Research Topic and chosen research methods....

 Being that I am an early childhood education major I wanted to research something that was relevant to education.The topic that I am interested in researching is how literacy education is perceived in the home setting. I will focus primarily on the elementary education level.  Some questions that would ask include:

1. What value in the home is placed on literary education?
2. If high value is placed on education, what roles do outsiders (parents, siblings, other family members) play on how a child learns?
3. How much involvement is to much?
4. What are the positives and the negatives of the involvement?

I also want to include personal accounts into my research.  My mom was a kindergarten teacher and education was always emphasized highly in my home.  The rule was school, school, school no matter what and to always try your best!  From an early age even before I started formal school my mom would work with me to practice reading and writing.  She always read me a book before bed and would help me practice small writing tasks like writing my name.  I had a shelf in my room that I called my"library". It was filled from floor to ceiling with books. Some were books that were exactly right for my age ( I was 3 or 4) and then some were chapter books which were way above me but it gave me excitement that one day I would be reading those books!  Since my mom was a teacher I always knew that education was a huge deal and always placed high value on it.  When school let out for the summer my learning didn't end. I remember my mom giving me and my sister extra work to "keep our minds sharp", and then I would also have summer reading to do.  The teacher that we would have in the fall would send home a list of authors.  We had to pick a book from the list, read it and then write a report or do a project of some sort in September. I would read the entire list just because I had a love of reading. That was something that my mom instilled in  me- that learning was great and something that I always will value.

However what happens to a child when education isn't seen as important? What happens to them? How does it impact their learning skills and how will that effect their future?

The methods that I am interested in using for this research are oral history, ethnographic research, and interviews.

With oral history I would examine social and cultural aspects and how they influence literacy education. Do certain cultures place a higher value on literacy then others? What does the society of that culture say about literacy skills? How does society impact it directly?

Ethnographic research also ties into cultural and social practices as well. I can also tie personal accounts, narritives and experiences into this method.

Interviews is something that I can easily apply to this topic. I would interview the parents of the children that I babysit for and get their opinions on literacy education.  I could also do observations and see how they handle their children with learning.  Some parents are more hands on then others.  I know that there are several reasons for this and I would like to examine them in my research.