Lessons from past literacy campaigns: A critical assessment

Former Director of the Centre for International Programmes, University of Guelph, Ontario (1974–85); of the Division of Adult Education (1972–74) and of the Literacy Division (1968–72), Unesco. He has considerable experience with adult education and literacy programmes in less developed countries, notably in South and South-East Asia.     

Becoming a literacy teacher: approximations in critical literacy teaching

The new literacy studies (NLS) is a tradition of research that includes ethnographic work on literacy that has many applications for classroom teachers. The NLS include explorations of local literacies and critical literacy as well as the notion of literacy itself. When teachers draw on the NLS, students are able to draw on their practices in critical and transformative ways. However, NLS perspectives have not been used to examine how teachers are prepared in pre‐service programs and the ways critical literacy practices develop. This paper examines how two pre‐service teachers learn to take up definitions of local literacies in their work with students from racially, linguistically, and culturally diverse backgrounds in practicum settings. They use approximations in literacy teaching to design practices with students, demonstrating the process of becoming a teacher of literacy. I conclude with recommendations for teacher educators who are interested in supporting such approximations.     

From positivism to critical theory: school-community relations toward community equity literacy

In recent years, research on urban school–community relations has emerged with renewed vigor and a myriad of suggestions for how to best approach the topic. While most of these suggestions are anchored in positivist and interpretive epistemologies, a growing number of scholars are applying more critical approaches to school–community relations that center issues of equity and unequal power relations. However, these approaches are often perceived as being too impractical for educational leaders to implement. This article thus situates approaches to school–community relations across three epistemologies: positivism, interpretivism, and critical theory to make these ideas more accessible for educational leaders. With a focus on developing educational leaders to work equitably across school and community contexts, this article provides an operating framework for each approach that delineates assumptions, goals, views of families, strategies, and types of leadership. Finally, this article provides an epistemological grounding to propose that educational leaders develop what I call community equity literacy, and concludes with implications for future research.     

Towards an assessment of educational theory: An historical perspective

Throughout the last twenty-five years all areas of educational thought have been preoccupied with the continuing conflict between conservative middle-class dominance of the schools and a liberal movement determined to provide a theory of equality and provisions for access. The radical extreme of this movement has gone further and demanded the total reconceptualization and reconstruction of education. This movement has attacked the standard histories of education which have their origins in the late nineteenth century. At that time, it is now argued, education was dominated by anarriviste bourgeoisie embracing a version of late-Hegelian philosophy with a doctrine of Eurocentric progress. Seeking legitimacy, the middle class supported the classical revival which stressed liberal education, expressed aspaideia, and mediated through the limited access to grammar school and university. Traditional educational historiography is now seen as reflecting these assumptions through “grand histories” written around “great educators” and “noble ideals”. As educational thought expanded throughout the twentieth century with the emergence of the contributing disciplines, this tradition was challenged as critical historians had a wider data-base from which to draw. By the 1930s and 1940s in the seminal work of R. H. Tawney and Lloyd Warner a literature of dissent began to appear, which, by the late 1960s had increased to a torrent, issuing in violently provocative criticisms of educational assumptions and practices, accompanied by an equally strident literature of historical interpretation, which, drawing from revisionist work in the contributing disciplines, chiefly sociology, began to re-interpret the past twenty-five years of frenetic activity as the legitimate aspirations of the world's masses. Yet the methodology of both positions is itself being reinterpreted in the present post-empiricist stage, which is characterised by phenomenological and hermeneutic approaches. Both history as the events of the past (data-base) and as interpretation (historiography), are now being seen as facets of the one activity, and, with education considered as part of a wider social process, both traditional and radical positions are themselves becoming criticised for their inadequate positivist assumptions and methodology.     

The ecology of language teacher assessment literacy: Insights from emotional critical incidents

Despite the substantial growth of research on language assessment literacy (LAL), the emotional side of LAL has been under-researched. In response to this gap of knowledge, the present study explored Iranian English language teachers’ LAL through the lens of emotional critical incidents (CIs). Drawing on an ecological lens as embedded in a case-study design, data were collected from narrative frames, classroom observations and post-class discussions, and semi-structured interviews. Data analyses revealed three personal, institutional, and sociocultural ecologies that shaped the teachers’ LAL-related emotional CIs and the associated sense-making, practice, and perceptions about assessment. In particular, we found that the emotional side of LAL is defined by agency, emotion labor, the need for voice, and broader discourses of assessment in Iran. Based on the findings, we provide implications for running professional development courses that build on teachers’ LAL and account for emotions as a key component of such courses.     

Comparative education: Towards a basic theory

Former Vice-Rector in charge of Planning and former Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and Literature at the National University, Heredia, Costa Rica. Former Unesco educational planning expert (Somalia, Central America). Consultant with the International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP). Founding President of the Institute for Social Cybernetics Applied to Planning (ICSAP), Costa Rica. Author of several works on educational planning and administration and on comparative education.     

Towards a unified theory for HIV/AIDS counselling

The paper explores the introduction of an unified theory for HIV/AIDS counselling. To date the provision of HIV/AIDS counselling has been largely based upon the behavioural theory of counselling. This theory has been adopted by WHO/GPA and its main aims have been the prevention of HIV infection and the psychosocial support for those already infected. It is argued that future counselling interventions should be redirected from a disease-centred approach to a person centred approach. This redirection can be facilitated by the adoption of the self concept as the central measure for evaluating change. It is argued that various ideas should be selected from the behavioural, psychoanalytical and humanistic theories of counselling. These ideas should be amalgamated into a unified theory which provides the theoretical foundation upon which a comprehensive counselling intervention can be based.     

The national literacy strategy: a critical review of empirical evidence

Abstract This article examines three areas that are of central importance to the pedagogy of the National Literacy Strategy Framework for Teaching (FFT) at primary level: inspection evidence; school effectiveness (SE) research; and child development evidence. Analysis of national inspection reports on the teaching of English illustrates that these cannot be used as a reliable source of evidence. A focus on the claims made in support of an objective‐based framework in SE research shows that there is very little evidence to support the particular use of objectives in the FFT. A synthesis of child development research in relation to language and literacy finds that the FFT does not adequately reflect the evidence. It is concluded that there is an urgent need for a formal review of the FFT.     

Teacher assessment literacy: a review of international standards and measures

Assessment literacy is a core professional requirement across educational systems. Hence, measuring and supporting teachers’ assessment literacy have been a primary focus over the past two decades. At present, there are a multitude of assessment standards across the world and numerous assessment literacy measures that represent different conceptions of assessment literacy. The purpose of this research is to (a) analyze assessment literacy standards from five English-speaking countries (i.e., Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK, and USA) plus mainland Europe to understand shifts in the assessment landscape over time and across regions and (b) analyze prominent assessment literacy measures developed after 1990. Through a thematic analysis of 15 assessment standards and an examination of eight assessment literacy measures, results indicate noticeable shifts in standards over time yet the majority of measures continue to be based on early conceptions of assessment literacy. Results also serve to define the multiple dimensions of assessment literacy and yield important recommendations for measuring teacher assessment literacy.     

Accountability,control and freedom in teacher education in England: Towards a panoptican

This article presents a socio-historical analysis of teacher education in Britain, tracing the changing agents and nature of control of, and consequent levels of freedom in, the enterprise from its inception to the present day. It illustrates the evolution from church, through university to state control and the limited role of the teaching and teacher education professions in each. In doing so it identifies teacher education as a disputed territory of conflicting tendencies, which currently faces unprecedented and draconian central government control and identifies the major factors related to change. It further traces how in the period since the second world war the main source of control has shifted from institution to state, and the main object of control from the student, to teacher educators, to the content and nature of teacher preparation, to the present where all these are centrally controlled, in a fashion not only foreign to British education history but also its culture.     

Towards a literacy of fusion: new times,new teaching and learning?

This paper seeks to widen discussion about which forms of literacy are most appropriate for the education of children in the twenty‐first century. It outlines the current debate about the changes to children's literacy practices, which are described as being prompted on the one hand by the pervasive influence in society of new technologies, and on the other by the extent of pupils' engagement with popular culture. Using a single example, representative of a number of classroom action research studies devised by the author in which children's own interests were used to motivate writing, she argues that what is required from teachers is a transformative pedagogy. This would allow children's cultural interest to be merged with the school requirements into what is described as a literacy of fusion . The paper ends with an outline of the aspects of learning to which a teacher working to create such forms of literacy would need to attend.     

Dynamic assessment of literacy: English as a third language

The aim of this paper is to valuate the applicability of Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory and the concept of dynamic assessment to the problem of assessing reading comprehension in English as a third language (L3). The study was conducted with immigrant students from Ethiopia studying at pre-academic centers in Israel. The assessment procedure included a pre-test, mediation, and post-test. The pre-test was based on a standard reading comprehension placement exam. Based upon the pre-test material, a very detailed analysis of the required pre-existing knowledge and necessary strategies was then mediated to the students. The post-test was identical to the pre-test regarding structure, requirements in terms of pre-existing knowledge and strategies, length, etc., but with different content. The results demonstrated: (1) A dynamic assessment procedure significantly improved the text comprehension performance of L3 students; (2) The dynamic assessment procedure added information regarding students’ learning potential over and beyond their initial performance level; (3) The learning potential profile of immigrants from Ethiopia is somewhat different from that of non-immigrant students.     

Theorizing literacy, politics and social process: Revisiting maktab literacy in Iran in search of a critical paradigm

Literacy as a social practice is integrally linked with social, economic and political institutions and processes. As such, it has a material base which is fundamentally constituted in power relations. Literacy is therefore interwoven with the text and context of everyday living in which multi-levelled meanings are organically produced at both individual and societal level. This paper argues that if language thus mediates social reality, then it follows that literacy defined as a social practice cannot really be addressed as a reified, neutral activity but that it should take account of the social, cultural and political processes in which literacy practices are embedded. Drawing on the work of key writers within the field, the paper foregrounds the primary role of the state in defining the forms and levels of literacy required and made available at particular moments within society. In a case-study of the social construction of literacy meanings in pre-revolutionary Iran, it explores the view that the discourse about societal literacy levels has historically constituted a key terrain in which the struggle for control over meaning has taken place. This struggle, it is argued, sets the interests of the state to maintain ideological and political control over the production of knowledge within the culture and society over and against the needs identified by the individual for personal development, empowerment and liberation. In an overall sense, the paper examines existing theoretical perspectives on societal literacy programmes in terms of the scope that they provide for analyses that encompass the multi-levelled power relations that shape and influence dominant discourses on the relative value of literacy for both the individual and society.     

Accountability and Control: a sociological account of secondary school assessment in Queensland

This paper analyses sociologically the current form of school‐based secondary assessment in Queensland which is criterion‐referenced to Year 10 and a hybrid criterion/norm referenced form at the end of Year 12. Habermas’ arguments are used to suggest that this assessment pattern will give the state potentially greater ‘steering capacity’ over education by ‘rationalising’ it — the ‘scientisation of schooling’. This form of assessment fits within the accountability discourse of the economically parsimonious 1980s while meeting selection demands. However, the approach does meet some educational demands. The paper also reflects upon the role of the state and expert knowledge in policy formulation.

     

Towards a theory of leadership practice: a distributed perspective

School‐level conditions and school leadership, in particular, are key issues in efforts to change instruction. While new organizational structures and new leadership roles matter to instructional innovation, what seems most critical is how leadership practice is undertaken. Yet, the practice of school leadership has received limited attention in the research literature. Building on activity theory and theories of distributed cognition, this paper develops a distributed perspective on school leadership as a frame for studying leadership practice, arguing that leadership practice is constituted in the interaction of school leaders, followers, and the situation.     

’Accountability and Control’: a note on analysing secondary assessment systems

This paper builds on Lingard's paper (1990a, British Journal of Sociology of Education, 11, pp. 171‐188) analysing the present secondary school assessment system in Queensland by presenting comparable material for Victoria from 1856 to 1979. All Lingard's tools of analysis are used, but particular attention is paid to Offe's concept of “economic connections” and to operation‐alising it by the use of the financial accounts of examination boards. Only by employing such tools in the service of sociological theory will an approach be made to theories about assessment systems.