6.1 Introduction
This research project grew out of a concern for children who experience
difficulty learning to read and a desire to contribute to the research knowledge regarding remedial approaches in reading. I chose to focus my research on working with parents of children who were struggling to learn to read. After reviewing the relevant literature, I designed and implemented an intervention which aimed to create a partnership within which the reading knowledge of the researcher and each family’s unique home culture were combined to develop contextually specific reading support strategies for parents to enact when supporting their child’s reading. The results of this study suggest that this intervention has the potential to support parents to have a positive impact on their child’s reading skill.
This chapter concludes this thesis. It reflects on the study and provides a commentary on the aims of the research. The limitations of the current study are discussed and opportunities for further research are suggested. The contributions to research from this study are identified. Groups of people who may be interested in this research are proposed and the implications for these groups are discussed. A final conclusion is offered.
6.2 Meeting the Aims of the Research
The aim of this research was to design and investigate a collaborative
intervention whereby parents are supported to take actions to improve their children’s reading. To enable a broad understanding of this intervention a range of aspects was examined. These included the coaching sessions with parents, parents’ tutoring actions, the children’s reading and finally the relationship between each of these aspects. The research design supported the
development and implementation of the intervention, the gathering and analysis of data and the exploration of a range of insights from the data.
6.3 Limitations and Future Directions
The purpose of this section is to identify and discuss the limitations of the current study. The factors which constrained also this study provide new opportunities for further research which are discussed.
6.3.1 Size of the Study
Although a small sample was appropriate for the research and for the scope of a research project for Doctoral study, the next phase of this study could be to work with a larger group of parents to confirm if the positive results can be replicated. Furthermore, working with a larger group of parents, who are more diverse than the parents in this study, may lead to further insights into useful practices, perhaps exploring the specific factors that contribute to promoting engagement and action.
Undertaking this intervention took a considerable time commitment as I met individually with each parent, each week. Although this provided opportunities for the development of partnership and a high level of personalisation, it limited the number of parents who could participate in the intervention. An opportunity to maximise the number of participants in the intervention could occur if the intervention was modified to take place in a group setting. While a group setting may reduce the level of personalisation it might become less important as other potential benefits may emerge for parents. For example, it may be useful for parents to make connections with other parents, to share concerns and
successes and learn from each other as reported by Lam and Kwong (2012). In this manner the community of practice would be widened placing less emphasis on the views of the ‘expert’ group leader and more emphasis on the collective wisdom of the group members.
6.3.2 Replication
A significant implication for the future of this research centres on the design of this study which was heavily reliant on the individual researcher’s skills. In this
research project, good interpersonal skills and a broad knowledge of reading strategies were necessary. If this intervention is to have a widespread impact then other parent reading support coaches or facilitators would need to be sought and trained. There would need to be a robust selection process which took into consideration the importance of interpersonal skills in this intervention. Following selection, potential parent reading partners would require further training on how to develop partnerships with parents (possibly including developing cultural awareness depending on the community and the existing competency of the individual), how to undertake reading assessments, and how to lead the co-construction of reading support strategies. This could be an avenue for further research where the focus would be primarily on the learning journey of the parent reading support coaches.
6.3.3 Researcher Skew
Within this research I held two roles, one as a researcher and one as an
intervention partner. As a researcher my interests were in the literature which informed the study, the design of the intervention, the methods, the data which was generated and interpreting the data. As the intervention partner, my focus was the face to face interactions with each participant and carrying out the intervention in the manner in which it had been designed. These roles were complementary and lead to strengthening the research through a high level of responsiveness. However, there is also a potential tension between these roles. Being both researcher and intervention partner I had a strong interest in the success of the intervention. I mitigated the potential for skew by using multiple data sources, identifying convergence and divergence, using supervisors as critical friends to comment my interpretation of observations and data. A further way to reduce researcher bias in the future could be through the evaluation of other people while they undertake a similar intervention.