In schools, literacy is often positioned as a fixed set of reading and writing skills. This can limit what counts as an academically acceptable literacy practice despite the complex and nuanced ways people communicate in their personal and social contexts. With this tension around conceptions of literacy in mind, I wondered how teachers thought…

Social networking tools are innovative practices utilized by higher education institutions to promote the development of literacy skills and encourage engagement in an online learning platform. There is limited understanding of whether social networking tools have a similar effect on fourth-grade students' literacy development and engagement. The…

Literacy standards (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & Council of Chief State School Officers in Common core state standards: English language arts standards, 2010) and best practices from Institute of Education Sciences practice guides (e.g., Baker et al. in Teaching academic content and literacy to English learners in…

This study delves into the disparity in academic performance between students of color and their white counterparts, the former performing three to five years behind. To address this issue, a qualitative and interpretive descriptive study was conducted to investigate how schools address learning opportunities for students of color, employing…

Literacy standards (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & Council of Chief State School Officers, 2010) and best practices from Institute of Education Sciences practice guides (e.g., Baker et al., 2014; Kamil et al., 2008) encourage content-area teachers to use text reading to improve vocabulary and comprehension for…

Large-scale assessments have become a basic national policy for educational improvement encouraging standards, decentralisation and school accountability. The current study focuses on the pedagogical dimension of large-scale assessments, examining its uses as a policy instrument for effecting pedagogical change. The paper presents and discusses…

Connecting the constructs of meaning and experience in the fields of English education, teacher education, literacy and narrative inquiry, "Making Meaning with Readers and Texts" materializes new insights for advancing teacher education research, broadening understandings of teachers' use of literacy practices for making meaning from…

Researchers found that the integration of internet technology into K-12 classrooms can improve student outcomes. Self-reported statements from 15 teachers and district survey results at the local setting, a rural school in a Southern state, indicated that sixth- through eighth-grade English Language Arts (ELA) teachers were not making effective…

Using a mixed-methods approach, this article reports survey findings regarding the factors secondary English-language-arts teachers in the United States reported as influential to their text selection and examines how those factors varied by years of teaching experience. Teachers' department was the most cited influence regardless of years'…

The Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts were a part of a reformation of the nation's reading standards. The demands for higher standards were due to the general public and Federal legislators request for higher student achievement. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore the teachers' life experiences, thoughts,…

This study examined the preparedness of middle school teachers to teach literacy strategies to middle school students. The study also examined the significance between teacher licensure pathways and their self-efficacy level as it relates to using literacy strategies in content areas. This was a mixed methods study using quantitative data…

Current accountability measures require English language arts (ELA) teachers to teach literacy skills to all students. However, the population of mainstreamed students is becomingly increasingly diverse and includes students on the autism spectrum for whom literacy skills may lie in opposition to population characteristics. Further, educators are…

This review essay begins with the premise that we are all writers. However, for a number of reasons, many teachers struggle to identify as writers and teachers of writing. In the current environment, the need for schools to adopt pedagogical practices facilitating the development of disciplinary literacies means that teachers cannot avoid the task…

Teachers of subject English across Australia have been involved in a wide range of professional learning experiences to support implementation of the "Australian Curriculum: English" since its introduction in 2010. This article investigates the professional learning experienced by a small number of primary school teachers in two Catholic…

In response to character education stated in Indonesian Curriculum 2013, to build characters for students of early ages is significant. This can be built through establishing reading habits and building character education to young learners living in urban and suburban areas simultaneously. However, there is lack attention paid to those living in…