Fast and furious: a reform agenda in early literacy in schools

Abstract

<p>Australia was once an outpost of the British Empire and there was a time when we looked to the United Kingdom for much of our cultural direction, but as Australia moved to its 200^th anniversary and with leadership from government we began to see our place more firmly centred on our geographical position rather than continuously looking back to Northern Europe. Yet, here we are in 2017, looking back once more to a UK educational initiative the Phonics Screening Checklist which was formally announced in September 2017 to be implemented in Year 1 to all Australian children in 2018.</p><p> I write as a teacher educator, researcher and leader in the field of literacy education with 30 years of University based experience across the world which allows me to be reflect on how this initiative builds into a pattern of policy dictating classroom practice. My seven years in ITE in the UK coincided with the Labour Government's National Literacy Strategy, I remember finding the resourcing and support offered to teachers in schools during that period to be world class. I found OFSTED terrifying at first and very different from the way things were done in Australia, but oddly I came to understand the OFSTED culture and could understand the place of inspections in pursuit of the then Labour government's mission to provide ' ... a good school for every child is our mission' (Blair, 2001).</p>