Family literacy in response to local contexts.

This article explores three innovative family literacy programs and employs a multi-categorical framework to analyse the theoretical orientation, goals, pedagogy, target group, personnel, resources used, partnerships and the literacy practices in the programs. The programs were Lap-Sit a birth to three-year-old outreach program from a public library, a Dads’ program in a children’s centre for parents of three- to five-year-olds and a Parent as Partners program in a school. The family literacy programs were developed in a two-year action research project involving nine teachers, community workers and university researchers employing collaborative action research methodology. The family literacy programs were designed for parents and carers to support children’s early literacy development, and to reconnect parents with reading, learning and schools in positive ways around their young children’s literacy experiences. The article highlights importance of the responsiveness of family literacy programs to local contexts, active learning pedagogies and importance of playfulness when developing home-school connections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]