Young children and a school community open pathways for a grandmother's literacy

María del Socorro Ocampo-Castillo
Universidad Veracruzana, Mexico
Regina Gairal-Casadó
Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Spain
María Rosa Valls-Carol
Universitat de Barcelona, Spain
Itxaso Tellado
Universitat de Vic - Universitat Central de Catalunya, Spain

One current challenge highlighted by the United Nations is to increase the number of adults who achieve literacy and numeracy by 2030. This article focuses on one experience from an underprivileged Mexican school that implements Family Education, a Successful Educational Action. Following a communicative methodology, we conducted a communicative life story, five semi-structured interviews with agents of the school involved in family education, two observations and a review of internal school reports. The results present a personal story of success that shows the impact that family education has had on the literacy of Maria, a woman who had never attended school before. The love and support of her granddaughter as a student from the same school, the transgenerational literacy interactions reinforced by the learning communities model, and the support of the school's educational staff and volunteers have enabled not only her literacy but also her becoming a leading woman in her community.
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Authors: Dr María del Socorro Ocampo-Castillo is a postdoctoral researcher in the Educational Research Institute, Universidad Veracruzana, Veracruz, Mexico. Her main research interest are dialogic mathematics and the transfer of successful educational actions to Mexico. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8793-6626 Email: mary_ocampo13@hotmail.com Dr Regina Gairal-Casadó is a lecturer in the Faculty of Educational Sciences and Psychology, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain. Her main line of research is successful educational actions for children in care. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0093-7912 Email: regina.gairal@urv.cat Dr María Rosa Valls-Carol is Professor at Universitat de Barcelona, Spain. She has participated in research learning communities led different R+D projects. Her leading role is in the pioneer research on gender violence in Spanish Universities contributed to research breaking the silence on this topic in universities. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4286-2525 Email: rosavalls@ub.edu Dr Itxaso Tellado (corresponding author) is an Associate Professor in Universitat de Vic - Universitat Central de Catalunya, Vic, Spain. She has participated in various international research activities and has published in journals of scientific impact. Her main contribution is based on the democratic education of adults as a tool for inclusion of the vulnerable group of non-academic adults. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3611-7484 Email: itxaso.tellado@uvic.cat Please cite as: Ocampo-Castillo, M. d. S., Gairal-Casadó, R., Valls-Carol, M. R. & Tellado, I. (2023). Young children and a school community open pathways for a grandmother's literacy. Issues in Educational Research, 33(3), 1106-1124. http://www.iier.org.au/iier33/ocampo-castillo.pdf