Bringing Neighborhood Dads Into Classrooms: Supporting Literacy Engagement

AbstractFathers ’ engagement in their children’s education has increased over the years, yet we know less about fathers’ perspectives and engagement in children’s literacy development. The authors focused on a fatherhood reading program that was initiated in several Title 1 schools in a large school distric t in the Southeastern United States. Findings are based on fathers’ reading in classrooms in one elementary school. Based on interviews with teachers, a focus group with fathers, and observations of fathers’ reading in the classroom, several themes were found: a positive male role model for stud ents, a reported increase in student motivation for reading, fathers’ confidence in their parenting role, and fathers’ respect for volunteer reading at school. Ways that teachers can organize a similar program at their schools are presented, along with implications of the findings for teaching p ractice and research.
Source: Reading Teacher - Category: Child Development Authors: Tags: Feature Article Source Type: research