1.1.  Literacy and the role of the family

The effect of school performance in relation to family and contextual factors has been approached by numerous studies (García, 2003), particularly the relationship between the family environment and the development of reading (Hannon & James, 1990; Moreno, 2002; Strommen & Mates, 2004; Taylor, 1994). These studies have compared the role of families in literacy to school’s literacy-promoting role (Tizard & Hughes, 1984), the diversity of literacy-promoting activities performed in the home domain (Dunsmore & Fisher, 2010; Heath, 1983), and the beneficial effect of reading experiences shared within the family (Kim & Anderson, 2008). Nevertheless, the majority of these studies have not investigated the heterogeneity of “invisible” or vernacular literacy-promoting practices in the home in a differentiated manner (Pahl & Rowsell, 2012), nor have they examined the social value (situated and everyday) that these practices acquire in the bosom of the family. The study of literacy in a local context (Barton & Hamilton, 1998) exemplifies the literacy-promoting practices with which children interact in various domains, such as the home, school, or peer communities. The family home, as a space and not as a domain, becomes a meeting place where both academic and family literacy-promoting practices interact (Neuman & Celano, 2001).

1.2.  Vernacular and institutional literacy-promoting practices

Students’ literacy-promoting practices can be performed based on four fundamental models developed in the home and at school. On the one hand, a domain should be defined as the place where one literacy-promoting practice was created and is used in a recurring manner (Barton & Hamilton, 1998); on the other hand, the location or place where the literacy-promoting practice has been performed is called a space. In this case, Pahl and Rowsell (2012) note how homework performed by PE students belongs to the school domain, despite being performed in the home space.

In relation to the different domains and discourses developed by students, one must differentiate those that come from an educational institution or the school domain (dominant practices) and those that come from the home domain (vernacular practices). Camitta (1993) and Barton and Hamilton (1998) define vernacular practices as new forms of external literacy-promotion that are different from the objectives of students’ school practices and that have low social recognition. In contrast, dominant or institutional practices are described as those that are created and distributed by an institution such as a school and that have high social recognition.

1.3. Literacy domains: between home and school

The strong existing interaction between the school and home domains and the importance of literacy-promoting practices that this interaction generates have made some researchers conceive of the creation of a third space for literacy promotion. This space develops in a place that is separate from the children’s school, where scholarly practices in the family space dialogue with personal/family practices of literacy promotion (Moje et al., 2004). The theory of the “third space” proposed by Bhabha (1994) and Soja (1996) presents a hypothesis concerning the creation of a new literacy space between the home and school domains. In this space, PE students incorporate their experiences with popular culture, television, and digital media, such as computers and tablets, into their literacy-promoting school experiences (Moll et al., 2004; Levy, 2008).

The questions in our study are the following:

1. What are the literacy-promoting practices of PE students and the domains in which they develop, according to their families?
2. What characteristics do the various literacy profiles of PE students have, according to their families?
3. What predictive capacity does the Socioeconomic Status (SES) have in the development of literacy practices in the home domain?

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