Literacy Teaching Practices Research Articles

Integration of Media Literacy Teaching Practices in Secondary and Higher Education Schools in Bulgaria

Media literacy is one of the key competencies and skills for living and working in the 21st century. According to experts, media literacy and media education are part of the solution to the newest social and technological problems facing humanity. Media literacy education is a lifelong education, but it is particularly important to start at an early age, to be continued and upgraded in secondary and higher education with the efforts of all formal and non-formal institutions and organizations. The aim of the “Integration of media literacy teaching practices in secondary and higher schools in Bulgaria” research project, which a team from the Department of Media and Public Communications at UNWE is working on during the 2019-2022 period, is to focus on the results of media education on an international, European and national scale. The study presents the first of its kind in Bulgarian scientific literature analytical review of the definitions of media literacy of foreign and Bulgarian experts and organizations, leading policies and strategies of international organizations working in the field of media education, national practices of many European and other countries. The results achieved in the field of secondary and higher education in our country have been thoroughly studied and the deficits in formal and non-formal education in this field have been highlighted. Within the research project, a survey was conducted with 534 teachers on the problems of media literacy in Bulgaria and in-depth interviews with experts in the field. Based on the research, the team proves the importance of media literacy for modern society and the need for active government policy for its development in Bulgaria.

Navigating (mis)assumptions in exploring teachers’ knowledge and practice of multiliteracies pedagogy

My research aims to explore teachers’ literacy experiences and teaching practices in New Zealand intermediate schools through the lens of multiliteracies pedagogy (MLP). However, upon the initial semi-structured interview, I realised my (mis)assumptions and learned that it could be demanding and challenging for teachers to narrate their literacy teaching beliefs and practices. Consequently, I reworked my interview protocols and switched from semi-structured to unstructured interviews. Then I conducted them in conjunction with the collection of observational data. I also extracted the key elements of MLP – diversity, multimodality and a repertoire of pedagogy – and substituted them with terms and practices more familiar to the teachers. Through this experience, I discovered that honesty, flexibility and adaptability are some of the essential characteristics when conducting research as a novice researcher.

MyStory, YourStory, OurStory: Literacy Development in the Black Church Past, Present, & Future

The Black Church is the oldest anti-racist institution in America. Having educated generations of Black families, birthed schools, universities, hospitals, financial institutions, various music genres, and nurtured numerous advocates and martyrs for freedom, including access to literacy, it is directly responsible for many of the most significant gains in racial equity in American history. Yet, the Black Church has largely been ignored in conversations concerning the best way to educate Black students in America's schools. A question for the 21st century is: What can educators, particularly literacy researchers, learn from the Black Church? The Black Church is an extremely underutilized resource from which educators could learn best practices in literacy education to potentially reduce educational inequities with persistence. What are some of these best practices? How and why are they implemented in the learning environment of the Black Church? When simultaneously discussing the historical development of the Black Church and the literacy development of African Americans, it becomes apparent that they portray a mutually reinforcing relationship. This growth, based on a foundation of Black Liberation Theology and a continuous need to fight racism, developed from the initial need for a unified response to the slavemasters’ efforts to justify slavery with a perverted interpretation of the Christian Bible. This detailed discussion of the Black Church's origins, historical development, and contemporary practices will highlight the complex connections between religion, literacy, language, relationships, and politics, and inform scholarship of the Black Church's role as the established expert in the education of Black people.

Teachers’ Pedagogical Practices to Support Learners’ Functional Literacy Development: The Context of Mother Tongue Language

The sociocultural perspective maintains the view of understanding literacy as a social and cultural practice to describe reading and writing in multiple and evolving language activities. It means that literacy development is related to actions and beliefs which a student creates to define him or herself in particular cultural settings or circumstances. These circumstances further describe what resourceful individuals like teachers would offer or create in terms of language tasks or events to help students be identified as readers and writers. This qualitative study aimed at gaining deeper insights into teachers’ pedagogical practices to support functional literacy through mother tongue languages. Based on in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and classroom observations, this phenomenological study examined literacy instructional practices which offer a pedagogically grounded and positive learning environment where teachers use mother tongue as a medium of instruction to support learners’ early literacy acquisition processes. Thus, the study provides substantial findings which depict the role of children’s previous language experiences and teachers’ constructive classroom engagements as a basis for functional literacy development.

Digital divides in access and use in literacy instruction in rural high schools

• Literacy instruction in rural schools varies widely in terms of technology use and access. • Large-scale quantitative studies fail to capture differences between local contexts. • Teacher technology training is essential but difficult to implement in rural schools. This article presents institutional case studies of technology use in language and literacy instruction at two rural high schools based on almost two months of classroom observations as well as interviews with teachers, administrators, and students. The first school presented faced a number of funding issues and clearly lacked in terms of access—the teachers regularly expressed frustration with district leadership and lamented their ability to have students do more computer-based literacy work. The second school presented had a very different issue—through a series of grants, they had secured computers for every student in their English classes but teachers had varying level of training on how to incorporate them in learning and consequently, the computers were often used in reductive ways. This research provides a perspective that shows the limitations of large-scale comparisons, emphasizing how local contextual factors (such as school leadership and teacher training) can shape both access and use. It also shows how access is only one piece of the picture—without sufficient teacher training and support, available technology may help perpetuate reductive educational practices in language and literacy instruction .

“I feel I am like Matilda”: a study on Taiwanese adolescent readers’ transmediational practices from reading Roald Dahl’s Matilda

Suhor (Journal of Curriculum Studies 16, 247-257, 1984) defines transmediation as the “translation of content from one sign system to another” (p. 250). Research has shown that encouraging learners to transmediate meanings across modes provides them with opportunities to represent meanings in multiple ways. In fact, Fueyo (Counterpoints 176, 21-34, 2002) stated that thinking and expressing oneself through a range of sign systems is a basic educational right in a democratic society. The current study continues the research on transmediation by investigating how a class of Taiwanese English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) adolescent students translated the textual content of Roald Dahl’s (1988) classic novel Matilda into non-textual modes (e.g., drawings and drama skits). The participants engaged in a two-stage transmediational process by first drawing an individual illustration to accompany a passage taken from the novel and then working in groups to represent their favorite chapters in a multimodal manner. Results indicated various degrees of transferring and transforming the original textual content. It was also found that allowing students to choose the content to focus on for their final transmediational projects did not motivate students to transform their knowledge of the novel to a greater degree, as most of them were more concerned with accurately presenting the textual content. This article concludes with teaching suggestions and research directions to encourage practitioners and researchers to look further into the uses of transmediational practices in literacy instruction and research.

Apprenticing for Equity Literacy Teaching: A Needed Change in Teacher Education

Grounded by critical race and landscapes of practice perspectives, this study examined teacher candidates who were asked to use equity as a lens to describe students’ literacy learning opportunities in their practicum sites. Analysis of this writing revealed wide variation in candidates’ participation, including a group who regularly noticed equitable/inequitable literacy teaching practices and structures and discussed how they would resist/change those they considered inequitable and a group that primarily overlooked these reflective opportunities. Follow-up interviews with two candidates revealed their different equity stances. Study findings can be used to reconceptualize literacy practice to help candidates identify and challenge policies and ideas that sustain inequity.

EFL teachers’ critical literacy instructional perspectives and practices: The case of the Egyptian university context

Critical literacy instruction in Egypt remains under-explored. This study combined questionnaire and semi-structured interview data to explore Egyptian university EFL teachers' critical literacy perspectives and practices. The results indicate that most participant teachers are unwilling to teach critical literacy and prefer to focus on core curricular components only. The few teachers with a positive attitude to critical literacy instruction reported integrating it into reading, literature, writing and speaking courses. Their narratives, however, indicate implementing a weak version of critical literacy instruction. This has been mainly caused by the lack of emphasis on critical literacy in the curriculum, students’ limited experiences, socio-cultural considerations, and teacher ideological bias. The teachers also reported that female and male students are interested in different types of critical literacy topics. It is concluded that critical literacy practices in the Egyptian university context could be fostered through training teachers, reforming curricula, and coordinating institutional efforts.

Special Education Teacher Preparation, Literacy Instructional Alignment, and Reading Achievement for Students With High-incidence Disabilities

We used survey and administrative data from Washington State to assess the degree to which special education teacher preparation, district literacy instructional practices, and the alignment between preparation and practice were associated with the reading test score gains of students with high-incidence disabilities taught by early-career special education teachers in Grades 4 to 8. These students tended to have larger reading gains when their districts used evidence-based literacy decoding practices (e.g., phonological awareness, phonics, and reading fluency) and when their special education teacher graduated from a teacher education program that also emphasized these practices. Students with high-incidence disabilities in districts that used balanced literacy practices tended to have lower reading gains. Finally, students with high-incidence disabilities taught by early-career special education teachers tended to have larger reading gains when their teacher’s student teaching placement was supervised by a more experienced cooperating teacher.

Student-Generated Questions in Literacy Education and Assessment

This study investigated the extent to which students’ questioning ability is associated with their literacy abilities, attitudes, perceived text understanding, and interest in the text they read. We further examined these relationships by the type of text they read to generate questions. Fifth- and sixth-grade students ( N = 89) were asked to generate three questions after reading two different types of text. The students also completed reading comprehension and writing tests, as well as a questionnaire about their attitude toward literacy, perceived text understanding, and interest in the text. A hierarchical regression analysis showed that the quality of student-generated questions was predicted by reading comprehension ability, a positive attitude toward writing, and perceived level of understanding of the text, with strong effects related to text genre. We explore the implications of these findings on current pedagogy and assessment practices in literacy education and suggest areas for further research.

School data walls: sociomaterial assemblages to aid children’s literacy outcomes

ABSTRACT Educators, parents, and policymakers agree on the need to assess children’s learning to inform literacy teaching practices but are often divided about how best to gauge literacy development. In ensuing debates, school data walls have become pedagogically and spatially contested sites. We think of data walls as -scapes and scopic regimes that have sociomaterial force and that coalesce as complex assemblages worth interrogating. On that basis, our aim is to consider two kinds of data wall by drawing from a three year study of literacy teaching practices in government schools in one Australian state and sharing insights with resonance in similar education systems. Analysis shows that the first, more common data wall mapped and privileged quantitative data about, and summative testing results for, children and functioned primarily as an accountability tool. The second data wall added layers of qualitative data and formative assessment and facilitated valuable professional learning and development in support of children’s learning outcomes. Our findings are significant because they reveal how data walls foster integrative approaches to literacy assessment that cut through the debate. Findings also furnish theoretical insights about how data walls are powerful assemblages, enable sound educational outcomes, but require ongoing attention to their sociomaterial effects.

Impact of COVID‐19 on Early Literacy Instruction for Emergent Bilinguals

AbstractWe investigated teachers’ perspectives on how literacy instruction for bilingual children changed due to the shift to remote instruction during COVID‐19. Fifty K‐2 public school teachers from 10 states submitted smartphone‐based diary entries about their day‐to‐day literacy instructional practices before versus during COVID‐19. Teachers reported implementing less literacy instruction in general. The smallest declines were seen in code‐focused, foundational skills, while the largest declines were in language‐focused practices such as extended writing, vocabulary knowledge, and reading comprehension strategies. We analyzed teachers’ responses to identify factors that influenced their adaptations. Implications for areas of literacy development in need of immediate, intensive attention in the aftermath of COVID‐19 are addressed.

学校におけるメディア・リテラシー実践の継続性について メルプロジェクトに参加した中学校教師のライフストーリーからの考察

学校におけるメディア・リテラシー実践の継続性について メルプロジェクトに参加した中学校教師のライフストーリーからの考察

The impact of an outdoor learning experience on the development of English creative writing skills: an action research case study of year 7 and 8 secondary school students in Australia

ABSTRACT Standardized literacy assessments that place emphasis on testing and attainment of results have caused many students, particularly in middle years schooling to be disenfranchised by literacy teaching and learning practices. This study employed an action research methodology to investigate whether an outdoor learning experience in a Year 7/8 English Writers Workshop course (including students aged 13–14 years) at a secondary school in Victoria, Australia enhanced creative writing capacity and engagement. This study was conducted in three stages, with qualitative and quantitative data collected. Wilcoxon signed-rank and Mann-Whitney U tests demonstrated significant improvement in creative writing from pre-intervention to post-intervention (z = −3.73, p < 0.001, r = −0.58). Qualitative thematic analysis identified the learning environment, quiet space, and the instructional approach as key themes. The findings provide insight into more effective teaching practices and outline how outdoor learning could be integrated into English and other curriculum learning areas.

Helping Young Children Develop Emergent Language and Literacy Skills: The Roles of Curriculum, Training, and Coaching

This article discusses the need for accessible, practical, and cost-effective professional development for Head Start teachers in developing emergent language and literacy skills. We describe the development and components of ABCDuet: teaching materials, professional development and personalized coaching. The program is designed to make training and coaching in language and literacy teaching practices more effective, accessible, user-friendly, and sustainable, using innovative software and video assets. We report findings on the feasibility and efficacy of ABCDuet implementation on teacher and child outcomes from an evaluation of the program in 21 Head Start classrooms. Outcome data indicate the program can be implemented in authentic preschool settings by teachers with varied educational backgrounds and experience, serving children with a wide range of emergent language and literacy skills.

Curriculum, Training and Coaching to Support the Development of Emergent Language and Literacy Skills

This article discusses the need for accessible, practical, and cost-effective professional development and teaching materials for Head Start teachers in developing their children’s emergent language and literacy skills. We describe the components of ABCDuet, a program designed to make training and coaching in language and literacy teaching practices more effective, accessible, user-friendly, and sustainable using innovative software and video assets. We summarize a study investigating the feasibility and efficacy of ABCDuet implementation on teacher and child outcomes from an evaluation of the program in 21 Head Start classrooms. Results indicated that the program can be implemented in authentic preschool settings by teachers with varied educational backgrounds and experience, serving children with a wide range of emergent language and literacy skills. We conclude with feedback from study teachers on their experiences using ABCDuet’s technology and its components.&#x0D;

Touch‐Talk‐Text: Science Practices and Language for Reading Comprehension

AbstractElementary teachers are tasked with teaching the language and literacy strategies and skills leading to reading comprehension while also teaching disciplinary content that is the subject of texts, frequently with limited instructional time. Prior research demonstrates that an integrated approach to science and literacy instruction featuring authentic, hands‐on science experiences increases student learning. The authors have developed an instructional framework, Touch‐Talk‐Text, for elementary classrooms. This framework emphasizes student engagement in authentic science practices integrated with meaningful science discourse and connected to comprehending science‐related texts to support comprehension. The authors provide two examples of how this framework has been enacted in classrooms, one from lower elementary and one from upper elementary grades, and share strategies for how classroom teachers can implement it into their current science and literacy teaching practices.

Whole school change for literacy teaching and learning: purposes and processes

School improvement has become a goal in many education systems globally, with the mantra of ‘whole school change’ adopted as key to achieving that goal. However, whole school change is complex and interpreted variously. In Australia, a case in point is the drive to lift literacy outcomes. Drawing on qualitative data from a study of literacy teaching practice in one Australian state, this article aims to unravel the multiple meanings and enactments of whole school approaches to literacy. The study established that while most participating schools espoused such an approach to literacy improvement, the ways in which they enacted this approach varied, with different types and levels of change emerging. Combining Cuban’s orders of change framework (focussed on purposes) and May’s phases of school readiness for change (focussed on processes), we developed a three-level framework of whole school change: external, pragmatically driven change; structural and/or nascent cultural change; and internal, culturally driven change. Taking this multidimensional approach to understanding whole school improvement sheds light both on its complexity and on the challenges of sustainability. Two clear implications arise from the findings: the importance of focussing simultaneously on purpose and process, and the necessity of systemic support.

Concept of Word in Text: The Prerequisite in Early English Literacy for ESL Learners in Hong Kong

Research has shown that English literacy instructional practices such as direct teaching of phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, comprehension, and writing are effective for teaching English as second language learners. Previous research on early reading acquisition has focused on phonological awareness&#8212;the ability to consciously attend to and manipulate the sound structure of spoken language. Nevertheless, a series of previous studies suggests that children’s ability to match spoken words to written words while reading is important in early reading acquisition. The purpose of this study was to examine a model of early literacy development in which children’s concept of word is assumed to facilitate the development of phonological awareness and sight vocabulary. In this study, 30 kindergarten children who learn English as a second language from two kindergartens in Hong Kong were assessed and compared on measures of alphabet knowledge, concept of word, syllable, and phoneme awareness and word recognition ability. The results essentially replicated a previous study by Morris and support the proposed model. The results have implications for beginning reading instruction for children with English as the second language and future research in early literacy acquisition.

Teaching disciplinary literacy through historical inquiry: Training teachers in disciplinary literacy and historical inquiry instructional practices

This study reports on the findings of a qualitative research case study designed to evaluate the effectiveness of a professional development program on teaching disciplinary literacy through historical inquiry. Thirteen secondary social studies and English teachers participated throughout one academic school year. Participants were evaluated for their implementation of historical inquiries using primary sources and engaging students in disciplinary literacy practices using observations of classroom instruction and self-reporting surveys. The results indicated a positive relationship between teacher participation in the professional development and improvement in inquiry-based instructional approaches, incorporation of disciplinary literacy practices, and increases in their use of primary sources in the classroom. Social validation indicated that teachers found the program beneficial. This study contributes to the body of knowledge focused on disciplinary literacy and historical inquiry.