ABSTRACT
An important goal of the teachers was to bring the home and school into collaborative engagement through curriculum. Purcell-Gates called for changes in literacy instruction to bridge the gaps between home and school for marginalized children. This chapter explores the nature and extent of collaboration between home and school by focusing on the perspectives of three children, Natalie, Jeremy, and Christy who attended Mountain Elementary School. Six themes emerged in the conversations the author had with the children: children as avid collectors of cultural treasures, family members as knowledgeable elders, curriculum as a cross-space experience, curriculum as temporal link to the past, curriculum as a source of ancestral pride, and the future as an arena for guarded optimism and flexibility. Finally, the chapter discusses how the children were experiencing a curriculum effort designed to promote school-based literacy by appreciating and supporting the literacy traditions of the home.
