Currently in New Zealand there is a strong focus on raising overall literacy levels – from young children in schools to adults in the workplace. However, understanding and improving Māori literacy rates requires approaches that focus, not on individuals in isolation, but on the wider, whānau-based context.

This project plans to investigate whānau literacy development, particularly the connections between parental literacy development, tamariki literacy development, and wider whānau development and transformation.

Its over-arching research question is:

• what are the impacts on whānau when parents/kaitiaki seek to develop their language, literacy and numeracy skills?

The aims of the project are:

• to investigate the impacts on whānau of parental engagement in literacy skill development;
• to better understand the relationship between adult literacy development and child literacy development in whānau contexts; and
• to build an understanding of the wider transformative potential for whānau from parental engagement in literacy skill development.

Given there is very little pre-existing research in the field, the project will build a platform for developing NZCER’s research in this area, including the development of literacy resources for whānau and literacy providers.