Document Type

Article

Department

Institute for Human Development

Abstract

There is overwhelming evidence about the important role that parents play in enhancing their children’s reading development. Despite, this growing evidence, parental involvement in developing the reading skills of primary school-going children in Kenya has not been given appropriate attention. This paper presents findings of a study that sought to establish whether Standard 4 teachers of English language and school Heads involve parents in developing pupils’ reading skills. The study sought to answer the question on how parents were involved in the development of learners’ reading skills. The study is built on Bernhardt’s 1986 Constructivist Model of Second Language Reading which emphasizes that reading is an active process of constructing meaning where the reader incorporates textual information to his existing system of knowledge - prior knowledge. The study used a descriptive research design. 20 teachers and 20 head teachers were sampled using three sampling procedures: proportional stratified sampling, criterion purposive sampling and simple random sampling. A parental reading involvement questionnaire and an interview schedule were used to collect data from teachers and head teachers. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The findings indicate that parents are not meaningfully involved in their children’s reading development. The results provide important insights into the literacy educational opportunities for teachers, parents and learners.

Comments

This work was published before the author joined Aga Khan University.

Publication (Name of Journal)

International Journal of Literacy and Development

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