Understanding Teachers ’ Perceptions of Children’s Home Language and Literacy Experiences

What is the nature of classroom teachers ’ perceptions of their students ’ home language and literacy experiences? Evolving from a well-documented concern that current understandings about the validity of home and community language and literacies are not widely recognized or utilized in public school classrooms, this article describes a study that examines teachers ’ perceptions of the kinds of language and literacy opportunities teachers’ perceive as occurring within children’s homes and the ways in which these perceptions are recognized and utilized in their classrooms. Five elementary school teachers participated in interviews, observations, and debriefings as I sought to understand their perceptions of children’s home language and literacy experiences. Analysis of interview and debriefing transcripts as well as expanded field notes of observations reveal that these teachers recognize a mismatch between home and school language and literacy experiences. They believe that teachers can use knowledge about a “mismatch ” between home and school language and literacies to inform their teaching by (a) providing what they perceive as “missing ” from the child’s home, or (b) making connections by building bridges between home and school experiences. This article describes the teachers ’ perceptions of the children’s home language and literacy experiences, how they came to develop these perceptions, ways these perceptions impacted their classroom instruction and environment, and implications for preservice teacher education