International Patterns of Reading Policy and Policy Response

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 5:25 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  In Roundtable Session: Discursive Politics and Controversy-Making in Curricular Reform Movements (Table 9)

Abstract

Over the past decade, a trend towards state and national policies aimed at reforming the teaching of beginning literacy has spread from England to the US, Canada and now towards Australia, Aotearoa/New Zealand and Ireland. Though remarkably consistent across time and national contexts, these policies are often controversial, with significant media and intermediary engagement. In this paper we use frame analysis (Benford & Snow, 2006) to consider how literacy has been framed as a policy issue in major news media outlets and policy documents from each country. We consider the conditions that allow a uniform set of solutions to emerge across diverse settings, and how available metrics for accountability relate to each of these frames.

Authors

• Rachael E. Gabriel, University of Connecticut

• Danielle V. Dennis, University of Rhode Island