Purpose: The purpose of this conceptual paper is to challenge the introduction and implementation of policy mandates that threaten to reduce democratic, creative and responsive literacy pedagogies and practices in the early years. It draws on affect theory as a means to expand theorisations of literacy teaching and learning with approaches that…

Many literacy experts believe close reading has the power to create strong, independent readers, but what does that really mean, and how does it work in the classroom? This book is your must-have guide to getting started! It provides step-by-step strategies and scaffolds for teaching close reading and improving students' comprehension of complex…

Increasingly, librarians are encouraged to deliver information literacy sessions that go beyond finding and using traditional scholarly sources. They are asked to cover a wider range of the information ecosystem and develop students' capacity to critically engage with Google and the open web. In this study, we incorporated these learning…

Word boxes (also known as sound boxes or Elkonin boxes) is a widely used intervention targeting basic literacy skills. The word/sound box intervention has been implemented across grades, settings, and student ability levels, but to date there has not been a quantitative analysis of the effects of the word/sound box intervention. The purpose of the…

Scaling up scientifically validated interventions involves attending to characteristics of the distinct contexts to which scale-up occurs. Here, we describe Read It Again!, a 30-week curriculum supplement designed to enhance early educators' explicit teaching of early literacy skills. Designed for scalability, the open-source curriculum supplement…

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to introduce qualitative research in literacy that has been significant in educators understanding difference in young people's literacy learning. Design/methodology/approach: The approach has been to select influential investigations that have impacted over time and to summarise the insights provided.…

In this essay, I share how my own readings and understandings of Islam brought me closer to wider concepts of literacy. I use these views to guide my own research in literacy education to situate what literacy can be for youth in and around schools, knowing that literacy is still taught, assessed, and measured in singular ways.

Widening participation in higher education has led to the global expansion of universities, increased student and program diversity, and greater provision of flexible pathways into university. Critical to supporting a growing student body is helping all students develop their ability to communicate confidently and effectively in their academic…

Research shows little benefit from phonics instruction in Grades 2 through 12. However, more recent studies show that students who fall below a decoding threshold fail to benefit from other kinds of reading instruction. This exploration of the evidence suggests that these students are likely to need support in the reading and spelling of…

Reading researchers have been engaged with K-12 disciplinary literacy instruction that spotlights the reading and writing of knowledge-producing communities. While research includes rich descriptions of professional scholars enacting meaningful disciplinary practice, questions remain about youth practices in some knowledge-creating communities,…

Employment in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields will continue to grow in the coming years. Those entering the STEM workforce will be expected to demonstrate proficiency in areas such as literacy and problem solving, among other domains. Early access to STEM concepts such as coding may support skill development and…

This article explores how a queer-led online book club supported straight teachers in finding ways to enact Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual, Plus (LGBTQIA+)-inclusive literacy pedagogy. Data for the project came from recordings of book club sessions, interviews with individual participants at the end of each academic…

Most Chinese characters comprise radicals that are embedded in a specific structure (e.g., left-right structure like [Chinese characters omitted], or top-bottom structure like [Chinese characters omitted]). We investigated the representations of word-form units (i.e., radicals) in planning Chinese handwritten production. Adopting the picture-word…

The latest mutation of Artificial Intelligence, Generative AI, is more than anything a technology of writing. It is a machine that can write. In a world-historical frame, the significance of this cannot be understated. This is a technology in which the unnatural language of code tangles with the natural language of everyday life. Its form of…

The Joan Ganz Cooney Center, with support from the Walton Family Foundation, has embarked upon a three-year initiative that aims to help shape educational technology products that address specific literacy outcomes. In 2023, the Cooney Center Sandbox was launched to help digital media innovators answer the following questions: "How do you…