Engaging parents and children in family learning generates collaborative partnerships and can increase children's attainment, but headteachers' (HTs) views affect the nature of these Home-School Partnership (HSPs). This study into family-learning programmes (FLPs) in socio-economically disadvantaged areas in one Scottish city investigates what…

This article provides evidence of the ways in which Family Learning (FL) has offered opportunities for the negotiation of a culturally responsive pedagogy that positions parents as experts. Although our study is small (ten parents and six FL practitioners) its significance lies in its longitudinal perspective and in-depth analysis, which…

Scotland provides an interesting context for studying adult literacy in that it is one of the few countries that explicitly acknowledge the idea of literacy as a social practice. By drawing on two initiatives we illustrate literacy learning derived from a mixture of social practice and critical literacy perspectives. Together they provide insights…

Addresses the issue of diverse literacies and the problems of privileging a dominant form of literacy at the expense of those from non-mainstream cultures. Illustrates how the literacy practices of working-class families and communities can be incorporated into learning programs. Stresses the need to legitimate the vernacular literacies of the…

"Connect" is an approach to family literacy in Scotland that recognizes that people have different literacies used in different life domains. It values home and community literacies and challenges the deficit perspective and dominant cultural and ideological patterns. (SK)

Case studies of four Scottish schools with family literacy programs depicted collaboration among school staff, parents, and adult literacy educators. Programs that conceptualized parents as "people" rather than "problems" challenged the deficit perspective of family literacy and enabled parents' full participation in…

Assumptions about learner identity are often based on a deficit view of the working classes. This chapter illustrates an alternative discourse that shows how one family literacy program in Scotland generated useful knowledge.

Suggests that the competitive economy of education has led to particular ways of implementing family literacy and a view of families as education consumers rather than users. Notes literacy education thus is used for reproduction of school-based literacy usage and cultural norms. (SK)

Examines a family literacy program based in a disadvantaged area of Scotland, to show how deficit views of children and their parents (feeling that one's own ways of speaking and writing are "wrong") might be challenged and overcome so that real learning can take place, learning that focuses on people's strengths and different types of…