Developing literacy frameworks

The current educational landscape in Australia and globally is increasingly shaped by policies that entrench explicit instruction as the default approach to literacy teaching, reinforcing the belief that structured phonics-based methods are universally effective. This project examines how teacher education literacy programs can be modified to better realities of the complexities of contemporary classroom practice. The challenge of literacy research is to examine explicit instruction from a broader perspective, rather than framing it as an all-or-nothing approach. The project will identify gaps in current literacy pedagogies and explore the integrating of socio-cultural literacy learning alongside explicit instruction models. The research team is led by Associate Professor Mark Vicars and Dr Amanda Muscat. Potential applicants would possess a background working in primary literacy in complex classrooms.