Reading Policy: What Counts as Research?

1. Reading Policy: What Counts as Research? Phil Cormack (Uni SA) Bill Green (CSU) Annette Patterson (QUT) Presented to the Annual Conference of the Australian Association for Research in Education, held in Canberra, 29 November - 3 December, 2009 1

2. Teaching reading in Australia: An historical investigation of early reading pedagogy, the figure of the teacher and literacy education • What are the historical (dis)continuities in the ideals and practices associated with the teacher of beginning reading from the mid-19th century to the present? • How has the teacher-pupil-text relationship in beginning reading pedagogy been configured in different periods and places? • What can be learned from the history of debates about the teaching of reading that can inform teacher preparation and professional learning? 2

3. The teacher as a relational subject Contingently shaped by the ways the child is constituted and by the texts (or forms of literacy) that are available or seen as ideal. 3

4. Three periods of data collection and analysis • mid-19th century, the UK (Scotland, Ireland) representing important precursors to Australian teaching and teacher education • 1870-1930s, NSW and SA representing the foundational period of universal public education in the colonies of Australia • the present Australian (federal) sphere as well as in NSW and SA 4

5. Some questions … • What policies do we have in relation to the teaching of reading in Australia? • What type of research informs policy? • What are the (historical) links between evidence and policy? 5

6. Method and technique The phonic method … is over three hundred and fifty years old. It was at the time of its introduction a very profitable departure from the pure alphabetic method, and had its origins in some of the earnest minds that worked contemporaneously with Martin Luther. Parker, 1894, p. 196. 6

7. Teaching Reading (2005) • History and The Report • Evidence and its role in policy development 7

8. Three ‘uses’ of history 1 History as longstanding binary 8

9. Endless & irreconcilable difference The Committee recognised that the teaching and learning of reading has attracted the interest of scholars and researchers in many disciplines: linguists, cognitive psychologists, health professionals, sociolinguists, philosophers, literacy critics, and critical theorists, as well as educators. However, a characteristic feature of literacy teaching for more than 40 years in English-speaking countries has been the disagreements among these scholars about how beginning reading (as the basic element of literacy acquisition) should be taught1. At the extremes of these disagreementsare educators who advocate whole-language approaches, and cognitive scientists who argue for explicit, systematic instruction in phonics. 9

10. Three ‘uses’ of history The global economic, technological and social changes underway, requiring responses from an increasingly skilled workforce, make evidence-based high-quality schooling an imperative. Nowhere is this more important than in the teaching of reading (a key element of literacy) since reading competence is foundational, not only for schoolbased learning, but also for children’s behavioural and psychosocial wellbeing, further education and training, occupational success, productive and fulfilling participation in social and economic activity, as well as for the nation’s social and economic future. (p.11 emphasis added) 2 Contemporary global change as reified context 10

11. Three ‘uses’ of history Much curriculum design, content, teaching and teacher preparation seems to be based, at least implicitly, on an educational philosophy of constructivism (an established theory of knowing and learning rather than a theory of teaching). Yet the Inquiry found there is a serious lack of supporting evidence for its effectiveness in teaching children to read. (p.12) 3 A deliberate forgetting/erasure of history 11

12. What do these uses of history make possible? • the need for reform need not be debated due to the external, reified context of global change • In a de-peopled historical landscape scientific discovery and progress is eminently imaginable (terra nullius) • one side of the historical binary (whole language promoted by educators) can be cast as quaint ignorance, whilst the other side (systematic instruction in phonics promoted by cognitive scientists) can be presented as scientific progress • Teachers can’t be blamed (teacher quality can be supported even as current teachers are clearly doing the wrong thing) 12

13. Pearson (2000) on research and policy When research moves into the policy arena, one of two outcomes are most likely. If the research is widely accepted by members of the profession from which it comes, widespread acceptance and implementation usually follows. … If widespread consensus on what the research says about practice is not reached, then research-based policy initiatives are likely to sharpen and deepen the schisms that already exist, and the whole enterprise is likely to be regarded as a "war" among Balkanized factions within the field. (Pearson 2000, p.30) Pearson, P. D. (2000). Reading in the 20th century. In T. Good (Ed.), American Education: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (pp. 152-208). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 13

14. Pearson on NCLB reforms [On the one hand, not a lot will change beyond the early years] but beneath that curricular surface, major changes would have occurred… • the role of the teacher and the learner would have reverted to what they were at the beginning of the century. • The role of the teacher would be to transmit the received knowledge of the field, as reflected in research-based curricular mandates, to students. • Students would eventually be regarded as active meaning makers, but only after they had received the tools of decoding from their teachers. (Pearson 2000, p.32) 14

15. Evidence in the Teaching Reading report [E]quipping young people to engage productively in the knowledge economy and in society more broadly is fundamental to both individual and national prosperity, and depends primarily on: • the ability to speak, read, and write effectively; and • the provision of quality teaching and learning by teachers who have acquired during their pre-service teacher education, and in-service professional learning, evidence-based teaching practices that are shown to be effective in meeting the developmental and learning needs of each child (p.7 from the Preface, emphasis added). 15

16. Evidence and effectiveness [The inquiry] has drawn upon a variety of sources that include findings from local and international evidence-based research that identify best practice in the support of all children, including those experiencing difficulties in learning to read and write. These findings have provided strong evidence about teaching approaches that are demonstrably effective. (p.8) …an expectation that teachers will engage in evidence-based professional learning and learn from each other. (p.9) Teaching, learning, curriculum and assessment need to be more firmly linked to findings from evidence-based research indicating effective practices, including those that are demonstrably effective for the particular learning needs of individual children. (p.9) 16

17. Evidence-based research Evidence-based research involves the application of rigorous, objective methods to obtain valid answers to clearly specified research questions. It includes research that: (1) employs systematic, empirical methods that draw on observation and/or experiment designed to minimise threats to validity; (2) relies on sound measurement; (3) involves rigorous data analyses and statistical modelling of data that are commensurate with the stated research questions; and (4) is subject to expert scientific review. (p.85 from the Glossary)

18. The Rose Report2006 The remit for the review In keeping with its remit, the review examines and comments upon: Aspect 1 what best practice should be expected in the teaching of early reading and synthetic phonics The critique by Kathy Hall (2007) Literacy policy and policy literacy: A tale of phonics in early reading in England In R. Openshaw & J. Soler (Eds) Reading across International Boundaries: History, Policy and Politics, (Charlotte, NC: Information Age) 18

19. Evidence What is the problem? The problem is a lack of evidence to support the position taken on synthetic phonics in these Reports despite existing evidence that supports an alternative position (Hall 2009, p.152) 19

20. Media and political sponsorship • The Scottish research claiming to show the merits of synthetic phonics received an unprecedented amount of attention before it went through the conventional review process and, to my knowledge, it still hasn’t been published in a refereed source • In the Rose Reports and the House of Commons Report, which immediately preceded them, this study received a noncritical summary. Because of its unusual and extensive media coverage, including uptake by politicians from more than one political party, the study is now set to exert inordinate influence. (p.157) 20

21. Research The conventional practices of academic (sic) – namely, debate, dialogue, argument, critique, and investigation – are now perceived as negative, frustrating, irritating, unhelpful, and inconsistent. p.158 From the first page summary of the interim Rose Report: • ‘There is a futile debate that risks distracting attention from the important goals of understanding how beginners learn to read and write’ 21

22. Accountability and governance • the narrow focus of the Rose Review (on phonics) • the ‘narrow view of the remit gives the false impression that the way to enhance the teaching of reading is simple and straightforward’ (p.155). • ‘…the remit was framed in a way that fitted neatly into the surveillance project: the aim is to render literacy measurable and the early years teacher accountable’ (pp.155-6). 22

23. History and ‘evidence’ • What counts as evidence? • Qualitative, small scale studies? • Classroom-based studies? • Studies informed by sociology and history? • Studies informed by psychology and history? • Large scale surveys informed by quantitative methodologies? • Assessment data? 23