The Type Of Support That Family Literacy Programme Graduate Parents Give To Their First Graders Of Formal School In Oshana Region

ABSTRACT

The study involves Family Literacy graduate parents who completed the programme in Oshana Region. It examined the (1) type of support Family Literacy graduate parents render to their 1st graders of formal school (2) impacts of Family Literacy Programme on parents to support children in their learning (3) strategies to help improve the implementation of Family Literacy Programme. The study conceptualised parents’ educational participation, programme influences on parental support and approaches to help improve implementation of Family Literacy Programme. The study followed single method with interpretative philosophy using phenomenological designs and qualitative techniques of data collection. A sample of 15 participants in Oshakati Circuit in Oshana Region was selected through snowball sampling technique and participated in the study. Data was gathered through faceto-face interview and documents analysis. Data was analysed according to qualitative principles and findings were presented in narrative format with verbatim quotations. The key findings indicated that after attending Family Literacy Programme parents have accepted their roles as parents, gained courage, confidence and positively participated in supporting their children in early learning. They also have good interactions and relationship with children and school. The impacts of the programme include parents accepting their roles as children’s first carers and understanding the teachers roles, parents partake in children’s learning and enhancement in parent-children interaction as well as parent-teacher relationship. Based on the study findings, recommendations were made to improve the implementation of Family Literacy Programme in order to support embryonic literacy development of children.