Abstract
Major sociocultural contexts of learning such as families, communities and schools
are imbued with power, and power favours some more than others. Given that
schools are important sites of social and cultural reproduction, one of their major
tasks is to teach learners to be literate. However, literacy is often viewed only as
schooled literacy in the dominant language, and the role of the home has been
undervalued in the past. In this paper I examine, through a sociocultural lens, the
role played by the home and community in literacy learning. Through data elicited
from observations of family interactions and conversations, as well as interviews
with family members in two immigrant households, I examine their home and
community literacy practices and ask how these practices intersect with schooled
literacy. I conclude that immigrant children have far greater language and literacy
skills than presumed, and that schools need to recognize language and literacy
practices that children engage in at home and in the community, and emphasize that
social justice for all requires educational shifts.