Abstract

An Internal Process Evaluation of The Storytime Project: A parental dialogic story-reading programme This thesis is an internal process evaluation of a parental dialogic story-reading programme called The Storytime Project. The aim of the empirical study was to evaluate the significance of the project to the participants and to gain insight into how it might be improved by engaging in depth with the processes involved in running the project. The views of all the project’s stakeholders – children, parents, early childhood practitioners, home school liaison teachers, classroom teachers, school principals, and project administrators – were gathered for the evaluation study using a mixed methods research approach. The Storytime Project is a collaborative initiative between Marino Institute of Education and Dublin’s Northside Partnership. It runs twice yearly for a five week period. The project evaluation targeted parents and children from areas that are socio-economically marginalised. The project aims to support children’s oral language development and to enable parents and children to become users of their local public library. The project also focuses on parental empowerment. Relevant research demonstrates the following: Positive family-school relationships and family-child relationships benefit children’s learning; parents are interested and able to carry out learning activities at home with their children; parental storybook reading has a positive impact on children’s overall literacy development; brief instruction in interactive reading has an enduring effect on parents’ reading style and the best method of helping parents to support their children’s learning is through focused, specific coaching. Findings indicated that relationships between parents and children and between parents and educational settings improved as a result of engagement with The Storytime Project. Strategies designed to improve children’s oral language, and shared with parents during the project, were practised and continue to be used. Parents reported increased confidence and knowledge of literacy practices and as a result began to get involved in school-based activities and use their local library.