This paper explores the complex and situated nature of literacy education in two ITE providers, one in Scotland and another in Australia. These contexts are shaped by different political climates and measures of accountability for teacher quality, yet both are driven to ensure graduate teachers are “classroom ready” (TEMAG, 2014). These contrasts provide an intriguing backdrop to an on-going study of pre-service teachers learning how to teach with children’s literature using authentic tasks merging theory and practice. The study positions university-based education as a key factor in the preparation of teachers who are critically and theoretically informed. The authors argue that examining connections between programs of study and students’ emerging pedagogic awareness can reveal productive interactions, which affirm the value of pre-service teachers undertaking evidence-based approaches to their professional knowledge development. Our research emphasises the agentive role of teachers in supporting student reading engagement and reading pleasure (Simpson, 2017). The research also meets the Sustainable Development Goal of Quality Education by focusing on the education of pre-service teachers who are responsible for teaching future generations of school children. It aims to enrich pre-service teachers’ understanding of their role as agents in the drive to improve literacy outcomes through inclusive practices. It supports the development of teaching as an intellectual profession.

The specific focus of the paper explores the impact of embedding Reading for Pleasure pedagogical approaches into two comparable yet internationally distinct initial teacher education programs. The research question: What do pre-service teachers understand about the potential of reading for pleasure to improve engagement with reading? responds to The European Declaration of the Right to Literacy (ELINET, 2016) to address the world-wide urgency of equitable access to literacy for all children. It is based on strategic development of global partnerships to establish research designed to address education issues through the lens of social justice and inclusive practices. Research indicates that pleasurable experiences with reading can support the development of lifelong, highly literate readers (Garces-Bacsal, Tupas, Kaur, Paculdar, & Baja, 2018). Australian findings from the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) support this assertion, whereby there is a strong correlation between reading enjoyment, confidence and ability (Thomson, Hillman, Schmid, Rodrigues & Fullarton, 2016). However, PIRLS also identified that 16% of Australian children do not like reading, with a further 41% reporting limited enjoyment (Thomson et al., 2016, p. 85). While this large-scale quantitative data provides a useful diagnosis of this ‘problem’, the data on how to raise student reading enjoyment and engagement is less prominent. In addition studies also show that many teachers do not read for pleasure (Cremin et al, 2008) and are unaware of the potential of children’s literature to engage struggling readers (Commeyras et al, 2003).

Initial teacher education (ITE) could break this cycle by building pre-service teachers’ professional capacity. However, there has not been a study of how pre-service teachers’ knowledge of Reading for Pleasure Pedagogy could be enhanced (Safford, 2014). Cremin et al’s Teachers as Readers study analysed teachers’ knowledge of reading for pleasure strategies (2014). Building on this internationally recognized project, our collaborative, comparative study researches pre-service teachers’ critical understanding of reading for pleasure pedagogies, and their potential for promoting student enjoyment and attainment. RfP practices established in ITE programs in Sydney and Glasgow are being explored, leading to comparative insights in these different policy contexts. Core principles resulting from the study that would be relevant to pedagogic design in any ITE context will be highlighted during the presentation.

The study takes a sociocultural perspective on learning, maintaining that learning is mediated by language (Mercer, 2016; Street, 2001; Wells 1999). Additionally, we believe learning is best supported through dialogic pedagogies that encourage students to build ‘coherent lines of thinking and enquiry’ (Wolfe and Alexander, 2008, p. 8) with support from a teacher. While dialogic teaching has been explored relatively extensively in school classrooms, only a few case studies exist that target Higher Education (Simpson, 2016). We recognise that teacher belief about how learning is scaffolded impacts on the pedagogic strategies adopted. The Teachers as Readers study (TaRs) conducted in the UK extensively analysed teachers’ knowledge of reading for pleasure strategies and their ability to use and engage with quality children’s literature (Cremin et al, 2014). Though generalisations from the TaRs data could be cautiously applied to other contexts, there is a need for comparable, qualitative research projects to be conducted from contrasting perspectives (Vanden Dool & Simpson, 2021). Therefore, this research has adopted some of the methodological aspects of the TaRs study (Cremin et al, 2014) while consciously extending it in a more explicitly socio-critical direction (Vasquez, Janks, & Comber, 2019). Convenience sampling of cohorts enrolled in ITE programs in Sydney and Glasgow resulted in participants including 100 fourth year BEd students and 150 3rd year MEd students respectively. Data collection methods include reading autobiographies, RfP surveys, focus group interviews and document analysis. The selected methods can generate rich accounts by offering respondents ways to extend their ideas through reflection and discussion with others (Flores and Alonso 1995). All data sets will be thematically analysed through iterative categorical analysis, then be cross-coded to inform multi-faceted interpretation of the cases. The analytic tool we are using to provide insights to complex education ecologies is named after the consortium of ITE who designed it, hence the acronym CITE (Ell et al, 2018). The CITE is a conceptual model that captures patterns of stakeholder relationships forged in the education systems through school partnerships with initial teacher education leading to impact on students’ learning. The model is based on the premise that ITE is “fundamentally integrated with all other parts of the education system - in ways that create significant interactions and outcomes.“ (Ell et al, 2018, p4). We will discuss the way this emerging methodology has informed our teacher education research agenda as part of the presentation.

An initial pilot study undertaken by the Scottish team with pre-service teachers had similar findings to UK research that shows in-service primary teachers’ knowledge of children’s literature is often limited to the texts they read themselves at school. This lack of reading depth leads to what has been described as a ‘Dahl dependency’ and a subsequent narrowing of young readers’ experience of children’s literature as teachers struggle to make recommendations that speak to the needs and interests of the increasingly diverse young readers in their classes (Cremin et al, 2008). As the Scottish data mirrors findings from the original UK RfP study, it is expected that comparative data from the Australian team collected in 2020 will echo the same patterns. This is partly due to the similarity in learning goals informing the ITE programs, that is, that all pre-service teachers should be given experience of learning to become Reading Teachers (Commeyras, 2003). However, the local impact of contextual influences from program design, school curriculum and professional teaching standards are taken into account in our cross comparison of the two sets of data. Therefore, each research partner will gain multifaceted insights into their pre-service teacher cohorts’ critical understanding of reading for pleasure pedagogies. Collectively this knowledge will provide stimulus for making improvements to learning about literacy education to both ITE programs. Immediate effects have already been felt, with both the Australian and Scottish teams reporting changes in their pre-service teachers’ articulation of their role as reading teachers and their heightened awareness of quality texts for children. The project’s design allows for international replication, a feature that could prompt rich cross-country comparisons and the subsequent development of resource-sharing networks between institutions. The project establishes a new body of research evidence in the fields of literacy and children’s literature studies in Higher Education.

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