Sustaining Effective Literacy Practices Over Time in Secondary Schools: School Organisational and Change Issues

Abstract

The effective, sustained implementation of literacy across the curriculum in secondary schools is still a relatively rare phenomenon. This is because such an approach to literacy requires secondary schools to undergo extensive and complex processes of school change, involving altering teachers' thinking, attitudes and behaviour in relation to literacy and pedagogy, and establishing and maintaining organisational processes that support teachers' change processes and their impact on student learning. Such changes take time, not least because they often run counter to traditional organisational and pedagogical approaches in secondary schools. Drawing on our research evaluation of the Secondary Schools' Literacy Initiative (SSLI) in New Zealand, this paper examines the medium to long term implications of school change processes for secondary schools undertaking a cross-curricular literacy focus. In so doing, it identifies three key phases that secondary schools may undergo in order to achieve and sustain effective literacy practices over time and suggests that these phases, and their characteristics, may well have wider applicability. doi: 10.2167/le799.0Keywords: literacy, secondary schools, school organisation, school change, whole school, cross-curricular, effective schools, professional development Introduction. . . we have a considerable body of research on what effective schools and teachers do to promote reading success in the elementary grades. We also possess a great deal of knowledge about successful school reform and the importance of professional development in that process. The missing piece for schools, however, seems to be the procedural knowledge about how to translate this research into school and classroom practices that lead to improved reading performance for their students. (Taylor et al., 2005: 40, 43) Taylor et al. make this observation in light of their excellent recent analysis of a research-based approach to literacy professional development (PD) in 'high poverty' elementary (primary) schools in the United States. The quote highlights clearly the key challenge that such schools face in implementing literacy across the curriculum effectively -that is, how to operationalise research-attested effective literacy practices in classrooms in order to improve student literacy outcomes (see May, 1997; Wright, in press Corson, 1999;Knott, 1985;Moje et al., 2000;O'Brien et al., 1995). Part of this may be because there are often far greater organisational and bureaucratic constraints in secondary schools to effecting such changes. Secondary schools are generally larger and more complex organisations than their primary counterparts and are also the least changed of any schooling structure since the advent of mass education, with the industrial management model (and its accompanying bureaucracy) adopted for secondary schools at the time a still-prominent feature (O'Brien et al., 1995). As David Corson observes of this: 'Present-day high schools are usually very large bureaucracies. They are multi-pur...

Differentiation of Teaching and Learning: The Teachers' Perspective

“…The positive results of the intervention on students' performance and the improvement of their knowledge about the dimensions of reading and comprehension reveal how successfully the teachers taught, which is in agreement with research data which shows the contribution of differentiation of learning and teaching to students' performance (Antoniou, Kyriakides & Creemers, 2011;Farkas, 2003;Valianti, 2010) [43][44][45]. Simultaneously, the results of current research contribute to the wider discussion on the preconditions of effective teaching and learning reading skills among adolescents (Biancarosa & Snow, 2004;Cantrell & Carter, 2009;May, 2007) [21,22,18]. The better performance of students in the posttest correlates with the development of reading strategies.…”

“…However the question remains: In what framework can teacher training be achieved? (May, 2007;Ruys et al, 2013) [20,19] Nevertheless, even though theoretically it is believed that the successful teaching of literacy presupposes the differentiation of the teaching process, the product and the content according to the learning aims and student needs, which need to be investigated systematically and in depth (Guthrie, 2008;Irvin, et al, 2007) [8,9], researchers have indicated that there is limited research data on the improvement of adolescents' literacy skills through differentiated instruction (Biancarosa, & Snow, 2004;Cantrell & Carter, 2009) [21,22].…”

Dual language programs as a strand within a secondary school: dilemmas of school organization and the TWI mission

“…Despite critiques of the junior high structure in middle school and its compartmentalized practices, and the call for more collaborative, interdisciplinary structures to support adolescent learning, the traditional subject-based structure continues to dominate secondary public schools today (May 2007), including the school in our study. In our study a basic conflict emerged between the principles of effective TWI education and a middle school structure organized around individual, discipline-based periods.…”

The disciplinary constraints of SLA and TESOL: Additive bilingualism and second language acquisition, teaching and learning

“…Section 4 (Language and school) provides teachers with a wide range of SLA and TESOL principles and practices that (can) support language acquisition and use within an additive bilingual framework. The final section (Supporting language development) explores the wider principles attendant upon language and literacy across the curriculum, and the curricular and wider school change processes needed to implement such approaches effectively (May, 2007).…”