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Raising Readers: Can mobile technology enable Kenyan schools to improve parent and carer engagement in reading with their children?

Resource type
Report
Authors/contributors
Title
Raising Readers: Can mobile technology enable Kenyan schools to improve parent and carer engagement in reading with their children?
Abstract
Deploying design-based, mixed-methods research, the study Raising Readers (Phase 1) explores how technology can be best used to strengthen parent and carer engagement with children’s reading in Kenya. In close collaboration with Worldreader, a digital reading organisation, five co-designed modalities (parental training, feedback loops, nudges/messaging, incentives, and reading celebrations) were tested in 14 schools across Nairobi and Kiambu counties over 12 weeks in 2022. The intervention helped to assess the potential of the different modalities in facilitating parental/carer engagement around children’s reading using the BookSmart app. As measured by average reading time, intervention groups showed higher engagement using BookSmart than the control group. ‘Incentives’ led with 39 hours 29 minutes average reading time per school over 12 weeks, followed by ‘reading celebrations’ with 24 hours 13 minutes. ‘Feedback loops’ and ‘training’ had comparable levels (10 hours, 28 minutes, and 9 hours, 27 minutes per school, respectively). ‘Messaging / nudges’ had the lowest engagement (5 hours 57 minutes versus 3 hours 2 minutes in the control group). Parental/carer knowledge, attitudes, and practices supporting their child's reading improved with the interventions. Findings of Phase 1 were used to inform the design of Phase 2. Keywords: Education, app, reading, school, child, Kenya An output of the EdTech Hub, https://edtechhub.org
Report Type
Phase 1 Final Report
Institution
EdTech Hub
Date
2023
Language
en
Call Number
0173
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
Extra
DOI: 10.53832/edtechhub.0173 ZenodoArchiveID: 8208265 ZenodoArchiveConcept: 8208264
Notes

This output is part of the Hub-Led Research (HLR5) study on the use of mobile technology to improve parent and carer engagement in reading with their children in Kenyan schools. For more information on the study go to https://edtechhub.org/evidence/edtech-hub-research-portfolio/technology-to-improve-parent-and-caregivers-engagement-and-literacy-learning-kenya/

Citation
Nicolai, S., Khan, A., Kartha, A., Bapna, A., & Kamninga, T. (2023). Raising Readers: Can mobile technology enable Kenyan schools to improve parent and carer engagement in reading with their children? [Phase 1 Final Report]. EdTech Hub. https://doi.org/10.53832/edtechhub.0173
Educational level
Language of publication
Publisher and type
Focus Countries