Undergraduate preparation of future teachers in the context of reading literacy in the Czech Republic

Abstract

The present paper focuses on the undergraduate preparation of future teachers in the context of reading literacy. The paper consists of a theoretical part and an empirical part. The theoretical part describes and defines the basic concepts closely related to the topic, including undergraduate preparation of future teachers, reading literacy, etc. The empirical part describes an analysis of the current study programs at the Faculty of Education, Palacký University Olomouc, Czech Republic. The objective of the present paper was to analyse the study programs and perform a comparison with expiring study programs aimed at reading literacy. The authors performed a qualitative research study to answer whether undergraduate preparation of future teachers at Palacký University Olomouc in the context of reading literacy is sufficient and if study plans of educational programs reflect the requirements of pedagogical practice. The research was performed using document analysis. Secondary document analysis refers to data already collected (Donnellan, Lucas, 2013). According to Hendl (2005), the purpose of qualitative analysis is non-numerical data organisation in order to reveal topics, regularity, relationships, and quality. In this context, the term non-numeric applies not only to the data but also to data handling. According to the preliminary research, a relatively large proportion of future teachers lack practical teacher training aimed at subject-specific didactics, which is also based on reading literacy. Due to the ongoing pandemic in COVID-19, it was necessary to respond to the methods and forms of work to develop reading literacy through distance learning. The authors of the present paper believed it was essential to analyse the study programs in the context of reading literacy and answer the question of whether undergraduate preparation of future teachers is sufficient and if study plans of educational programs reflect the requirements of pedagogical practice in terms of reading literacy, using the content mentioned above analysis of documents. It followed from the results of the research investigation that the study plans of the educational programmes reflect the requirements of educational practice. Even though we have described the facts in the contribution, we believe that the reading literacy development issue is paid sufficient attention to based on the analysis of study plans in teaching for the 1st stage of primary school. Although the term “reading literacy” is mentioned in the curricular documents FEP PE only marginally, in the study plans for future primary school teachers, the term “reading literacy” appears in several disciplines. It is undoubtedly debatable to what extent the above disciplines will respond to reading literacy development in students. Judging by the content of the plans, their purpose is to provide future teachers with the competencies that support the development of reading literacy in primary school children following pre-literacy in pre-primary education. The disciplines are purely of a didactic focus because they appear in the third grade of study and higher grades after the students have completed relevant theoretical preparation.