Literacy researchers working across different disciplinary traditions often share a core interest in how to support children and young people’s reading experiences and outcomes. Yet despite our shared interests, research silos exist, and will continue to do so, unless we start to consider how our research fits within a broader understanding of literacy. This blog post is borne out of a discussion between Fiona Maine and Sarah McGeown, organised by Cathy Burnett and Parinita Shetty as part of the Research Mobilities in Primary Literacy Research project which sought to better understand how literacy research moves to, among and around teachers in England, with a particular focus on the kinds of literacy research that teachers encounter (and those they do not).

Our shared experience is that research around ‘reading’ is a particularly problematic case, where unnecessary polemic positions have been stoked by interest groups, media and policymakers, when the everyday experiences of teachers in the classroom present a much more complex and nuanced picture.

‘Unnecessary polemic positions have been stoked by interest groups, media and policymakers, when the everyday experiences of teachers in the classroom present a much more complex and nuanced picture.’

This blog post is based on the premise that different disciplinary perspectives can offer complementary insights, and that integrating these perspectives best captures the complexity of children and young people’s literacy, and how best to support it. For example, sociocultural models have informed classroom and learning practices like group work, or peer talk (see for example Wetzel et al., 2019). Sociological perspectives have highlighted the significance of power, identity, place, materiality and affect to literacy (see for example Moss, 2021). Meanwhile psychological perspectives have provided insight into the skills and processes involved in word reading and reading comprehension (see for example Castles et al., 2018). However, there is still much progress to be made in recognising the value of differing perspectives, within and across research communities, as well as in public and policy discourses about literacy and evidence-informed education. In this blog post we consider some of the challenges which impede progress with regards to interdisciplinary thinking and collaboration, before reflecting on potential ways forward.

‘There is still much progress to be made in recognising the value of differing perspectives, within and across research communities, as well as in public and policy discourses about literacy and evidence-informed education.’

In terms of challenges, we recognise that interdisciplinarity in itself requires a particular mindset and researchers are rarely schooled in interdisciplinary ways of working. Moreover, the research questions that different researchers ask are informed by their ontological starting points. As a result, researchers – and others interested in research evidence (such as policymakers, school/trust leaders and other professionals) – often have entrenched beliefs about ‘what counts’ as research and finding areas of commonality and agreement can be challenging. Furthermore, communicating across disciplinary barriers can be difficult, as researchers use different terminology, methodologies and theoretical frameworks. Indeed, often the challenge comes from using the same terminology, but in different ways – for example ‘literacy’ as a skill and a complex social practice. Finally, we recognise that there are currently insufficient opportunities to create interdisciplinary collaborations, as academic conferences and special interest groups typically maintain, rather than challenge, disciplinary silos.

Yet the reality in literacy classrooms is that teachers have routinely drawn on a plethora of research traditions to engage with learners (Burnett, 2022) and moving forward we believe it is important to create the contexts and conditions which allow us to integrate diverse disciplinary insights from research, to ensure policy and practice recommendations draw upon the full breadth of literacy research available. Changes to support interdisciplinary thinking, discussion, working and outputs could include:

• professional learning for researchers at all career stages, with frameworks/guidance for effective interdisciplinary thinking, integration and practice
• funding to develop and maintain interdisciplinary collaborations, allowing for workshops, networks, conferences or centres with interdisciplinarity as its key focus, to tease out and work with points of tension, and develop projects and outputs which draw upon different disciplinary perspectives
• literacy conferences and special interest groups proactively encouraging submissions from different disciplinary perspectives, and providing a positive and welcoming environment for discussion
• government consultations that actively seek researchers from different disciplinary perspectives, to ensure literacy policy guidance is informed by different disciplinary traditions.

We hope this blog post opens up discussion among the UK literacy research community about how we can start to work more collectively together, to achieve our shared aim of supporting children and young people’s literacy. If you would like to contribute towards future thinking or discussion on this topic, please contact Sarah McGeown: s.mcgeown@ed.ac.uk

References

Burnett, C. (2022). Scoping the field of literacy research: How might a range of research be valuable to primary teachers? Working Paper. Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield Institute of Education. https://doi.org/10.7190/shu-working-papers/2201

Castles, A., Rastle, K., & Nation, K. (2018). Ending the reading wars: Reading acquisition from novice to expert. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 19(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100618772271  

Moss, G. (2020). Literacies and social practice: Sociological perspectives on reading research.  Education 3-13, 49(1), 51–53. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004279.2020.1824701   

Wetzel, M. M., Vlach, S. K., Svrcek, N. S., Steinitz, E., Omogun, L., Salmerón, C., Batista-Morales, N., Taylor, L. A., & Villarreal, D. (2019). Preparing teachers with sociocultural knowledge in literacy: A literature review. Journal of Literacy Research, 51(2), 138–157. https://doi.org/10.1177/1086296X19833575