The importance of family literacy practices on children’s reading comprehension in rural context

Abstract

The present study focuses on children’s reading as an interdisciplinary question, at the intersection of sociology of reading, sociology of education and pedagogy. The purpose of the research is to unfold the family literacy attitudes that determine the process of raising the children of graduate families living in the rural environment of the Salt Lake District (Transylvania, Romania). The empirical data obtained through semi-structured interviews are discussed based on the theoretical background of the literature of family literacy, as well as competency-based reading studies. The answer to the questions how to establish the interest in reading in early childhood, what reasons and motives are behind the global passivity in reading is investigated. In the upcoming interview research, I will focus on the story-reading habits and attitudes of graduate families living in a rural environment in the context of the above: to what extent family literacy awareness is present among graduate families in the Salt Lake District, how early reading and the role of stories can be seen in the light of children’s competencies, and what kind of parental conscious efforts can be seen in the early childhood phase of education to become a reader. My further aim is to formulate alternatives that can be used in this Hungarian minority region: the question of whether intellectual capital is perceptible in rural public discourse.