The Power is in the Partnership: Families as Partners in Bilingual Bicultural Family Literacy Programs

Gresilda Tilley-Lubbs

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DOI: 10.4236/ce.2011.23039                

Abstract

This paper presents a research project that involved Mexican and Honduran families in a family literacy program through a service-learning course of cross-cultural education for teacher education candidates The study examined how the families in the program articulated their purposes for participating in the program and how they changed their attitudes toward education and toward the program, moving from a stance of participant to stakeholder in the program. The paper also describes the dissonance that occurred when the program incorporated an online language learning program. Despite the dissonance, however, the instructor posits that a family literacy program that regards the families as partners offers numerous possibilities for strengthening children’s education.

Keywords

Service-Learning, Community-Based Education, Family Literacy, ESL/EFL

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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