The Role of Pre-Service Education in Producing and Perpetuating (In)Equalities:The Case of Early Grade Reading (Part ONE)

Session Submission Type: Group Panel

Description of Session

This is the first portion of a unique two part panel that addresses one of the primary inequalities in education today: the divide between those who can read, and those who cannot. Around the world, the number of students failing to learn to read slows all development efforts, and costs the global economy an annual $129 billion. As reported in the EFA Global Monitoring Report of 2013/2014, “Of the world’s 650 million primary school-aged children, at least 250 million are not learning the basics in reading and mathematics. “ Of these 250 million, it is estimated that 130 million are actually in primary school. Clearly, at a worldwide level, education systems are reproducing and perpetuating a fundamental inequality in reading that has individual, national, and global consequences.

Adopting a conflict perspective, this double panel posits that these inequalities are a function of multiple, systemic, contextual factors that discourage sustained engagement on how to provide pre-service trainees with the skills they need to teach early grade reading well from the start. Quantitative and qualitative evidence from situational analyses, pre-and post-tests of teachers’ skills, pilot tests of the efficacy of new pre-service curricula, and program evaluations demonstrate that the education community can not rupture the systemic circuits that lead to reading inequalities without an increased, critical focus on transforming pre-service teacher training in early grade reading. The double panel is conceived as an opportunity both to present the growing body of evidence about what is effective in pre-service teacher training in reading, and to develop a consensus-based set of recommendations for accelerating the pace at which pre-service institutions incorporate research-based preparation in early grade reading.

The objective of the first portion of the panel is to identify promising strategies and principles that early experience and data suggest do, indeed, facilitate the inclusion in pre-service training of preparation to teach early grade reading. Here, researchers and practitioners in this domain share study findings and practical considerations that provide to the educational community (which has been largely focused on in-service training), a corpus of best practices for reforming reading training at its roots, (in pre-service institutions and other ‘accelerated’ teacher preparatory programs). Data sources discussed include two program evaluations from Pakistan, a summary of a systemic analysis of the state of pre-service education in reading in Kenya, and the mid-term monitoring and evaluation of the Ethiopia pre-service mother tongue language program. The presenters share their conclusions about the multiple political and pedagogical tools necessary to create transformative, large-scale, sustainable change in pre-service training modalities for reading; this is of scholarly importance as it has not previously received in-depth consideration at CIES. By using data to encourage attendees to consider complex pedagogical, and institutional challenges that act as barriers to improving pre-service training, the panelists offer the participants a unique, data-based perspective on how early grade reading instruction can successfully be incorporated into institutions that, historically, have not prioritized the preparation of teachers for primary school grades and have primarily served only the educational elite.

Sub Unit

• SIG: Global Literacy

Organizer

• Rebecca Rhodes, US Agency for International Development (USAID)

Individual Presentations

• Learning from Research: Highlights from the Literature on Pre-Service Training Reform (USAID) - Christin McConnell, US Agency for International Development (USAID)

• Using Technology to Enhance Pre-Service Reading Education: the Promise of Blended Learning - Rachel Christina, Education Development Center (EDC)

• Enhancing, Formalizing, and Scaling Pre-Service Literacy Instruction in Pakistan - Fathi El-Ashry, Creative Associates International

• The Tusome Kenya Experience: Learning to Incorporate A Focus on Pre-Service - Benjamin Piper, RTI International

• Preparing Student Teachers to Teach Reading in Mother Tongue: - Flavia S Ramos-Mattoussi, Florida State University

Discussant

• Sylvia Linan-Thompson, University of Oregon