The Reports
An overview of the intent, implementation and impact of reading practices for each country.
Comparative Curriculum Narratives and Summary
The summary will provide an overview of the intent, implementation and impact of reading practices for each country. It will include the knowledge, skills and understandings from families, active teaching staff and undergraduate students. It will address issues of social exclusion (L1 and L2). Each partner university/institution will make a summary and send it to Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) who will collate and construct a summary ( March 2020 – JULY 2020).
MMU is renowned for its innovative methodologies and the creation of curriculum narratives will enable partners to explore and express the specific ways in which varied practices can be understood and where a diversity of voices need to be heard. Research tells us that reading is multifaceted (European Commission (2011) Teaching Reading in Europe: Contexts, Policies and Practices. Brussels: EACEA.) and layered (Gee, J.P. (2001) ‘Reading as Situated Language: A Sociocognitive Perspective.’ Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 44(8):714-725) therefore educators’ practices need to understand that to make a difference to reading attainment, we first need to understand the ways in which specific practices work in situated contexts. MMU will develop a common framework so that each partner can focus on the intention, implementation and impact of specific institutions and contexts.
Developing a common framework is particularly important for the training of teachers at European level as currently approaches are not easily understood from one context to another. One of the key advantages of creating comparative curriculum narratives is that they can draw out the choices and decisions which create strategic decisions as well as the principles and purpose which operate in specific contexts and institutions.
The teaching of reading and implementation of reading practices in schools is a well researched area in the UK and across many EU countries. However, what is less understood is how these policies and guidelines translate into everyday interactions with children, family and parents. The output from the UK will enable each partner to have a detailed understanding of three key aspects of the curriculum: intention, implementation and impact.
This will be achieved in two ways. The first will see a comprehensive and up to date literature review of reading practices from each partner which will include both guidelines for both policy and practice in each partner country. Secondly, each partner will create a curriculum narrative that will focus attention on the ways in which individual contexts and institutions understand and implement the guidelines and with what impact.
