CRITICAL CULTURAL STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD Family Literacy Practices in Asian and Latinx Families Educational and Cultural Considerations Edited by Jorge E. Gonzalez · Jeffrey Liew Gayle A. Curtis · Yali Zou Critical Cultural Studies of Childhood Series Editors Marianne N. Bloch Department of Curriculum and Instruction University of Wisconsin-Madison Madison, WI, USA Beth Blue Swadener School of Social Transformation Arizona State University Tempe, AZ, USA This series focuses on reframings of theory, research, policy, and pedago- gies in childhood. A critical cultural study of childhood is one that offers a ‘prism’ of possibilities for writing about power and its relationship to the cultural constructions of childhood, family, and education in broad soci- etal, local, and global contexts. Books in the series open up new spaces for dialogue and reconceptualization based on critical theoretical and meth- odological framings, including critical pedagogy; advocacy and social jus- tice perspectives; cultural, historical, and comparative studies of childhood; and post-structural, postcolonial, and/or feminist studies of childhood, family, and education. The intent of the series is to examine the relations between power, language, and what is taken as normal/abnormal, good, and natural, to understand the construction of the ‘other,’ difference and inclusions/exclusions that are embedded in current notions of childhood, family, educational reforms, policies, and the practices of schooling. Critical Cultural Studies of Childhood will open up dialogue about new possibilities for action and research. Single-authored as well as edited vol- umes focusing on critical studies of childhood from a variety of disciplin- ary and theoretical perspectives are included in the series. A particular focus is in a reimagining and critical reflection on policy and practice in early childhood, primary, and elementary education. The series intends to open up new spaces for reconceptualizing theories and traditions of research, policies, cultural reasonings, and practices at all of these levels, in the United States, as well as comparatively. Jorge E. Gonzalez • Jeffrey Liew Gayle A. Curtis • Yali Zou Editors Family Literacy Practices in Asian and Latinx Families Educational and Cultural Considerations Editors Jorge E. Gonzalez Jeffrey Liew School Psychology Education & Human Development University of Houston Texas A&M University Houston, TX, USA College Station, TX, USA Gayle A. Curtis Yali Zou Asian American Studies Center Asian American Studies Center University of Houston Educational Leadership & Houston, TX, USA Policy Studies University of Houston Houston, TX, USA ISSN 2731-636X ISSN 2731-6378 (electronic) Critical Cultural Studies of Childhood ISBN 978-3-031-14469-1 ISBN 978-3-031-14470-7 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-14470-7 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. 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The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland S e P erieS ditorS reface We are pleased to have this volume in our series, as it clearly focuses on critical cultural studies of childhoods in the US. Family Literacy Practices in Asian and Latinx Families addresses nuanced family literacy and related cultural practices within and across the fasting growing groups of emer- gent bilingual children in the US. Contributors emphasize the demand for culturally relevant and responsive practices that bridge home and school. Its emphasis on multiliteracies is timely and reflects a respect for funds of knowledge and cultural capital in home and community. The volume’s organization is accessible to a wide readership and engages the reader across three sections, including families at the intersec- tions of society, policy and theory, then goes deeper into specific cultural beliefs, values and attitudes and culminates in a discussion of family liter- acy practices. Contributors convey differences both within and across groups and reflect contemporary theories of literacy, multiliteracies and embodied practices or “pedagogies of the home” within families and cultures. Authors draw from a range of primarily qualitative methodologies including ethnographic, personal narrative and testimonio to update the literature on multiliteracies, childhoods, and family cultural practices. Some of this work is reminiscent of the earlier germinal ethnographic work of Denny Taylor and colleagues (e.g., Taylor, 1983; Taylor & Dorsey-Gaines, 1988). Much of this book reinforces the construct, “I am v vi SErIES EDITOrS PrEFACE my language” (Anzaldua, 1987; Gonzalez, 2001; Arias, 2021) in new and powerful ways and is relevant to persistent issues in education and the need for asset-based pedagogies (Arias, 2021) and cultural knowledge in the education of Asian and Latinx children. Beth Blue Swadener Marianne N. Bloch Anzuldua, G. (1987). Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books. Arias, B. (2021). I am my language. Language Magazine November 2021. https://www.languagemagazine.com/2022/05/17/i-am-my-language/ Gonzalez, N. (2001). I am My Language: Discourses of Women and Children in the Borderlands. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press Taylor, D. (1983). Family Literacy: Young Children Learning to Read and Write. Taylor, D. & Dorsey-Gaines, C. (1988). Growing Up Literate: Learning from Inner-City Families P reface Parents and families hold beliefs about almost every aspect of children’s early learning and development. These beliefs emerge from personal his- tories, values, and norms and take root in day-to-day child socialization routines in the home. These routines form a crucial link between a child and their culture. This book, Family Literacy Practices in Asian and Latinx Families—Educational and Cultural Considerations, takes a look at family literacy practices in Asian and Latinx families—two groups whose home literacy practices are yet to be fully understood and too often characterized through a deficit perspective. Both Asian and Latinx families in the United States hold funds of knowledge in the form of cultural and linguistic resources accessed to promote children’s early learning and school success. Understanding these funds of knowledge and how they operate as family assets may promote spaces of shared meaning that bridge families and the many systems they encounter in navigating and negotiating on behalf of their child’s well-being. It is our hope that readers will draw from within these pages greater insight into how Asian and Latinx families construct or adapt culturally meaningful home literacy socialization practices as they navigate their children’s development. With this aim in mind, in these chapters we share and explore Asian and Latinx home learning environments paying special attention to cultural values and beliefs that inform the choices families make. Among Latinx families, we explore deeply rooted values like respeto (respect), familismo (familism), bien educado (well-educated), and their role in children’s development. Among Asian families, we explore qian xùn (modesty), xiao (filial piety), zhi (knowledge), and the role they play in Asian home vii viii PrEFACE learning environments. We also take a much-needed glimpse into the early literacy learning in Asian and Indigenous Children of Hawaiʻi around chil- dren’s alternative language and literacy competencies. Houston, TX Jorge E. Gonzalez College Station, TX Jeffrey Liew Houston, TX Gayle A. Curtis Houston, TX Yali Zou a cknowledgmentS On behalf of the editors and authors of this book, we would like to thank the many Asian and Latinx parents who participated in the numerous research studies which made this book possible. Their willingness and openness to share their family backgrounds, their beliefs on education, and, in particular, their family literacy practices provided new insights into the multi-faceted influences on parental attitudes on children’s learning and the multiple strategies Asian and Latinx parents utilize in supporting their children’s literacy development. We appreciate and applaud the time, effort, and financial investment these parents are making in their chil- dren’s future. ix