In this article, we analyze aspects of the complex literacy lives of three Spanish dominant, mainland Puerto Rican kindergartners who were beginning readers at the time of the study. We investigate literacy as a social and cultural practice in the children’s bilingual classroom, homes, and churches, describing the people who supported their developing literacy, their beliefs about literacy, and the characteristics of literacy events that the children coconstructed with them. Our analysis is based on data collected with ethnographic methods, including participant observation, interviews, and audio recording. At home and in church, the children’s developing literacy was supported by a network of people, many of whom believed that reading was about combining sounds into words and that meaning was inherent in text. Literacy events were often social, collaborative interactions as the families created a syncretic literacy by drawing on the multiple resources in their lives, including their religion, their culture, and their knowledge of two languages as well as their experiences in school. Overall, we found both similarities anddifferences between literacy in school and literacy in the children’s homes and community rather than the matches ormismatches described in the literature.
Anderson, A.B.
and Stokes, S.J. (1984) ‘Social and Institutional Influences on the Development and Practice of Literacy’, in H. Goelman, A. Oberg and F. Smith (eds) Awakening to Literacy,pp. 24–37. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
2.
Barton, D.
and Hamilton, M. (1998) Local Literacies: Reading and Writing in one Community. London: Routledge.
3.
Baynham, M.
(1995) Literacy Practices: Investigating Literacy in Social Contexts. London: Longman.
4.
Braunger, J.
and Lewis, J. (1997) Building a Knowledge Base in Reading,2nd edn.Portland, OR: Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory.
5.
Cairney, T.
(1998) ‘Match, Mismatch: Considering the Impact of Differences in the Literacy of Home, School and Community’, paper presented to the meeting of AERA, San Diego, CA, 13–18 April.
6.
Carger, C.L.
(1996) Of Borders and Dreams:A Mexican-American Experience in Urban Education. New York: Teachers College Press.
7.
Cochran-Smith, M.
(1984) The Making of a Reader. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
8.
de Acosta, M. (1994) ‘Reconsidering the Role of Community in Home–School Links: Implications for Research and Practice’, Occasional Paper No. 14, Urban Child Research Center, College of Urban Affairs, Cleveland: Cleveland State University.
9.
Delgado, M.
(1993) ‘The Need to Connect Natural and Formal Systems of Support in Puerto Rican Communities’, Equity and Choice9(2): 32–34.
10.
Delgado-Gaitan, C.
(1994) ‘Socializing Young Children in Mexican-American Families: An Intergenerational Perspective’, in P.M. Greenfield and R.R. Cocking (eds) Cross-cultural Roots of Minority Child Development,pp. 55–86. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
11.
Duranti, A. and Ochs, E. (1996) ‘Syncretic literacy: Multiculturalism in Samoan American families’, Research Report No. 16, National Center for Research on Cultural Diversity and Second Language Learning, Santa Cruz: University of California, Santa Cruz.
12.
Erickson, F.
(1991) ‘Forward’, in E.H. Hiebert (ed.) Literacy in a Diverse Society: Perspectives, Practices, and Policies,pp. vii–x. New York: Teachers College Press.
13.
Gallimore, R.
and Goldenberg, C. (1993) ‘Activity Settings of Early Literacy: Home and School Factors in Children’s Emergent Literacy’, in E.A. Forman, N. Minick and C.A. Stone (eds) Contexts for Learning: Sociocultural Dynamics in Children’s Development,pp. 315–335. New York: Oxford University Press.
14.
Garrard-Burnett, V.
and Stoll, D., eds (1993) Rethinking Protestantism in Latin America. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
15.
Gregory, E.
, ed. (1997) One Child, Many Worlds: Early Learning in Multicultural Communities. London: David Fulton.
16.
Gregory, E.
(1998) ‘Siblings as Mediators of Literacy in Linguistic Minority Communities’, Language and Education12(1): 33–54.
17.
Hannerz, U.
(1980) Exploring the City: Inquiries into Urban Anthropology. New York: Columbia University.
18.
Heap, J.L.
(1991) ‘A Situated Perspective on What Counts as Reading’, in C.B. Baker and A. Luke (eds) Towards a Critical Sociology of Reading Pedagogy,pp. 103–139. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
19.
Heath, S.B.
(1982) ‘Protean Shapes in Literacy Events: Ever-shifting Oral and Literate Traditions’, in D.Tannen (ed.) Spoken andWritten Language: Exploring Orality and Literacy (Vol. 9, Advances in Discourse Processes),pp. 91–117. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
20.
Heath, S.B.
(1983) Ways withWords: Language, Life, andWork in Communities and Classrooms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
21.
Hidalgo, N.M.
(1994) ‘Profile of a Puerto Rican Family’s Support for School Achievement’, Equity and Choice10(2): 14–22.
22.
Hidalgo, N.M.
(2000) ‘Puerto Rican Mothering Strategies: The Role of Mothers and Grandmothers in Promoting School Success’, in S. Nieto (ed.) Puerto Rican Students in U.S. Schools,pp. 167–196. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
23.
Kapitzke, C.
(1995) Literacy and Religion:The Textual Politics and Practice of Seventh-Day Adventism. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
24.
McClellan, H.
(2000, July 19) ‘In the Name of the Homeland’, The Atlantic MonthlyURL (consulted 25 August 2000): http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/interviews/ba2000-07-19.htm.
25.
Ortiz Cofer, J.
(1990) Silent Dancing:A Partial Remembrance of a Puerto Rican Childhood. Houston, TX: Arte Público Press.
26.
Pfeil, F.
(1994) ‘No basta teorizar: In-difference to Solidarity in Contemporary Fiction, Theory, and Practice’, in I. Grewal and C. Kaplan (eds) Scattered Hegemonies: Postmodernity and Transnational Feminist Practices,pp. 197–230. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
27.
Rogoff, B.
(1990) Apprenticeship in Thinking: Cognitive Development in Social Contexts.Oxford: Oxford University Press.
28.
S·nchez-Ayèndez, M.
(1988) ‘The Puerto Rican American Family’, in C.H. Mindel, R.W. Habenstein and R. Wright (eds) Ethnic Families in America: Patterns and Variations,3rd edn., pp. 173–195. New York: Elsevier.
29.
Santa Barbara Discourse Group
(1992) ‘Constructing Literacy in Classrooms: Literate Action as Social Accomplishment’, in H. Marshall (ed.) Redefining Student Learning: Roots of Educational Change. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
30.
Schieffelin, B.
and Cochran-Smith, M. (1984) ‘Learning to Read Culturally: Literacy before Schooling’, in H. Goelman, A. Oberg and F. Smith (eds) Awakening to Literacy,pp. 3–23.Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
31.
Soto, L.D. (1990) ‘Families as Learning Environments: Reflections on Critical Factors Affecting Differential Achievement’, ERIC Document ED 315 498, Pennsylvania State University.
32.
Soto, L.D.
(1997) Language, Culture, and Power: Bilingual Families and the Struggle for Quality Education. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
33.
Street, B.V.
(1995) Social Literacies: Critical Approaches to Literacy Development, Ethnography, and Education. London: Longman.
34.
Street, B.V.
(1999) Multiple Literacies and Multi-lingual Society. London: National Association for Language Development in the Curriculum (NALDIC) Literacy Papers.
35.
Valdes, G.
(1996) Con respeto: Bridging the Distance between Culturally Diverse Families and Schools. New York: Teachers College Press.
36.
Volk, D.
(1997) ‘Questions in Lessons: Activity Settings in the Homes and School of two Puerto Rican Kindergartners’, Anthropology & Education Quarterly28(1): 22–49.
37.
Volk, D.
(1999) ‘“The Teaching and the Enjoyment and Being Together...”: Sibling Teaching in the Family of a Puerto Rican Kindergartner’, Early Childhood Research Quarterly14(1): 5–34.
38.
Wallman, S.
(1984) Eight London Households. London: Tavistock.
39.
Weade, G.
, Townsend, J. and Zygouris-Coe, V. (1996) ‘Do You See What We See? Representing Discourse as Data’, in D. Waite (ed.) Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Qualitative Research in Education Conference.Athens, GA.
40.
Zinsser, C.
(1986) ‘For the Bible Tells Me So: Teaching Children in a Fundamentalist Church’, in B.B. Schieffelin and P. Gilmore (eds) The Acquisition of Literacy: Ethnographic Perspectives,pp. 55–71. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
