Education Commons^™

What Is The Literacy Supportive Role Of The School Librarian In The United Kingdom?, Margaret K. Merga

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© The Author(s) 2020. Building students’ literacy skills is a key educative purpose of contemporary schooling. While libraries can play a key role in fostering literacy and related reading engagement in schools, more needs to be known about school librarians’ role in promoting these goals. To this end, this article seeks to identify the nature and scope of the literacy supportive role required of the school librarian in the United Kingdom. It also investigates how this aspect is situated within the broader competing role requirements of the profession. Using a hybrid approach to content analysis including both qualitative and quantitative …

Observations Of Children With Disability During Arts-Based Multisensory Story And Rhyme Activities: Is It All Just Chimes And Perfumes?, John O'Rourke, Susan Main, Christina Gray, Christine Lovering

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

It is generally acknowledged that alternative strategies are required to enable children with disability to access storytelling activities. In this study, we sought to analyse the benefits of one such strategy: an arts-based multisensory story and rhyme program delivered to children with Down syndrome and autism spectrum disorder. In order to determine the engagement and impact of the program on the participants, data were collected through a series of multisensory session observations, focus group interviews with parents of participants, and interviews with performing artists delivering the program. The findings of this study revealed multiple benefits of using sensory stimuli to …

School Leadership And Whole- School Support Of Struggling Literacy Learners In Secondary Schools, Margaret K. Merga, Saiyidi Mat Roni, Anabela Malpique

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The needs of struggling literacy learners beyond the early years of schooling warrant greater attention. For struggling literacy learners to attain their academic, vocational, and social goals, schools should position literacy as a whole school priority and enhance opportunities for student literacy learning across all learning areas. However, it is not known if literacy is typically supported as a whole school commitment in contemporary secondary schools. This paper draws on survey data from the Australian nation-wide 2019 Supporting Struggling Secondary Literacy Learners (SSSLL) project. Findings suggest that many mainstream secondary school teachers do not perceive that there is a whole-school …

Teachers’ Perceptions Of Their Preparedness For Supporting Struggling Literacy Learners In Secondary English Classrooms, Margaret K. Merga, Sayidi Mat Roni, Shannon Mason

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. The initial and ongoing professional education of teachers to prepare them to support students’ literacy development warrants research attention. The importance of meeting the needs of struggling literacy learners in secondary school does not diminish as students move through the years of schooling. This paper reports on data from the 2019 Supporting Struggling Secondary Literacy Learners mixed-methods project, which sought to explore the challenges of meeting the needs of struggling literacy learners in Australian secondary schooling, from the perspectives of teachers of mainstream English classrooms. …

School Librarians As Literacy Educators Within A Complex Role, Margaret K. Merga

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Librarians in schools are expected to play an important role as literacy educators, and have a positive impact on young people’s literacy learning. However in the context of their diverse workload, relatively little is known about how this aspect of their role sits within its competing demands, and the exact scope of the literacy educator requirements. Using a hybrid approach to content analysis, this article analyses 40 recent job description documents to identify the nature and prevalence of different aspects of the role, and to explore the literacy educator aspect of this profession. Findings suggest that while the literacy educator …

How Do Librarians In Schools Support Struggling Readers?, Margaret Kristin Merga

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

While librarians in schools often face significant budgetary cuts, they can play an important role in supporting learning in literacy and literature. However, little is known about the practices that they may employ to this end. Of particular interest is the role of librarians in schools in supporting struggling readers, as these students may be increasingly disadvantaged as they move through the years of schooling. Semi-structured interview data were collected from teacher librarians at 30 schools and analysed to identify practices exercised by teacher librarians that aligned with extant research around supporting struggling readers. Teacher librarians provided support by identifying …

Assessing And Selecting Culturally Diverse Literature For The Classroom, Helen Adam, Laurie Harper

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Articulated within the Australian Curriculum (AC) and the Early Years Learning Framework for Australia (EYLF) are strong principles of diversity and intercultural awareness. These principles place a responsibility on educators to make curriculum decisions that reflect inclusive goals and practices. It is important that all children have access to authentic and accurate representations and role models related to their cultural backgrounds and everyday lives, in order to gain benefits associated with developing a positive sense of identity and belonging (Gollnick and Chinn, 2006; Jones Diaz and Harvey, 2002; Morgan, 2009) with additional benefits to their academic and intellectual progress (Department …

Research In Action: Leading Literacy Learning In Primary Schools: Final Report 2013 - 2014, Deslea Konza

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

PALL Plus was funded by a Public Education Endowment Trust (PEET) grant and was conducted with the leaders of 12 primary schools serving low socio-economic communities in metropolitan Perth throughout 2013 and 2014. It was a development of the Principals as Literacy Leaders (PALL) pilot project funded by the Commonwealth Government in 2009-10, which was designed to assist primary school principals across Australia to develop their capacity to lead the teaching of reading in their schools...

Growing Better Beginnings: An Evaluation Of A Family Literacy Program For Pre-Schoolers, Caroline Barratt-Pugh, Carmel Maloney

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This paper investigates the implementation and outcomes of Growing Better Beginnings: a family literacy program for four and five year olds. The program builds on Better Beginnings: Birth to Three launched in 2005. Parents, teachers and librarians were surveyed and interviewed to ascertain their perceptions of the program. An analysis of the factors which facilitate the implementation and outcomes of Growing Better Beginnings and issues associated with the effectiveness of the implementation process is discussed. Findings indicate that perceptions of the program, central coordination, relationships and resources were viewed as facilitating implementation, whilst communication, impact on work, training and …

Teaching Reading: A Shared Vision And A Shared Responsibility 2012-2013: Principals As Literacy Leaders In Ceo Schools, Deslea Konza, Paul Woodley, Sam De Leo, Helen Dixon

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The PALL Plus professional learning and research project was a collaborative effort between the Fogarty Learning Centre at Edith Cowan University and 16 Catholic primary schools within the Western Australian Catholic Education Office (CEO). It was initiated by the principal of Star of the Sea Primary School, Tim Emery, who coordinated involvement of the other schools and managed contractual responsibilities on behalf of the CEO. The project was based on the Principals as Literacy Leaders (PALL) pilot project funded by the Commonwealth Government in 2009-2010, and originally developed in partnership with the Australian Primary Principals Association, Griffith University and the …

Responding To The Evidence: Synthetic Phonics In Action: Final Report: Keys To Unlocking The Future 2012-2013, Deslea Konza

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This project aimed to develop the capacity of primary teachers and School Support Officers (SSOs) to deliver a synthetic phonics program to beginning and struggling readers in 12 primary schools in the Yorke and Mid North region of South Australia. It was designed to ‘value-add’ to the Principals as Literacy Leaders (PALL) project which had been implemented in the region over the previous three years, and to build a critical mass of skilled teachers in a region that usually scored below average in reading on NAPLAN assessments.

A synthetic phonics program refers to one that teaches the alphabetic code or …