Expanding the circle : collaborative research to create culturally responsive family literacy programming

• Main Author: Gear, Lesley Alison
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2013
• Subjects: haida
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/44211

This thesis documents the creation of a family literacy program developed with, and for, a Haida community on the Northwest Coast of British Columbia. The field of family literacy is juxtaposed with the historical and contemporary school experiences of the community and presented as a means of addressing the imbalance between Indigenous and Western knowledge systems currently offered through the public education system. Both Indigenous and Western research methods are utilized through a process designed to involve the community in the reconstruction of an already-existing community family literacy program, PALS (Parents as Literacy Supporters). The metaphor of a circle, representing the six Haida values of interconnectedness, seeking wise counsel, reciprocity, balance, respect, and responsibility, is used to guide the research in addition to serving as the foundation for a new, culturally responsive, version of PALS. Education, Faculty of Language and Literacy Education (LLED), Department of Graduate