This multi-site, multi-method project consisted of a situation analysis in four phases, and culminated in a programme which is an example of the kind of systems-intervention needed to break the illiteracy cycle in a rural print bereft community context. Action research was conducted within a participatory empowering framework, employing qualitative methods underpinned by the epistemological bases of ethnography. The results proved that a programme based on appropriate principles can be effective in establishing and enhancing the emerging literacy behaviours of black nursery-school children. The latter compared favourably with older Grade One children after a 23-week exposure to the programme, implemented by caregivers who, although not fully literate themselves, were empowered by way of in-service training to support emergent literacy.
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