Teachers’ Values and the Literacy Hour1

Abstract

ABSTRACT The article reports on an enquiry into teachers’ values and beliefs about literacy. The teachers work in the schools of members participating in an action research project on improving literacy in the primary school. The enquiry was one of the first tasks the project undertook. Its purpose was to enable teachers to articulate their own values and to examine these alongside aspects of the proposed literacy hour within the context of the overall national literacy strategy. As schools implement the literacy hour, the project plans to examine critically the extent to which teachers’ own values and valued practices can operate alongside the requirements of the literacy hour. It will also critically examine those values themselves to see if they change in the light of the experience of the literacy hour. There are some marked differences between the teachers’ views and those embedded within the national literacy strategy. The article discusses some potential practical implications which may arise for teachers and children from these differences. Some commonality between the teachers’ views and the national literacy strategy are also highlighted. It is not the intention of the research project to shape a consensus on values. Rather, one of its purposes is to create a context in which teachers and teacher researchers can engage actively and critically in implementing the national strategy, rather than seeing themselves as passive agents. The debate within the project about values differences is intended to contribute to this purpose [1] This article draws on the work of the team members engaged in the action research project ‘Teachers Understanding Literacy Improvement in the Primary School’: Tish Crotty, Mary Jane Drummond, Rose Elgar, Liz Foster, Gill Grainger, Veronica Hanke, Susan Hart, Sharon Horlock, Liz Jenkin, Virginia Lacey, Janet Rayment, Sue Rix and Angela Sheahan. It has been written on their behalf and with their approval