Literacy Crises and Reading Policies: Children Still Can't Read!

by Soler; Janet

• ISBN13: 9780415336765
• ISBN10: 0415336767
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-12-16
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This widely researched comparative study addresses the critical issue of literacy crises around the world and questions their wider sociological and educational impact.The recurring literacy crises in England and English speaking countries such as the US and New Zealand are linked to wider issues of educational standards, concepts of teacher professionalism, debates over curriculum content and the whole purpose of schooling, in order for us to obtain a deeper understanding of specific national contexts and the political pressures involved.The authors' comparative approach enables them to uniquely demonstrate how literacy crises in one country can actually stimulate and shape literacy crises in another, as well as illustrating that these crises frequently share common features across time and geographical boundaries.Rather than championing any 'one best' method of teaching reading, central questions are addressed and discussed, which will make this ground-breaking book essential reading for policy makers, teachers and students in literacy and education studies.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	vii
PART 1 Are our standards slipping? Exploring post-Second World War reading debates from a historical perspective	1	(24)
Introduction	3	(10)
Re-emerging debates over methods and standards, 1945--1965	13	(12)
PART 2 The politicisation and escalation of literary education in England	25	(54)
Reading debates and the Bullock Report, 1968--1975	27	(15)
Post-Bullock reactions to a literary crisis, 1975--1983	42	(20)
The renewed reading standards debate of the early 1990s	62	(17)
PART 3 Recent policy developments: Antipodean synergies	79	(37)
The advent of national literacy strategies	81	(16)
Reading Recovery: a comparative case study	97	(13)
Conclusion: reading debates and educational policy	110	(6)
Appendix 1 A reading revolution: how we can teach every child to read well	116	(44)
Appendix 2 Report of the Literacy Taskforce	160	(27)
Notes	187	(18)
Bibliography	205	(12)
Index	217