The study of children’s household and community contexts as the base for an intercultural and bilingual early literacy programme.

ROSEMBERG C. R.; STEIN A.; ALAM F.; MIGDALEK M. J.; OJEA, G.

Family and intergenerational literacy and learning: International perspectives.

UNESCO

Año: 2025; p. 1 - 13

This chapter presents a project that articulates language research and educational intervention actions aimed to ensure inclusive and quality education to Argentinian children living in situations of extreme poverty in the city and suburbs of Buenos Aires and in Qom(Toba) native semi-rural and rural communities in Chaco province.The project involved the collection of an important empirical corpus of audio and video recordings of natural daily interactions in which children participate in their households andcommunities. The documentation of the activities, the funds of knowledge, the learning strategies, the interactional patterns, the language variant and uses in which these children are socialised, as well as the analysis of the quantity and quality of the linguistic input to which they are exposed early in life, are used as the starting point for the design of educational actions and materials aimed to widen children’s opportunities for vocabulary and discourse development and literacy learning.The chapter describes the cultural and linguistic features that characterise children’s experiences and the way in which we used them in the intercultural and bilingual early literacy programme to build an anchor to enhance children’s linguistic development, the acquisition of literacy and the broadening of children´s knowledge. The chapter also shows and reflects on the collaborative work with the community members and the Spanish and Qom native teachers involved in this process, and with whom we have created a series of intercultural and bilingual educational materials: the ethnographic storybooks En la casa de Oscarcito, En la comunidad Daviaxaiqui, Dany, and Dany na’aqtaguec, na’qaatqa, relatos,tolhomtes, as well as the software application “Huo’o na cuentos”, aimed to promote the acquisition of Spanish and Qom as first or second languages. We finally illustrate how these educational materials are used in teaching situations in children’s households and community daycare centres.