, so the books are easily handled by students. Explain that the folder is a “working book.” As they write about their photos, rough drafts can be stored in the pages and easily rearranged. Students can write personal narratives about family traditions and customs, or how-to essays about a hobby or interest.

4. Allow students time to “introduce” the important people, places, things or practices in their photos in pairs, small groups, or to the class. The photo CD can be

projected on a screen for the whole class. Most students are proud to share photos of their homes, pets, family, and friends, but doing so should always be their choice.

5. Encourage students to use their writer’s notebooks and photography folders together as they write independently and work collaboratively in pairs and small groups. Plan minilessons that remind students to revisit old writing in their notebooks to see if these pieces can be further developed and used with photos.

6. Invite family, friends, and other special guests to an “author’s tea,” so students can further share their photo essays.

44 The Reading Teacher Vol. 64, No. 1 September 2010

student achievement. Educational Researcher, 38(1), 21–36. doi:10.3102/0013189X08328876

Moss, B.J. (2003). A community text arises: A literate text and a literacy tradition in African-American churches. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton.

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Rogers, R. (2003). A critical discourse analysis of family literacy practices: Power in and out of print. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Sonnenschein, S., Brody, G., & Munsterman, K. (1996). The influ- ence of family beliefs and practices on children’s early read- ing development. In L. Baker, P. Afflerbach, & D. Reinking (Eds.), Developing engaged readers in school and home com- munities (pp. 3–20). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Taylor, D. (1993). From the child’s point of view. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Taylor, D., & Dor sey- Gaine s, C. (1988). Growing up literate: Learning from inner-city families. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

U.S. Census Bureau. (2000). American factfinder. Washington, DC: Author.

Walker, V.S. (1996). Their highest potential: An African American school communit y in the segregated South. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.

Wa s i k , B . H . , D o b b i n s , D . R . , & H e r r m a n n , S . ( 2 0 01) . Intergenerational family literacy: Concepts, research, and practice. In S.B. Neuman & D.K. Dickinson (Eds.), Handbook

M O R E TO E x PlO R E IRA Books

■■ Bringing Literacy Home edited by KaiLonnie Dunsmore and Douglas Fisher

■■ Creating Welcoming Schools: A Practical Guide to Home–School Partnerships With Diverse Families by JoBeth Allen

IRA Journal Articles ■■ “Approaches to Family Literacy: Exploring the Possibilities” by Jeanne R. Paratore, The Reading Teacher, December 2005

■■ “At Home With the Johars: Another Look at Family Literacy” by Selina Mui and Jim Anderson, The Reading Teacher, November 2008

of early literacy research ( Vol. 1, pp. 444– 458). New York: Guilford.

Wilson, C. (2000). Telling a different story: Teaching and literacy in an urban preschool. New York: Teachers College Press.

Johnson teaches at the University of South Carolina, Columbia, USA; e-mail [email protected].

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