INTRODUCTION

This is a second article reporting and discussing the findings of the latest round of research conducted under the general umbrella of the SORT (Significant Others As Reading Teachers) program. The first article in this new series of articles focused on the fathers' involvement with their children's reading (Oldford-Matchim & Singh, 2002). For the sake of saving time and energy and still maintaining continuity and completeness, the material describing the SORT project and the conceptualization of parents' involvement with their children's reading within the SORT program is simply lifted from the first article on the fathers' involvement with their children's reading and is inserted verbatim in this paper under the appropriate sub-heading.

To present the material in an orderly manner, the authors provide below a brief discussion on Family Literacy and the SORT Project, a conceptualization of parents' involvement with their children's reading, the nature of the investigation and methodology and the findings of the study.

FAMILY LITERACY AND THE SORT PROJECT

In 1991 the International Reading Association formed a Commission on Family Literacy to increase recognition of the family's crucial role in the development of literacy stating that "schools need to view family literacy as part of the curriculum." As a family literacy initiative, SORT is a home-school partnership program in which parents/caregivers learn to incorporate literacy practices for children into the everyday life of home and community, as well as support students with school-based reading activities. The SORT initiative also involves an ongoing research component in which children's literacy achievements, home literacy practices and the SORT program are evaluated and analyzed. SORT recognizes that the home environment and children's relationships with significant others, particularly mothers, is critical to their success in learning to read (Oldford-Matchim, 1998). Mother's expectations for their children's reading development, their involvement in reading practices and their sense of efficacy in helping children read, can influence their children's reading achievement, their reading attitudes and concepts of themselves as readers (Legge, 1994; Lynch, 2002).

Significant Others as Reading Teachers (SORT) is a family/community literacy program for young children. Its purpose is to help establish literacy activities as a cultural practice within the context of everyday living. The program has been operating in a rural Newfoundland community since September, 1994. Seventy-seven parents/significant others and kindergarten children participated. A volunteer teacher, who received the support of the primary school principal and the local school board, delivered the program during the school year 1994-95. The program received funding from the National Literacy Secretariat in 1991 for the development of the program, in 1995 for implementation, and again in 2000-2002 for the present study of reasons why parents become involved in the literacy education of their children.

To date materials developed for the program include a videotape, Reading, A Gift of a Lifetime, and a handbook for children's significant others entitled Help Your Child Become a Reader and a Facilitator's Guide for helping parents implement and apply the year-long program. A kit of children's books, which includes 100 copies of 100 titles, has also been prepared to accompany these materials. The videotape, which features home and school literary practices in local settings, received a National Award of Merit in 1994 by the Association of Media Technology in Education in Canada (AMTEC) for its educational effectiveness.

The Principles of SORT

1.  Learning to read is a highly complex task.
   (i) As early as six months of age, children can engage with significant others in reading activities and read-alouds.
   (ii) Significant growth in children's knowledge about reading can occur between the ages of three and five.
   (iii) Most children learn to read over a period of four or more years.

2. The purpose and value given to literacy activities in families and communities contribute to the significance children attribute to learning to read and write.
3. The single most important activity for building children's knowledge about skill in reading is reading aloud to them.
4. Messages that significant others give in their daily interactions with children, books and print, influence children's perceptions of themselves as readers.
5. Children model the reading behaviors enjoyed and demonstrated by significant others, especially behaviors of the same-sex others.
6. Children learn to enjoy story and book language when it is read aloud expressively by caring adults.
7. Children who develop positive images of themselves as readers engage readily in reading play and activities.
8. In listening to stories children try to understand the actions and feelings of characters in terms of their own experience.
9. Children construct their own knowledge of reading. As they become capable they need to be given more control over their reading activities.
10. Children who have been read to in homes and communities enter school with longer attention spans, have greater knowledge of stories, vocabulary, books and print, and experience less difficulties in learning to read.

Essentially, the approach taken recognizes that children learn literate attitudes, concepts and behaviours from people who are significant to them. As well, literacy learning that occurs before schooling has significant effects on children's literacy achievement when they go to school. The SORT program has demonstrated that parents and significant others will engage willingly in literacy activities with young children when they realize the potential benefit to their children's literacy learning. They will also hold high expectations for their children's literacy achievement and will provide supportive responses when they become aware of its significance to learning and learn how to become involved. The materials currently developed for the SORT program are designed to create conditions in which significant others become involved in daily book-sharing activities with children. The video, Reading, A Gift of a Lifetime, shows a variety of family and social gatherings where children share reading and writing with others. The handbook, Help Your Child Become a Reader, is written in a conversational question/answer style at a grade 8 reading level and includes a discussion of:

• how social interaction can help children develop a 'reader identity' and a positive attitude towards reading, conceptual knowledge of and skill in reading;
• how to find books to match children's reading development and interests;
• a variety of children's books and activities that encourage reading for imaginative, informative, affective, persuasive, and ritualistic purposes;
• * word and letter games for young children to learn how to identify words in print.

The SORT project takes a perspective that the most effective approach to stimulate and motivate young children's literacy development is to build books into conversations between children and the adults whom they care about and think are important. The specific books chosen to support the child's learning and interest, and the daily interactions around books, are important features of this program, as is the manner in which adults respond to children's questions. The learning environment needed is one where children can risk being wrong, receive appropriate feedback and can develop self-esteem. Their motivation to learn results from their expectations that they will learn, their past successes, feelings of self-control, including help-seeking strategies, as well as from their intrinsic interest in reading materials and the desire to be readers like their significant others who also expect them to read.

Conceptualizing Parents' Involvement Within the Sort Project

Among the many sources of influence on parents' decisions to become involved in their children's reading education, four important sources include:

• how parents construct their role with regard to their responsibility for teaching reading.
• their beliefs about how children learn to read.
• their sense of efficacy in helping children succeed in learning how to read.
• their perceptions of the opportunities for involvement presented by the school as well as their assessment of the quality and appropriateness of these opportunities. These opportunities include: personnel, programs, availability of reading and course materials, invitations and other such things.

Of course, other background variables are likely to influence parents' basic decisions to become involved in their children's learning to read, e.g., working schedules, age, educational levels, number of adults living with children and patterns of employment.

According to the perspective taken in this study, parents primarily become involved in their children's education because they have constructed a parental role that includes such involvement; secondly, because they have a positive sense of their own efficacy for helping their children succeed in reading; and, thirdly, because they perceive opportunities and invitations for involvement in their children's literacy education from their children's schools.

Parental Role Construction, Parental Involvement, Child Development Beliefs, Self-efficacy and Involvement Practices

An important factor contributing to parents' decisions to involve themselves in children's education, and in particular, with their children's literary learning, is their understanding of the parenting role. In other words, parents possess beliefs about what they are supposed to do in relation to their children learning to read. These beliefs about the parenting role are important to issues of involvement because they are the basis for establishing the range of activities parents consider to be necessary, important and permissible to engage in, with and on behalf of their children.

One implication of current theories and empirical observations about parental/involvement is the notion that parents develop beliefs and understandings about the requirements and expectations of the parental role as a result of their membership and participation in varied groups pertinent to child-rearing (e.g., families, workplaces, schools, churches, media, communities). Such groups hold expectations about the appropriateness of parental role behaviors, including those which are related to involvement with children's reading education. Further, parents' actions or practices with and on behalf of their children, including decisions to become involved educationally in their children's lives, are influenced by the roles they construct, and by the dynamic process that involves them in confronting the varied expectations held by various groups with whom they interact.

In this study the concept of role is defined as a set of expectations a group holds for the behavior of its members, or a set of behaviors characteristic of individuals within a group. These groups are referred to as parents' significant others. Parents' significant others include their children's teachers, the school principal, their own children, the family's priest or minister, the local media, and the SORT literacy coordinator. Parents' workplaces and the Faculty of Education at MUN, where the SORT project originated, were not included in the current study as significant others influencing the parents' role construct, although in future studies they should be considered.

When the notion of role construction is applied to parents' choices to become involved in their children's literacy development, current theories state that the groups to which parents belong (family, school, workplace, church, friends) hold expectations about what parental role behaviors are appropriate for supporting children's development as readers. When these expectations are perceived to be of value by parents, they may influence the choice of behaviors they engage in on behalf of their children's reading education.

Parents' ideas about child development and how children learn to read and develop reading practices and their notions of the appropriate roles for supporting children's literacy education at home appear to constitute specific components of the parental role construct that influence parents' decisions about their involvement in their children's literacy learning. Findings in these areas have suggested a general pattern in which child-rearing beliefs exert an influence on parents' choices of behaviors they engage in with their children. For example, parents' endorsement of the belief that children's intelligence(s) is/are not fixed at birth is likely to be reflected in the manner in which they provide educational resources in children's environments to enhance their intellectual development. Fundamentally, the overall perspective presented here suggests that, among the aspects of parent role construction for responsibility in children's literacy learning, specific sets of beliefs are quite important. Included and important for literacy education are:

• their beliefs about what children need from parents in order to read.
• their beliefs about desirable educational outcomes in reading.
• their beliefs about the effectiveness of reading practices in achieving reading success.

In addition, a parent's sense of efficacy for helping children learn to read is a factor in their decisions to become actively involved in their children's reading education. In other words, parents are likely to reflect on their ability to influence their children's reading ability before becoming involved with reading activities. Sometimes parents who want to increase their teaching skill and sense of efficacy might choose to enrol in programs designed to improve their ability to successfully contribute to their children's education.

The Investigation and Methodology

The larger SORT study attempted to explore and investigate the relationships among parents' role constructs, their self-efficacy in helping their children learn, their involvement practices in helping their children's learning to read, including the SORT program, and selected parental background variables. Measures of the many aspects of the parental role construct for their responsibility in children's reading education, as well as a measure of their self-efficacy, in helping children read were developed as questionnaires. Additionally, the specific involvement practices for children's reading that parents engage in were listed in a questionnaire. A specific assessment for parents' involvement in SORT was included. Background variables including parental age, employment and housing patterns, educational levels were included in a survey questionnaire.

Researchers of role construction have assumed that a person's behavior is related to his/her role construction definitions. When this idea is applied to parents' behavior, research shows that the various ways parents get involved with their children's schools and homework are associated with how they construct their many parental roles vis-a-vis their children.

The Background of Parents

In addition to parental role construction, child development beliefs, self-efficacy and involvement practices, the larger SORT study also investigated the background of parents. It has been well established that such variables as parental income and educational levels are related to parental involvement in children's education and, in turn, to children's school achievements. In particular, studies have shown that the educational levels of parents are positively related to their ideas about child-raising practices and to their children's school success. The major focus in this study, however, has been on the variables which reflect what parents think about and do with and on behalf of their children's literacy education, and, specifically, in promoting their children's learning to read.

The Hypotheses

We hypothesized that the parents who would get involved with their children's reading would be those who already believed that, as parents, it is their role to help their children learn to read, and would be those parents who perceived that other people expected them to be involved in children's reading education. To become involved parents would also need to believe they can contribute to children's learning (self-efficacy) in the present, or in the future by learning new techniques and skills to help their children learn to read through participation in such programs as the (SORT) program.

FINDINGS

Mothers' Involvement with their Children's Reading as a Function of their Parental Role Construction

In this section we focused on the relationship between moms' involvement in their children's reading and their parental role construction. For example, moms who encouraged their children to develop a reading habit said:

• that their role construct was not influenced by their friends and their expectations;
• that as parents they needed to understand their children's schools and teachers, and
• that it was equally important for both mothers and fathers to learn how to help children learn to read.

On the whole, moms, who expected to help their children learn to read,

• did not perceive that their involvement in SORT was based on what their friends expected of them as parents.

Moms who were involved with their children's literacy learning by listening carefully to their children's questions, constructed their roles in different ways. They believed that:

• although they expected to work hard to help their children with reading, they believed that reading was best left to teachers.
• both mothers and fathers should be equally involved in helping their children learn to read.

Moms who said they took an interest in their children's school work and activities in reading, constructed their roles by saying that:

• it was important for them to know how their children were progressing in reading, and
• it was equally important for both fathers and mothers to learn how to help children learn to read.

One source of continuous and constant involvement for parents is reading homework. Moms who involved themselves in conversations with their children about their school reading, looking at reading materials brought home from school and helping with and/or reviewing homework assignments in reading, constructed their roles in many ways. They said:

• it was important for them to know how their children were progressing in reading;
• that parents and teachers were partners in helping children learn to read;
• that they expected to work 'hard' to help their children with reading;
• that reading is best left to teachers, and
• that it was of equal importance for both fathers and mothers to learn how to help children learn to read.

Moms who designated a workplace for their children and identified a specific time each day when homework would be completed, constructed their parental roles by saying that they believed the home was responsible for children's learning to read.

Moms who were actively involved with their children through communicating with their children's reading teachers (through notes, phone calls and visits) believed that:

• parents and teachers are partners in helping children learn to read, and
• that it was of equal importance for fathers as for mothers to learn how to help children learn to read.

Moms who were involved with their children to the extent that they were aware of their children's strengths and weakness in reading expected to work hard themselves to help their children with reading. Moms who took the time and made an effort to incorporate literacy activities into everyday life, such as asking children to write grocery lists, make cards, read memos and newspapers, also expected to work hard to help their children with reading. Some moms were involved with their children by providing them with a dictionary. These moms believed that:

• it was important for them to know how their children were progressing in reading, and
• they expected to work 'hard' to help their children with reading.

Some moms were sensitively involved with their children's learning to read by trying to provide answers to their children's questions in a manner which they could understand. These mothers constructed their roles in many different ways. They believed that:

• it was important for them to know how their children were progressing in reading, and
• they needed to work hard to help their children with reading.

Moms, who were involved in creating fun and enjoyable interactions with their children through playing games that helped their children read and/or write and spell, believed that it was their parental role to help their children learn to read

Some moms were involved with their children by providing them real-life experiences which build children's meaning base through visiting places such as parks, museums, and local landmarks with their children. These moms constructed their parental roles by saying that it was important for them to know how their children were progressing in reading.

The moms who supported their children in buying books in a book club believed the home is responsible for children's learning to read. Moms, who perceived their children expected them to participate in the SORT program, also supported their children buying books from book clubs.

Mother's Child Development Beliefs and their Involvement with Children in Reading Practices

When mothers believed that girls and boys are equally capable of learning to read:

• the more carefully they listened to their children's questions,
• the more they believed that T.V. watching should be limited in order for children to learn to read well.

Coupled with mom's beliefs in the need for reading materials in the home, is:

• their involvement in providing field trips and experiences for their children, including visits to parks, museums and local landmarks, and providing children with a specific book of words, a dictionary and
• their active encouragement of children's independent reading.

As well, when children's mothers possess a greater sense of efficacy in helping their children learn to read:

• fathers are more likely to believe that children's intelligence is not fixed at birth, but open to development from environmental influences.

Mother's Self-Efficacy and their Child-Development Beliefs for Reading

The more capable mothers feel about helping their children learn to read, the more they possess child-development beliefs that are in-line with a knowledge of the reading process. The higher a mother's 'sense of self-efficacy' for helping her children learn to read, the more mothers believe that:

• girls and boys are equally capable of reading achievement.
• parents and teachers should respect children's curiosity and questions about stories, print and reading.
• children should limit the time they spend watching television so that they can spend more time learning to read.

A major influence in parental decisions about involvement in children's reading education is their 'sense of efficacy' for helping their children learn to read. In other words, 'Do parents believe that their involvement can actually have a positive effect on their children's learning to read?' Self-efficacy theorizing suggests that parents will guide their involvement with their children's reading by thinking through, in advance of their practices, what achievements are likely to result from their practices. In short, parental self-efficacy with regard to reading, can be defined as parents' beliefs about their ability to influence their children's learning to read and about their influence relative to that of other significant others, including teachers and children's peers. If parents have a positive 'sense of efficacy' for helping children learn to read, they believe that they are indeed capable of helping their children learn to read.

Parents who have strong efficacy beliefs for helping their children's reading education will tend to exert greater effort in response to difficult situations by seeing them as challenges to be mastered rather than by being threatened by them. In short, they will tend to believe that their efforts can solve the difficulties. Parents with a higher sense of self-efficacy are likely to believe that their involvement will make a positive difference to their children's achievement.

Mothers possessed a greater sense of efficacy for helping children learn to read than did fathers or any significant other. When a mother's sense of self-efficacy for helping her child learn to read was stronger, she was more likely to be involved in many reading activities with her child. In particular, she was more likely to:

• listen carefully to her child's questions.
• encourage independent reading daily.
• provide her child with appropriate reading and writing materials.
• take interest in her child's school work and activities in reading by talking about and looking at homework reading assignments.
• communicate with her child's reading teacher through notes, phone calls and visits.
• become aware of her child's strengths and weaknesses in reading and to ask what role she can play in helping her child become a skilled reader.
• engage in playing games that help children read, and/or write and spell.
• provide her child with activities and experiences to broaden her understanding of the world.
• involve her child in writing grocery lists, making cards, reading menus, newspapers, writing letters.
• provide her child with a dictionary.
• buy her child books as presents.
• monitor the time her child spends watching television.
• provide opportunities for her child to observe her reading.
• encourage others to read to and around her child.

Mother's Involvement in Children's Reading

When mothers have many books of their own, they are more likely to provide their children with many books. The more often mothers listen to their children read, the more they are aware of the strengths and weaknesses of their children's reading.

Mothers who are more likely to be home between 3:00 and 5:00 p.m. or between 5:00 - 9:00 p.m. each day, are more likely to monitor their children's TV viewing and/or read to their children and listen to their children read. As well, the more overall involvement they have with their children in reading activities, the more mothers monitor their children's TV viewing. In particular, mothers who are more likely to be involved in the following reading activities are more likely to monitor their children's TV viewing. Included are:

• taking an interest in their children's school work,
• talking about what children are reading at school,
• making frequent trips to the library,
• providing children with dictionary,
• being aware of their children's strengths and weaknesses in reading,
• providing children appropriate reading and writing material,
• answering children's questions in a manner children can understand,
• providing children opportunities to see them reading, and
• encouraging others to read around their children.

An open-ended question in which mothers were asked to indicate the value of being involved in the SORT program generated a variety of responses. Of first importance to mothers was helping their children learn to read. Mothers stated that learning new ideas, different techniques and improving their children's reading, or "setting them on the road to reading," was the most valuable aspect of the SORT program for them.

The second value mothers saw was stimulating their child's motivation, interest and positive attitude toward reading at an early age. The third value they saw in SORT was the program materials, which, in their opinion, included an exciting variety and ready availability of children's books for discussion with their children. This value of love and desire to read has often been proposed as an important contribution of the home particularly since the home is seen as the place which fosters love generally. In the home and community children see that the love of reading is demonstrated in the lives of model adults and therefore believe it to be an important activity relevant to life itself.

Other values, less often mentioned by mothers, included aspects of reading such as learning word recognition, comprehension, sharing, conversing about books and understanding links between texts and illustrations. As well, mothers mentioned learning ideas from other parents and the literacy coordinator, and welcoming the opportunity to become involved with their children's learning.

Parents were invited to respond to an open-ended questionnaire in which they were asked to name ten reasons for becoming involved in the SORT program for the year in which their child was enrolled in Kindergarten. The reasons that mothers gave are listed below in the order of importance that mothers attributed to them.

1. The opportunity to provide for the overall educational development of children and, particularly, in regard to children's learning to read, to learn techniques to apply in helping them learn to read.

2. The SORT program materials and children's books were of high quality.

3. The improvement of relationships with their children through spending quality time engaged in reading activities.

4. The fostering of positive attitudes toward reading for their children.

5. The credibility of the literacy coordinator as an excellent teacher.

6. The school's endorsement and recommendation of the SORT program.

7. The SORT program's promotion of the importance of reading and the parents' interest in learning.

8. The enhancement of the relationship between home and school that SORT fostered.

9. The opportunity to improve children's skill and knowledge of language structures (e.g., spelling and sentences).

10. The occasion to improve children's motivation to read and increase their independent reading.

Dr. Joan Oldford-Matchim jmatchim@mun.ca is the Director The SORT Project and Dr. Amarjit Singh asingh@mun.ca is a Research Associate, The SORT Project.

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