Increasing numbers of researchers in the field of higher education research are searching for meaning rather than metrics: something in their data that call to them and that make their hearts soar. This paper leans into post-qualitative approaches and attempts to resist methodological arrest, drawing on the disciplinary language of literary…

In this paper, Emeritus Professor Kevin Wheldall AM, who received the Eminent Researcher Award of this journal in 2023, describes his research over the past five decades, together with his wife and research partner Dr Robyn Wheldall. Following a biographical sketch, selected research is reviewed successively over five decades on language,…

Based on qualitative data on students' approach to reading this paper argues that student learning be significantly improved by facilitating reading to unfold as a method of inquiry. Identifying how students currently orient and interact with texts and further what learning outcomes reading affords we develop the concept of 'Text-Centred Reading'…

This study investigated the effectiveness of ABRACADABRA (ABRA), a web-based literacy program, developed by the Center for the Study of Learning and Performance at Concordia University, in facilitating the literacy attainment of third-grade primary school students in an area of rural China. Researchers shared the experiences of localizing ABRA to…

This article reviews Margaret Meek Spencer's body of work in relation to the various policies that she critiqued from the Bullock Report in 1974 to the National Literacy Strategy in 2004. She analysed increasingly conservative moves to promote a dominant, elitist version of school literacy. A Critical Realist perspective aligns with Margaret Meek…

Children's peer social worlds as part of language and literacy learning are often "hidden" from researchers and teachers alike. This article reports on collaborative research between a researcher and veteran kindergarten teacher into these hidden worlds. We draw upon ethnographic documentation (videos, interviews, field notes) and video…

This study intends to examine the reading process in Chinese of two young heritage language learners through the use of retrospective miscue analysis (RMA). Retrospective miscue analysis involves both the author and the reader in reflectively discussing the reader's oral reading miscues--responses that differ from the actual text. This study…

This article shares insights from a symposium celebrating the retirement of P. David Pearson, one of the most influential reading researchers of the last half-century. Presenters addressed the nature, instruction, and assessment of reading comprehension, teacher learning and comprehension, and the texts and contexts of comprehension. Collectively,…

Although much research exists on scaffolding in reading instruction, confusion about the construct persists. In this commentary inspired by a recent article in "Reading Research Quarterly," we argue for the importance of contingency--that is, responsiveness to student thinking--in reading comprehension scaffolding. We begin by defining…

In this article, two government education policies for primary schools in England are scrutinised, the Phonics Screening Check and Baseline Assessment, both claimed by ministers to be 'evidence based'. What has become a high-stakes test rather than a diagnostic assessment, the Phonics Screening Check, introduced in 2012, now dominates early years…

Research has demonstrated that in controlled experiments in which small groups are being tutored by researchers, reading-strategy instruction is highly effective in fostering reading comprehension (Palincsar & Brown, "Cognition and Instruction," 1(2), 117-175, 1984). It is unclear, however, whether reading-strategy interventions are…

Reflection on subjectivity in the qualitative research process is fundamental to the methodology. Although much attention is paid to what to do (identify subjectivities), there is much less emphasis on how one should do this. Furthermore, a researcher engaged in an intimately familiar setting, such as a typical American classroom, faces the unique…

High-level comprehension instruction is the focus of the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts. However, it has been a challenge for states to provide the professional development (PD) needed to support teachers' implementation of the CCSS. Professional learning communities (PLC) are a means of providing school-embedded PD to…

This article looks closely at the talk of two pre-service teachers over time to examine how they used language as a way of rehearsing their evolving agency as literacy educators. Drawing on critical sociocultural theory, I use Agency Tracing to highlight how pre-service teachers' agentic actions are not isolated phenomena but ones developed and…

Children who enter kindergarten with a small vocabulary don't get taught enough words--particularly, sophisticated academic words--to close the gap, according to the latest in a series of studies by Michigan early-learning experts. The findings suggest many districts could be at a disadvantage in meeting the increased requirements for vocabulary…