African Canadian fathers' beliefs about literacy involvement and their engagement in boys' print literacy development

This study provides insight on the perspectives of eight African Canadian fathers in developing their son's literacy knowledge. This study examined the degree and type of involvement fathers have in boys' literacy development and their own personal beliefs about participation in their son's literacy development. Four of the participants were of middle socio-economic status (SES) and four participants were of low-SES. Overall, the findings suggest that African Canadian fathers participate in boys' literacy development by engaging in various at-home joint literacy activities. Some differences in the types of literacy activities fathers engaged in with their sons based on SES were found. Middle-SES fathers reported more time spent working on joint literacy activities than did low-SES fathers and they engaged in a wider variety of at-home literacy activities. Several reasons for involvement were stated, such as to be a role model and to teach about the value of education.