Teachers’ literacy knowledge: A case study of provision

Abstract

Recent debates have judged teachers inadequate in terms of "personal literacy", "knowledge (PLK)", a term used by government and policymakers but neither defined nor explained in detail. This judgement is problematic for initial teacher education (ITE). It raises questions about teacher literacy in relation to established understandings of literacy and professional knowledge, current provisions of literacy knowledge within programs, and provision of personal literacy knowledge as a newfound problem, or one historically ongoing. The judgment has gained greater significance with Australia’s mandatory literacy test for pre-service teachers. My study addresses provision of personal literacy knowledge in ITE programs. The uncertainty of this conceptualisation challenged me to determine its nature and its provision in ITE, currently and historically. This qualitative case study used two sample ITE programs, current and historical, as data. Extended literature reviews explored conceptualisations of literacy and origins of personal literacy knowledge, fundamental to determining what counted as personal literacy knowledge in the data. A conceptual framework, drawing on Shulman (1986, 1987), categorised teachers’ literacy knowledge. This framework became the analytic tool used to identify provision of literacy knowledge in the data, and isolate personal literacy knowledge. Initial findings indicated that both current and historical programs revealed personal literacy knowledge, but this provision related more to social ideals of literate teachers than a definitive corpus of literacy knowledge. The proposition my study supports is that teachers’ personal literacy knowledge, now regarded as assessable, is a very difficult construct to define and establish with certainty and detail. The difficulty relates to tensions surrounding society’s re-shaping of what counts as school literacy, society’s expectations of teachers as literate professionals, as well as challenges associated with literacy provision in ITE. This matter of what counts as personal literacy knowledge carries potential for significant impact on Australian teachers’ credibility, and the quality of ITE.