Bookstart Around the World 1
Bookstart Around the World knowledge available on
language development in young children and the impact that bookgifting programmes have on it, but there are also aspects that are not fully known to professions or academia. This report attempts to shed light on these various aspects. 1.2 Purpose, questions and boundaries The purpose of this overview is to collect relevant knowledge of initiatives to promote reading aimed at young families (such as Bookstart), according to research within Sweden and internationally. This overview is primarily intended for employees working at public authorities, municipalities, regions and other organisations that engage in efforts to promote reading, with the aim of giving inspiration and contributing to increased understanding about this subject. The main question for consideration is as follows: • What is currently understood about bookgifting programmes aimed at families with young children? This question is divided according to certain areas that are considered to be of particular relevance to the future development of Bookstart. The analysis questions and framework for this overview are presented in full in Supplement 1. These areas are: • Models for bookgifting programmes (methods and target groups) • Evaluation and effects • Collaboration • Prerequisites for national bookgifting programmes • A simple metaanalysis of existing research Given the difference between how extensive the research is and this overview of current knowledge, it was necessary to set limits. The main way in which this has been done is to select a small number of countries whose programmes have been studied in more detail. This has been combined with a broad literature review, in which material was collected by searching in research databases. 1.3 Outline This report consists of five parts. The first describes the purpose and approach used in the overview. The second part provides an introduction to the core concept of literacy and related assumptions. The third part describes a few examples of bookgifting programmes in other countries as described in the interviews. The fourth part presents a review of the material gathered for this overview by briefly describing the main results of these studies and evaluations. The report is concluded with some brief reflections on the results of Bokstart in Sweden. 1.4 Method This section contains an abbreviated description of the method used for this overview. A more detailed description of methods, a list of interviewees, the selection criteria, and the interview guide can be found in Supplements 1 and 2. This overview was designed to i) review the existing studies that deal with bookgifting programmes, and ii) highlight a number of examples of specific programmes in different countries. The purpose of this study is for the Swedish Arts Council and interested parties involved in Bokstart in Sweden to be able to have access to relevant knowledge and inspiration from this study. For this reason, the countries the examples come from were selected on the basis of some aspects connected to this. The hope was to see a variation of different methods used in these countries’ bookgifting programmes. 6/52