Effective family involvement in ruManyo-speaking children’s home literacy learning

Abstract

This paper emphasizes that family should effectively involve in ruManyo-speaking children’s home literacy learning. The paper emerged from a case study that was conducted in rural and urban settings in the Kavango Educational Region of Namibia. The aim of this paper is to share some views, experiences and opinions regarding the role of family involvement in their children’s literacy learning. The study involved four families; one caregiver and their children from each family was selected; and two teachers one from each setting. Observations and semi-structured interviews were used as research instruments for data collection. Findings of the study show that families were not effectively involved in their children’s literacy learning-for a number of reasons; lack of literacy knowledge, lack of a print environment and literacy resources in and outside the school, the absence of literacy programmes in the community, lack of reading habits, encouragement and motivation. However, many of these problems were fuelled by the severe lack of reading materials written in ruManyo. From the study findings, it is clear that there is a need for empowering families to understand and develop knowledge and skills regarding their children’s literacy learning.