Family Matters Related to the Reading Engagement of Latina/o Children

摘要

This article reports on the relationship between ecocultural (Weisner, 1984) features of 18 Latina/o families and their children's motivation to read. Five ecocultural features emerged as salient in families daily living: immigration, culture and language, nurturance, instrumental, and workload. Ecocultural features were examined in relation to children's perceptions of themselves as readers (self concept as reader and value of reading, (Gambrell et al., 1996)). Nurturance related to how much children valued reading, culture and language related to how children viewed themselves as readers, and workload was inversely related to how much children valued reading. Our findings indicated that questions about how and why children read are seen more clearly through a sociocultural lens, as the expression of culturally, historically, and socially mediated processes.