Research has shown a relationship between mothers’ beliefs about
literacy, their educational and socioeconomic backgrounds, and
their children’s emergent literacy awareness. Many Australian
Indigenous children experience educational disadvantage, as do
children whose parents are manual workers. One recommendation
that is frequently made is for parents to be encouraged to
participate in their children’s literacy development. Yet little
is known about the implicit beliefs about literacy held by
mothers from Indigenous-Australian and Anglo-Australian
backgrounds. Such beliefs need to be taken into account in early
childhood literacy programs. Eleven Indigenous and nine Anglo-
Australian mothers from varied educational backgrounds were
interviewed about how children learn to read and literacy in
general. The findings indicate that the tertiary educated
mothers, whether Indigenous or Anglo-Australian, held views that
were mostly compatible with an emergent literacy perspective.
The early school-leaving mothers focu