Writing matters: reversing a legacy of policy failure in Australian education - Deidre Clary and Fiona Mueller

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Writing matters: reversing a legacy of policy failure in Australian education - Deidre Clary and Fiona Mueller
Analysis Paper 23
    July 2021

        Writing matters:
 reversing a legacy of policy
failure in Australian education
  Deidre Clary and Fiona Mueller
Writing matters: reversing a legacy of policy failure in Australian education - Deidre Clary and Fiona Mueller
Writing matters: reversing a legacy of policy failure in Australian education - Deidre Clary and Fiona Mueller
Writing matters:
 reversing a legacy of policy
failure in Australian education
   Deidre Clary and Fiona Mueller

           Analysis Paper 23
Writing matters: reversing a legacy of policy failure in Australian education - Deidre Clary and Fiona Mueller
Writing matters: reversing a legacy of policy failure in Australian education - Deidre Clary and Fiona Mueller
Contents

Introduction...........................................................................................................1

National literacy concerns........................................................................................2

       NAPLAN writing..............................................................................................3

Documenting policy failure.......................................................................................4

The research deficit................................................................................................6

       Searching in the wrong direction.......................................................................7

       Loose trends..................................................................................................8

Who is responsible?................................................................................................8

       Teacher capacity........................................................................................... 10

A chronology of education theories and trends influencing writing instruction................ 11

       Nation-building (1901).................................................................................. 11

       Revolution (1960s)....................................................................................... 11

       Transformation (1970s)................................................................................. 12

       Experimentation (1980s)............................................................................... 13

       Progressivism (1990s)................................................................................... 14

       Balanced Literacy.......................................................................................... 14

       Literacy in freefall (2000s)............................................................................. 16

Conclusions......................................................................................................... 17

Recommendations................................................................................................ 18

Appendix 1. Chronology of Literacy Theories and Practices......................................... 18

Appendix 2. Glossary............................................................................................ 20

Endnotes............................................................................................................. 21
Writing matters: reversing a legacy of policy failure in Australian education - Deidre Clary and Fiona Mueller
Introduction
Australians are aware that literacy education has            unable to achieve maximum benefit from the wider
parallels with economist Thomas Sowell’s summation           school curriculum and likely to be disadvantaged in
that “Much of the social history of the Western world,       post-school life and work. As with mathematics, young
over the past three decades, has been a history of           learners need to master fundamental knowledge
replacing what worked with what sounded good.”1              and skills to the point of automatic recall and
Rather than just three decades, however, Australia           application in any context. In the case of English,
has seen at least 60 years of the adoption, variable         this means achieving confidence and competence in
implementation and occasional jettisoning of a parade        grammar, spelling and punctuation to free the writer
of methodologies including learning styles, multiple         to concentrate on the ideas and information to be
intelligences, critical literacy, constructivism, whole      communicated in any writing task.
language, process writing, genre theory and text
                                                             Beyond the practical gains, an individual’s capacity
types, balanced literacy and learning progressions.
                                                             to write is important because it is an enduring
Much of this “bricolage of pedagogies, approaches and        manifestation of thought processes and freedom of
resources”2 has been introduced without obvious due          expression.
diligence in relation to teacher expertise or objective
                                                             The University of Tasmania’s Dr Damon Thomas says
consideration of applicability — and effectiveness — in
                                                             declining student performance “affects the quality of
the Australian context. Many of the local proponents
                                                             democracy because it’s about the ability of people
remain influential. In part, this is due to this country’s
                                                             to question something, make interpretations, [and]
early reliance on — and later fascination with —
                                                             argue for what they need or what they want.”7 He
literacy practices developed elsewhere, especially the
                                                             concludes that,
United Kingdom and the United States.
                                                                 A lot of effort has been put into reading and
A major consequence has been the near abandonment
                                                                 numeracy but writing has received a lot
of consistent, explicit instruction about how the
                                                                 less attention. The Australian Curriculum is
English language works as a system, juxtaposed with
                                                                 underpinned by tradition from other countries.
an ideological preoccupation with the socio-cultural
                                                                 We need Australian research into the teaching of
‘experience’ of students in the classroom.
                                                                 writing.8
Generational decline in student achievement and
                                                             Similarly, the Grattan Institute’s Dr Peter Goss says
teacher expertise in writing — the poor cousin of
                                                             that,
reading in Australian educational research — reflects
the policy shifts.                                               Writing is not talked about as much as reading
                                                                 and numeracy. It’s very hard to get any visibility
The links between these two key elements of English
                                                                 into how writing is taught in classrooms. What
literacy are under increasing scrutiny. While some
                                                                 we have here are some alarm bells ringing but
have declared the ‘reading wars’ to be over, there
                                                                 no visibility through the smoke to understand
is no universal acceptance of the phonics reading
                                                                 what’s causing the problem.9
method in Australian classrooms or university teacher
education programs.3 The corollary, discussed in             The ‘problem’ attracts ongoing philosophical and
recent British research, is that the “limited knowledge      practical commentary.
about the nature of writing systems among many
                                                             Canadian school principal and award-winning author
practitioners means that they are not equipped
                                                             Steven Laffoley has long blamed generational decline
to understand why phonics works for alphabetic
                                                             on Whole Language methodologies, claiming these
systems.”4
                                                             “blindly trusted a student’s individual intuition and ...
Australians are aware of the decline in students’            encouraged students to write willy-nilly, unfettered by
knowledge and skills as measured by the National             rules of grammar or qualitative evaluation.”10
Assessment Program — Literacy and Numeracy
                                                             Decades of work with regional and remote
(NAPLAN). Analysis of 10 years of NAPLAN literacy
                                                             communities enable Noel Pearson to speak from
data by the NSW Centre for Statistics and Evaluation
                                                             firsthand experience. The Indigenous Australian
(CESE) indicates that high school students “struggle
                                                             lawyer, land rights activist and Director of the Cape
with writing more than with reading and numeracy.”5
                                                             York Institute for Policy and Leadership argues
Emphasising “the significance of writing ability to          that “rather than letting teachers teach, states
overall educational outcomes”, the CESE report               and territories are delivering social constructivist
revealed that one in every six Year 9 students in New        pedagogies that leave students behind.”11
South Wales fails to achieve “the minimum standard
                                                             According to Professor Ken Gannicott, economist and
required to succeed in their final years of school.”6
                                                             former head of the Graduate School of Education at
Students who lack sound writing skills are                   the University of Wollongong, schooling “has become
disadvantaged in almost every academic endeavour,            hopelessly ideological, captured by those hostile

                                                                                                                         1
to a content-based curriculum and to any form of           Dr Peter Knapp, former Director of Educational
    externalised standardised testing.”12 Some academics       Assessment Australia at the University of New South
    dismiss the concerns.                                      Wales, has found that “in the education faculties
                                                               of universities there appears to be a range of not
    Referring to “the alleged neglect of grammar, spelling
                                                               necessarily complementary philosophies on how to
    and punctuation”, among other issues associated with
                                                               teach writing. In some cases there is no advice on
    progressive methodologies, University of Western
                                                               teaching specific writing skills at all.”19
    Sydney academics Wayne Sawyer and Susanne
    Gannon have asserted that “media-powered moral             In a 2015 book published by the Australian Literacy
    panics have exacerbated and begun to reframe               Educators Association (ALEA), British researcher
    literacy pedagogy and public policy in Australia.”13 The   Teresa Cremin provided evidence that pre-service
    debate has stimulated calls to go ‘back to basics’, a      teachers regarded writing as “difficult and potentially
    theme that characterised the reviews of both the New       exposing; they were anxious about the teaching of
    South Wales Curriculum (2020) and the Australian           writing, and made negative judgements about their
    Curriculum (2021).14 Blogging for the Australian           own writing.”20 Cremin’s surveys of current teachers
    Association for Research in Education (AARE) in 2020,      revealed that those who acknowledged low self-
    Dr Naomi Barnes contended that:
                                                               esteem as writers lacked confidence when writing and
        In 2010, the phrase ‘back to basics’ was               sharing their work.21
        used to signal a return to the ‘golden age’ of
                                                               There is a view that traditional approaches to literacy
        grammar. The phrase worked to signal both
                                                               education simply “maintain hegemony by producing
        nostalgia and reassurance about basic reading
                                                               educated subjects, good citizens, logocentric
        and writing in the emerging era of social media.
                                                               rationality and disciplined bodies.”22 Instead, say
        The hearkening back to days where children
                                                               Australian Catholic University literacy specialists Kathy
        were remembered to be obedient and do their
                                                               Mills and Len Unsworth, it is necessary to “incorporate
        homework tapped into alluring, if false, white
                                                               students’ predilections while extending the range of
        Australian cultural memories of the 1950s.15
                                                               multimodal literacy practices that are already familiar
    Dr Barnes, lecturer in education at Queensland             to youth.”23 Formulating literacy education policy on
    University of Technology, cites lead writer of the         the basis of ‘students’ predilections’ is arguably less
    Australian Curriculum: English, prominent Australian       likely to inspire a close, voluntary focus on English
    academic Professor Peter Freebody, in a claim that         grammar as part of the thoughtful production of well-
    “literacy levels in Australia had improved since           researched written work. Already, the low cognitive
    grammar was removed.”16                                    demands and instant gratification of daily ‘multimodal
    A different perspective is offered by Charles Sturt        literacy practices’ make expectations of long-form
    University’s Russell Daylight and John O’Carroll, who      writing seem obsolete.
    say “the basic terms of grammar that were lost to          Policy instability and pedagogical conflicts are evident
    the generations between 1970 and the present are           in Australian literacy education, and they do not serve
    valuable, provided they are not taught abstractly or in    Australian students or the nation well.
    absurd detail.”17 Five years of work with hundreds of
    aspiring teachers convinced them that:                     Without the significant resources available to
                                                               governments and universities, but in the spirit of the
        Since primary school, students have been
                                                               official Education Goals for Young Australians, this
        starved of information about a subject which
                                                               paper explores “how things have become the way
        they secretly suspect is very important. When
                                                               they are.”24 It focuses on one question: Why can’t
        that information is thematised in terms of their
                                                               our students write?
        own writing, and their own struggles, they pay
        even closer attention.18

    National literacy concerns
    Australian students’ declining achievement in NAPLAN,      and the workforce. This concern features in a lengthy
    as well as in international test regimes such as           stream of reports and inquiries.
    the Program for International Student Assessment           A report produced by the New South Wales Education
    (PISA) and Progress in International Reading Literacy      Standards Authority (NESA) — Teaching Writing
    Study (PIRLS), is of concern to parents, employer          — reminds stakeholders of Australia’s reliance on
    groups and tertiary institutions who question the          NAPLAN data.25 Administered to Years 3, 5, 7 and
    preparedness of many school leavers for adult life         9 each year, the test regime remains Australia’s

2
sole national instrument for monitoring students’            produce, for example, a ‘narrative’ or ‘persuasive’
development of English language skills, including            text.28 One criticism is that this restrictive approach
writing. There was no testing in 2020 due to the             demands “one-shot-perfect productions”,29 with
COVID-19 pandemic. The validity of the 2019                  teachers focused on tightly defined criteria and
NAPLAN results remains contested, largely because            minimal opportunity for students to demonstrate their
of questions about comparability between the work of         linguistic dexterity.
students taking the tests online and those using pen
                                                             The ‘text type’ approach to teaching writing may
and paper.
                                                             be regarded as the product of tensions between
                                                             a comparatively laissez-faire Whole Language
NAPLAN Writing                                               methodology and demands for a return to more
                                                             predictable, template-oriented writing. The NAPLAN
In 2018, less than 80% of Year 9 students achieved at
                                                             writing test is also controversial because of its
or above the national minimum standard in writing. As
                                                             separation from discrete tests of language conventions
Figure 1 reveals, 2019 achievement by Year 7 and 9
students in writing had fallen below the 2011 national       (spelling, grammar) and reading comprehension, the
average. In 2019, there was a slight movement                latter two consisting mainly of multiple-choice items.
upwards in the percentage of Year 9 students                 In 2018, former Massachusetts Institute of Technology
achieving at or above the national minimum standard.         Professor Les Perelman, an American educator
The results “paint a dismal picture of student progress      engaged by the NSW Teachers Federation to evaluate
with writing”, according to Dr Damon Thomas.26 He            the NAPLAN writing task, described it as “by far the
cautions that “a nearly 10-year pattern of decline in        most absurd and the least valid of any test” he had
NAPLAN writing should be warning enough. We need             encountered.30
to pay attention to this.”27                                 With great diplomacy, the NESA report says “it
A further concern is the gap between male and female         is possible that the quality of student writing is
writing scores, which widens with every tested year          underappreciated and not properly captured by
level and is equivalent to two years of learning by Year     current assessment regimes.”31 The report concludes
9. The pattern for girls’ writing scores is illustrated in   that it is “highly probable that much student writing is
Figure 2. Despite a decline starting in 2014, scores for     not all that it could be. What is clear from this review
Years 7 and 9 climbed in 2018-2019.                          is that we could be doing more to embed quality
                                                             teaching of writing in our schools.”32
The design and utility of the NAPLAN tests, the extent
to which a limited number of test items can reflect          Responsibility for the design and annual publication of
the curriculum, and the national minimum standards           the NAPLAN tests lies with the Australian Curriculum,
approved by state and territory authorities, are all         Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). That
matters of ongoing debate.                                   organisation claims that “Since 2016, NAPLAN testing
                                                             has been aligned to the Australian Curriculum:
With its fixation on ‘text types’, the NAPLAN writing
                                                             English.”33
task has become the curriculum by proxy for many
Australian schools. The stand-alone test requires            There are obvious implications for this alignment in
students to respond to a stimulus or ‘prompt’ to             the 2021 Review of the Australian Curriculum.34

Fig. 1 NAPLAN writing achievement — national                 Fig. 2 Girls’ writing achievement premium (2011-2019)
average (2011-2019)

                                                                                                                        3
Documenting policy failure
    The Australian Productivity Commission recently              lack higher order thinking skills, flexibility,
    reminded policy makers of the national implications          discipline, numeracy, and the ability to communicate
    of falling academic achievement, recommending in             satisfactorily in speech and writing.”43 That 1992
    a 2020 report that “There should be a coordinated            report was published by the IPA’s Education Policy
    national strategy … to reduce the large number of            Unit, which was led by Dame Leonie Kramer, the first
    Australians with low language, literacy, numeracy            female professor of English in Australia, Chairman of
    and digital literacy skills.”35 With an eye to the future,   the ABC and Chancellor of the University of Sydney.
    special education and reading specialist Dr Robyn            The report pointed to “anti-intellectual political
    Wheldall asked in 2019: “How can a country remain            reformers” whose work “in the name of greater equity,
    prosperous and deliver on productivity if one in             freedom and relevance” changed the curriculum in
    two of its adult citizens cannot read and write at an        “ways which have promoted a levelling down instead
    acceptable level?”36                                         of the increased opportunity sought.”44
    The 2018 Review to Achieve Educational Excellence in         Perceptions of the effectiveness of Australian literacy
    Australian Schools, led by businessman David Gonski,         education policies and practices vary.
    revealed that concerns about unsatisfactory literacy
    achievement are “borne out in Australia, where total         Dr Jan Turbill, a prominent Australian proponent of
    government funding for schools has doubled since             constructivist approaches, has written that:
    1988, yet Australian students’ performance in national           For much of this period, at least until the mid-
    and international assessments has declined in real and           1990s, there seemed to be relative calm in the
    relative terms.”37 An earlier Gonski-led project, the            field of literacy teaching (one might argue that
    2011 Review of Funding for Schooling, emphasised
                                                                     such ‘calm’ is synonymous with ‘little political
    the need for Australian schooling “to lift the
                                                                     interference’) and we felt excited about what we
    performance of students at all levels of achievement,
                                                                     and the children were learning and achieving.45
    particularly the lowest performers [and to] improve
    its international standing by arresting the decline that     Within a decade, however, the excitement felt by
    has been witnessed over the past decade.”38                  these academics did attract ‘political interference’,
                                                                 due to concerns about the wide variation in literacy
    An Australian National University study published in
                                                                 education programs and teacher preparedness.
    2009 by economists Andrew Leigh and Chris Ryan
    found that the current generation of Australian              In 2005, the Australian government commissioned
    students performed less well in key skill areas than         a group of Edith Cowan University academics to
    their predecessors in the 1960s.39                           research the issues. A study involving six universities
                                                                 and 1500 beginning and experienced teachers resulted
    Asserting that “over the past three to four decades,
                                                                 in the report Prepared to teach: an investigation
    neither literacy or numeracy has improved, and may
                                                                 into the preparation of teachers to teach literacy
    even have declined slightly”, the ANU researchers
                                                                 and numeracy. The ECU report mentioned similar
    concluded that even with a significant increase in per-
                                                                 concerns in the United States and the United Kingdom
    student funding from the mid-1960s through to the
                                                                 and pointed to the “weakness in the empirical base of
    early 2000s, Australian school productivity declined by
    73 per cent.40                                               teacher education research”, especially in relation to
                                                                 teachers’ literacy knowledge and skills.46
    In 2005, the National Inquiry into the Teaching of
    Literacy found that “a significant minority of children      Key findings were that improvements in student
    in Australian schools continue to face difficulties          outcomes would depend on recruiting teachers with
    in acquiring acceptable levels of literacy and               demonstrated competence in English language upon
    numeracy.”41                                                 entry to initial teacher education (ITE) programs and
                                                                 requiring all such programs — for both primary and
    Less than a decade earlier, a former Australian              secondary teachers — to deliver compulsory units on
    Minister for Schools, Vocational Education and               language and literacy.
    Training, had already commissioned a National Plan
    to improve levels of literacy. In 1997, Dr David             Contemporaneously, concerns were expressed in
    Kemp based that decision in part on an ACER report           Canada. Award-winning author and Head of Halifax
    which found that “while some students are achieving          Grammar School, Steven Laffoley, lamented in 2004:
    high literacy standards, a disturbingly high number
                                                                     Even if we had the will to change our course
    of Australian school children are failing to meet a
                                                                     suddenly, we would be left to confront the dark,
    minimally acceptable standard in literacy.”42
                                                                     awful truth that this generation of teachers is the
    Just five years before that, an Institute of Public              product of New English. Frankly, many teachers
    Affairs report titled Educating Australians found that           are without the fundamental grammatical
    “employers complain that high school graduates                   knowledge necessary to teach our children.47

4
There was a glaring disparity between concerns               additional funding might be interpreted as a tacit
about student achievement and teacher capacity and           admission that many actually lacked competence and
professional organisations’ claims of high standards         confidence in the ‘explicit teaching of English skills and
and achievement.                                             concepts’, and that their university studies were not
On the basis of the results in early PISA tests (2000        preparing them adequately for the classroom.
and 2003), Australian academics such as Susanne              By April 2021, unresolved concerns about graduates
Gannon and Wayne Sawyer suggested that “Australian           possessing “the necessary knowledge, skills and
teachers of English and literacy ought to be lauded          dispositions to be successful teachers in any Australian
as among the world’s very best.”48 Similarly, a former       school” caused the federal government to announce
president of the Australian Association of Teachers of
                                                             the Quality Initial Teacher Education Review.56
English (AATE) wrote in 2006:
                                                             Taxpayers might well ask why the Terms of Reference
    Testing indicates that Australian schools are
                                                             of the 2021 Review seem to echo the themes of the
    producing a nation of highly literate citizens,
                                                             2005 Edith Cowan University report, particularly in
    with results that have not been bettered at any
                                                             relation to literacy:
    time in history.
                                                             	Part A - Attracting and selecting high-quality
    Australian English teachers have collectively
                                                               candidates into the teaching profession
    embraced the highest standards of professional
    accountability, are highly accomplished, and             	Part B - Preparing ITE students to be effective
    achieve outstanding results.49                             teachers.57
At the time — not long before the introduction of            Taxpayers might also ask about the long-term impact
Australia’s national curriculum in 2011 — the AATE           of the Teacher Education Ministerial Advisory Group
attributed the alleged successes to the fact that “the       (TEMAG). Established in 2014, the TEMAG had already
national Standards for Teachers of English Language
                                                             bemoaned inadequate local research and pointed
and Literacy in Australia articulate current best
                                                             to the critical importance of addressing “the overall
principles and practice for English Literacy teaching.”50
                                                             quality and capabilities of teachers being prepared for
By 2016, concerns about teachers’ expertise had led          Australia’s classrooms.”58
to the implementation of a test known as the Literacy
                                                             Public interest in the 2021 Review of the Australian
and Numeracy Test for Initial Teacher Education
                                                             Curriculum may draw further attention to academic
Students (LANTITE).51 Meeting these standards is
                                                             expectations and professional expertise.
a condition of graduation from teacher education
programs; the strategy is designed “to ensure                ACARA claims that the current Australian Curriculum:
teachers are well equipped to meet the demands               English “is well-regarded with comparable content
of teaching and assist higher education providers,           and standards to first language curricula in other
teacher employers and the general public to have             countries.”59 The organisation has also stated that
increased confidence in the skills of graduating             preparation for the 2021 Review considered “the
teachers.”52 Placing the LANTITE hurdle at the end of
                                                             latest research and international developments”
teacher training programs implies that universities
                                                             and “involved teachers and curriculum experts from
carry at least some responsibility for the English
                                                             all states and territories, the government and non-
literacy knowledge and skills of their graduates.
                                                             government sectors, national teacher and principal
The opposite approach applies in high-performing
                                                             professional associations, parent groups and subject
Singapore, where applicants are screened in this area
                                                             matter experts.”60 However, as is true for the other
before admission to teacher education programs.53
                                                             seven learning areas, no overarching intellectual
In 2018, the AATE objected that “Funding for the             framework has been developed to guide those
support for the more explicit teaching of English            responsible for revising the Australian Curriculum:
skills and concepts is not available. Generic ‘literacy      English. Nor was the preparatory work made available
learning’ support is available and this falls short of the   to explain the basis for identifying “some key areas
explicit targeted support that teachers need to focus        where the English curriculum could be improved.”61
on their students’ English learning.”54
                                                             This means no public analysis of past policy success
Given the AATE’s claim in 2006 that “Teachers of             and failure — including consideration of current
English and Literacy in Australia are rightly proud          teaching methodologies — to assist stakeholders in
of their demonstrated expertise,”55 a request for            their feedback on the proposed revisions.

                                                                                                                          5
The research deficit
    According to the AATE, “educators need to be                 ACARA is the self-described “authoritative source
    discerning practitioners as they draw on research that       of advice on, and delivery of, national curriculum,
    is contemporary, valid and rigorously conducted to           assessment and reporting for all Australian education
    inform their practice.”62                                    ministers.”68 AITSL summarises its role as “Developing
                                                                 expertise and empowering teachers and school
    However, as this paper argues, it is difficult to identify
                                                                 leaders to create better education outcomes for
    evidence of national success to support the AATE’s
                                                                 Australian children.”69 ESA’s strategic objective is
    claims of “best principles and practice” or of that
                                                                 to “use our unique combination of education and
    organisation’s interest in any relationship between
                                                                 technology expertise to create and deliver solutions
    those and the well-documented decline in teacher
                                                                 that can be used to improve student outcomes and
    capacity and student performance.
                                                                 enhance performance across all education sectors.”70
    Decades of policy instability — particularly in English
                                                                 Taxpayers might query why the combined resources
    literacy — can be attributed to a dearth of rigorous
                                                                 of ACARA, AITSL and ESA have apparently failed to
    Australia-based research material specifically designed
                                                                 do what is now being asked of fledgling organisation
    to justify, inform and evaluate educational change.
                                                                 AERO; that is, to “generate high-quality evidence,
    Nearly 50 years ago, this weakness was identified            make high-quality evidence accessible and enhance
    in the federal government’s Education Research               the use of evidence in Australian education.”71
    and Development Committee’s 1975-1976 Report.63              Dr Michele Bruniges, Director-General of the federal
    The ERDC concluded that: “Perhaps never before in            Department of Education, Skills and Employment,
    Australia’s history has there been so much concern           says it will “provide practical support to teachers
    about education. Some of these concerns represent            by translating research and evidence into effective
    clashes of values and ideologies.”64                         strategies they can use in the classroom.”72
    In the 1970s, the hope was “to foster a new approach         At least one academic is optimistic. Professor Ken
    to education which incorporates an R and D [research         Gannicott believes AERO “will be the perfect vehicle
    and development] model.”65 Reflecting an official            for keeping the work grounded in the practicalities
    commitment to “improving the quality of educational          of ‘what works’, rather than getting lost chasing the
    research in Australia”, the ERDC emphasised that             wilder ideas so fashionable in education.”73
    “innovations will not be discouraged but be thoroughly
    evaluated before being widely promoted; policies will        Another eight jurisdictional authorities (state and
    be guided by information.”66                                 territory education departments) also allocate
                                                                 taxpayer funds to ‘research’.
    By the early 2000s, former federal Education Minister
    Julia Gillard was promoting a national curriculum            Additionally, as discussed in a later section, numerous
    that would “harness collective expertise and effort”         professional bodies claim responsibility for policy
                                                                 development, professional learning and resources for
    and deliver “economies of scale and a substantial
                                                                 teachers, and other aspects of literacy education.
    reduction in the duplication of time, effort and
    resources.”67                                                Lastly, it is worth considering the role of a high-profile
                                                                 Australian organisation, which describes itself as “one
    By the third decade of the 21st century, taxpayers
                                                                 of the world’s leading educational research centres.”
    were questioning the return on $60 billion per
                                                                 Founded in 1930, and now boasting over 400 staff
    annum in recurrent funding to schooling, including
                                                                 (including many located overseas), the mission of
    the contribution to four organisations known as
                                                                 the not-for-profit Australian Council for Education
    the ‘national education architecture’, each of which
                                                                 Research (ACER) is “to create and promote research-
    is tasked with aspects of curriculum, professional
                                                                 based knowledge, products and services that can be
    learning, digital strategies and services and education
                                                                 used to improve learning across the lifespan.”74
    research.
                                                                 Yet the ACER, whose CEO led the 2020 Review of
    These are:
                                                                 the New South Wales Curriculum, did not establish a
    •	Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting           critical nexus between the relevant research and high
       Authority (ACARA, established in 2008);                   levels of student literacy.

    •	Australian Institute for Teaching and School              Without detailed reference to the experience of
       Leadership (AITSL, 2010);                                 high-performing systems in Europe and Asia, whose
                                                                 success in developing children’s literacy presupposes
    •	Education Services Australia (ESA,2010); and
                                                                 the long-term study of multiple languages, lead
    •	As of 2021, the Australian Education Research             author Professor Geoff Masters made a key policy
       Organisation (AERO).                                      recommendation to “require every student to

6
commence learning a second language during their            workforce to support students’ language and literacy
primary years, making use of technology where               development, they can pivot more readily to address
possible.”75                                                myriad educational challenges.

Professor Masters proposed that priority be “given          Even if Australian dependence on other English-
to languages of the region, including Mandarin              speaking countries can be attributed to socio-
and Indonesian.”76 The report’s failure to make the         cultural and linguistic familiarity, it is difficult to
case on the basis of incontrovertible international         understand local researchers’ apparent disinterest
evidence may account, at least in part, for the NSW         in the approaches to literacy education in the high-
government’s rejection of the recommendation.               performing school systems.
Taxpayers could reasonably have expected that               Local efforts to steer English literacy policy in well-
decades of federal and state/territory reviews of           researched directions have had little success. An
education — generally led by and drawing on the             example is the lack of action following the publication
expertise of the profession and assorted education          of Australia’s National Policy on Languages in 1987.
bodies — would deliver detailed explanations of the
origins of problems alongside proposals to improve          Responding to an Australian Government request
teaching and learning.                                      for “an overall, coherent and integrated policy … [to
                                                            meet] the needs and demands of the society and
For example, a forensic investigation into the decline      of particular component groups,”77 Professor Joe Lo
in teacher expertise and student achievement in             Bianco cited the Senate Standing Committee’s report
English literacy would almost certainly have identified     of October, 1984:
the unsubstantiated implementation and questionable
benefits of ‘inquiry-based’ learning, a derivative of the       Language policies should be developed and
constructivist approach.                                        co-ordinated at the national level on the basis
                                                                of four guiding principles, namely: competence
Such work might have mitigated ongoing concerns
                                                                in English; maintenance and development
raised by stakeholders (including during the 2021
                                                                of languages other than English; provision
Review of the Australian Curriculum) regarding the
                                                                of services in languages other than English;
value placed on explicit teaching.
                                                                opportunities for learning second languages.78

                                                            Professor Lo Bianco became the inaugural chief
Searching in the wrong direction
                                                            executive of Australia’s National Languages and
Education policy shifts since the middle of last century    Literacy Institute in 1990. He argued:
show Australian educators repeatedly looking to
                                                                There is persuasive evidence from research
other English-speaking countries for inspiration. It
                                                                that individuals, particularly children, who
is perplexing that this occurred even when those
                                                                attain a high level of bilingualism, i.e. a high
systems — the United Kingdom and the United
                                                                level of proficiency in two languages, often
States, in particular — were themselves experiencing
                                                                gain non-linguistic as well as linguistic benefits
significant academic challenges, especially in English
                                                                in their intellectual functioning. Specifically
literacy.
                                                                these advantages relate to higher levels of
With regard to language acquisition, Australian policy          verbal intelligence, a greater capacity to think
instability is in stark contrast to the evidence-based          divergently and manifested forms of greater
approach of high-performing European and Asian                  mental flexibility.79
counterparts.
                                                            Taxpayers might have expected this report to inspire
Singapore and Finland are two examples of                   a meeting of the minds between educators and
education systems whose philosophical and curricular        academics in the two key curriculum areas of English
commitment to plurilingual education rests on an            and Languages.
appreciation of the benefits for overall academic
progress and intercultural awareness.                       On the contrary, its influence was so minor that
                                                            by 2015, academics from three universities drew
Operating from a set of first principles that               attention to the specific problem.80 Contending that
prioritise the rigorous study of both mother tongue
                                                            Australia is “facing a slow decline in most educational
and additional languages, these systems remain
                                                            standards, and few are aware just how bad the
consistently respectful of longstanding evidence of
                                                            situation is getting,” Six Ways Australia’s Education
‘what works’.
                                                            System is Failing our Kids compares the monolingual
They are now well placed to consider enhancements to        character of schooling in this country with the finding
literacy (and other) education for students in the 21st     that “most other industrialised countries have been
century. With confidence in the robustness of their         strengthening their students’ knowledge of other
academic curriculum and the capacity of their teacher       cultures and languages.”81

                                                                                                                      7
There are indications that young Australians —             Fig. 3 NAPLAN writing achievement premium among
    particularly those undertaking tertiary programs —         LBOTE students (2011-2019)
    who study other languages report greater competence
    and confidence in English.82

    Other evidence includes the NAPLAN writing test,
    where Australian students from language backgrounds
    other than English (LBOTE) demonstrate a significant
    and increasing premium over their monolingual peers
    (as seen in Figure 3).

    Loose trends
    The Australian Constitution’s silence on school
    education has long been understood to devolve
    responsibility to states and territories. This includes
    registering and monitoring schools, training and
    accrediting teachers and credentialling students,
    especially at Year 12.
                                                               gaps and divisions have formed. These include the
    The eight jurisdictions remain strongly assertive of       so-called ‘literacy wars’ — most closely linked to
    their freedom to “implement the Australian Curriculum      the teaching of reading and writing — which have
    in ways that value teachers’ professional knowledge,       underpinned the adoption of fads and trends, many
    reflect local contexts and take into account               from overseas.84 The Institute of Public Affairs (IPA)
    individual students’ family, cultural and community        has concluded that much of the generational decline
    backgrounds.”83                                            in literacy could be attributed to such “loose trends.”85
                                                               Succumbing to the demands of interest groups,
    The net effect is significant variation in education
                                                               governments have invested ever increasing amounts
    policy and practice across Australia. As with many
                                                               of money into education without evidence of resulting
    other aspects of school education (and teacher
                                                               improvements in quality.86 This is counter-intuitive,
    training), this variation helps explain the failure to
                                                               says Noel Pearson, because “the evidence has been
    implement an evidence-based, nationally agreed
                                                               well known about what works for children’s reading
    approach to the teaching of writing.
                                                               and numeracy and learning generally … it is just
    Without clear direction, transparently based on            that there has been a concerted effort to impede the
    objective, comprehensive research relevant to the          known and very effective means by which children
    Australian school context, intellectual and pedagogical    could learn in Australian schools.”87

    Who is responsible?
    Notwithstanding any overtly ideological directive          Bacalja and Lauren Bliss (University of Melbourne’s
    pursued by a minister or within a particular portfolio,    Graduate School of Education):
    government decisions can only be as good as the
                                                                   Curriculum is always organised to preserve
    advice politicians receive from staffers, subject matter
                                                                   vested interests and maintain the status quo.
    specialists, bureaucrats and lobby groups.
                                                                   Any attempt to change this curriculum, and
    It follows that the primary source of advice in                therefore disrupt the status quo, is met with
    relation to English literacy education will be                 fierce resistance by those who perceive that
    university academics and the specialist professional           such change will undermine the values, relative
    organisations claiming leadership in the field.                power and privileges of the dominant groups
    Academics exert significant influence and autonomy             involved.88
    in methodologies adopted by schools and teacher
                                                               The implication is that conservative political forces
    training programs. In general, they are appointed to
                                                               control decisions about what and how children will
    teaching and leadership roles on the basis of their
                                                               learn. In relation to English literacy, this prompts
    research interests and pedagogical expertise.
                                                               questions about how the profound pedagogical shifts
    In the context of the 2021 Review of the Australian        of the past 60 years have occurred, particularly in
    Curriculum, it is interesting to consider the influences   terms of diminishing explicit instruction in English
    brought to bear on such work. In the view of Drs Alex      language (see Appendix 1).

8
Statements from the professional organisations offer           relevant to them as well as texts that will stretch
little clarity.                                                their knowledge, understanding and skills.96

According to the Australian Literacy Educators’            If ‘story’ is the vehicle for successful learning — and
Association (ALEA), “Literacies are inextricably linked    if the ‘skills’ include sophisticated written expression
with the particular cultures, histories and experiences    — it is axiomatic that the telling can only be entrusted
of individuals and groups.”89 The ALEA’s official          to those with the requisite expertise. In relation to
Declaration makes no specific reference to English         the education of young learners, the professional
as the national language or to mastery of Standard         organisations have traditionally led decision-making
Australian English as an overarching goal of the           about how students will learn and teachers will teach.
Australian Curriculum.90
                                                           With regard to ’story’, Dr Alex Bacalja asserts that “a
Similarly, the Australian Association for the Teaching     Critical Literacy lens in education considers all texts
of English says “the student’s self-esteem and             to be equally worthy of study insofar as they are all
competence as a language user are nurtured by              elements of culture that warrant students’ critical
providing learning experiences which are inclusive of      attention.”97 He maintains that “Selected texts … must
the race, gender, cultural and social backgrounds of all   be negotiated between teachers and students, and in
students.”91                                               that negotiation the views and values of individuals
Under a list of General Principles, the AATE states        impact upon the way the texts are received.”98
that within the school curriculum, “English is the         The Primary English Teachers’ Association Australia
subject which carries the major (though not exclusive)     takes the position that the definition of ‘literate’ is
responsibility for fostering students’ language and        constantly changing, largely because schools and
literacy development.”92
                                                           teachers are now charged with preparing students
The AATE’s Position Statement lobbies for greater          for ‘uncertain futures’. As a recent PETAA project
funding for teacher professional development,              explained, “In a writing context, this translates to
insisting that “Quality English teaching in Australian     students producing texts that matter to them and
schools is a shared community responsibility.”93 The       texts that have significance for the ever-changing
“charter for teachers of English” makes few and vague      world they live in.”99
references to actual language acquisition, an example
                                                           Such approaches are a direct reflection of the
being that “[Students] have access to explicitly stated
                                                           globalist 21st century learning agenda promoted by
information about writing and reading processes and
                                                           organisations such as the Organisation for Economic
language structures.”94
                                                           Cooperation and Development (OECD). Australian
According to the English Teachers Association of NSW,      education policy is increasingly influenced by a vision
“Teaching is no longer about the transmission of           of a world threatened by volatility, uncertainty,
knowledge, rather it is about developing in students       complexity and ambiguity (VUCA). Strategies such
deep understanding, critical questioning and the           as the OECD’s Future of Education and Skills Project
application of knowledge.”95                               2030 aim “to help education systems determine the
                                                           knowledge, skills, attitudes and values students need
In the context of the 2021 Review of the Australian
Curriculum, such statements help to explain                to thrive in and shape their future.”100
unresolved concerns about teacher capacity, student        However, the VUCA worldview can neither explain nor
achievement and academic expectations and practices        address the findings of the 2018 NESA report, cited
across the country.                                        earlier in this paper. The data collected for Teaching
On the basis that knowledge cannot be applied if it is     Writing revealed “significant gaps in the knowledge,
not first acquired, it is important to ask who carries     preparation, skills and confidence of teachers to teach
ultimate responsibility for ensuring that knowledge is     writing across primary and secondary years.”101
transmitted and that students do in fact develop ‘deep     One finding deserves particular attention: “With
understanding’?                                            few exceptions, teachers report that their initial
In a response to the 2019 NSW Curriculum Review,           teacher education and professional development left
the ETA held that:                                         them minimally prepared in all aspects of teaching
                                                           writing.”102
    … it is in English that the explicit teaching of
    language takes place: how language shapes              The NESA report was optimistic in concluding that
    meaning and the relationships between                  while many teachers and university academics
    composers of texts and responders to them …            “continue to be influenced by more progressive,
    [The] study of English, most notably the study         child-centred theoretical perspectives … much has
    of literature, plays an important role in shaping      been learned about teaching writing over the past
    our individual and national identities. It is story    40 years.” While the report indicated concern about
    [emphasis added] that connects us to others and        the shortage of comprehensive, local research, there
    other cultures … students study texts that are         was evidence of movement “beyond the bifurcated

                                                                                                                      9
theoretical landscape that in the past saw advocates        of expectations was quite significant and, in some
     of rival approaches talk past each other.”103               cases, “the prospect of successful remediation so late
                                                                 in their academic career appeared poor.”110
     Edith Cowan University researchers Brian Moon,
     Barbara Harris and Ann-Maree Hays expressed less            However, young learners depend on their teachers
     optimism in Can Secondary Teaching Graduates                to use and model and teach the English language in
     Support Literacy in the Classroom?                          all areas of the curriculum. In typically cumbersome
                                                                 style, the Australian Curriculum states that:
         Much of the research and policy development
         has supposed that outcomes will automatically               Success in any learning area depends on being
         improve once teachers have been given access                able to use significant identifiable and distinctive
         to appropriate routines and resources, and                  literacy that is important for learning and
         encouraged in their use. That ignores the                   representative of the content of that learning
         question of whether teachers are capable                    area.111
         of effective support, whatever their level of
         commitment.104                                          Surprisingly, that statement is buried in one of the
                                                                 seven General Capabilities — that of Literacy —
     For students in Foundation to Year 10, the successful       rather than embedded as a universal goal across the
     implementation of the Australian Curriculum: English        Australian Curriculum. It has little presence and is not
     depends on teachers having sophisticated knowledge          strongly reinforced across the eight learning areas.
     of the English language and how to teach it. With
                                                                 If teachers are to meet that expectation (established
     regard to writing instruction in Australian classrooms,
                                                                 in decades of research in Australia and the United
     this includes mastery of a functional approach to
                                                                 States) then secondary teachers, in particular, must
     grammar.105
                                                                 develop high levels of competence and confidence
                                                                 in the English language elements relevant to their
     Teacher capacity                                            discipline.

     Literacy expert Dr Peter Knapp says: “The unpleasant        The Australian Catholic University’s Professor Claire
     truth is that all students (regardless of background)       Wyatt-Smith insists that writing instruction is the
     learn to write most effectively through explicit and        responsibility of all teachers across the curriculum:
     systematic teaching.”106                                    “Students need to learn grammar, structure,
                                                                 terminology and what good-quality writing looks like
     In a five-year study, Russell Daylight and John
                                                                 even in things like science and economics. This is
     O’Carroll investigated the literacy knowledge and
                                                                 not just about essays. It’s any written expression.”112
     skills of first year undergraduates. Aiming to help the
                                                                 Both Wyatt-Smith and Christine Jackson, working at
     aspiring teachers achieve “a general uplift in literacy”,
                                                                 the Australian Catholic University’s Learning Sciences
     they designed new courses to improve “the ability
     to read and interpret complex texts, and to write           Institute, believe students’ progress in writing is at
     grammatically and fluently.”107 Daylight and O’Carroll      risk because Australian schools “drop the focus too
     found that while “analysis of students’ reading skills      early.”113 Secondary teachers have generally resisted
     indicated that many struggle with basic vocabulary          taking responsibility for teaching writing in their
     and grammar, the same is true of their writing.”108 It      subject areas, believing it to be the work of specialist
     was evident, they concluded, that the students’ “level      English teachers and of primary teachers, and
     of literacy at the commencement of their studies            expecting students to have developed sound writing
     — what we might call ‘matriculating literacy’— is           skills before they enter high school.
     sometimes not adequate for the demands of their             In 2019, a University of Tasmania study emphasised
     higher education courses.”109                               the importance of all teachers having the capacity to
     Based on a study of over 200 teaching students in           support their students’ English literacy. The report
     their graduating year at an Australian university, Dr       submitted to the government — Literacy Teaching in
     Brian Moon concluded that the capacity of secondary         Tasmania: Teaching Practice and Teacher Learning —
     school teachers to support school-based literacy            concluded that “Emerging evidence strongly suggests
     practices and teach discipline-specific literacy skills     that the key to improving literacy in high school is to
     is highly dependent on their “personal literacy             prioritise ‘disciplinary literacy’ over generic approaches
     competence.” The number of graduates who fell short         to literacy.”114

10
A chronology of theories and trends influencing
writing instruction in Australia
Nation-building (1901)                                         opportunity for teaching English, there being
                                                               reason to believe that pupils are inclined to
Australia is a federation of six states and two
                                                               regard writing, spelling and clear expression of
territories, founded as a sovereign nation in 1901.
                                                               secondary importance in subjects other than
Although the concept of universal education was
                                                               English, and that at present there is insufficient
in place in all Australian colonies by the late 19th
                                                               check on this tendency.117
century, many children attended school infrequently
and only until the early teenage years, if that long.      During the early decades of the 20th century, an
There were distinct differences in school attendance       individual’s degree of ‘Englishness’ — as demonstrated
and academic achievement between urban, rural,             by accent and word choices — was closely associated
regional and remote students, a phenomenon that            with social class. Recognition of the importance of
persists in contemporary Australia.                        a literate population was influenced by an unofficial
                                                           acceptance that “English in Australia was a complex
Instruction in the English language was rigidly
                                                           negotiation of ‘Nation’ and ‘Empire’, language and
organised, broadly in line with British pedagogy of the
                                                           culture, literacy and identity.”118
early 1900s. Becoming literate involved reading from
a small collection of prescribed texts, including the      The expectation that every teacher would become ‘a
Bible. Young learners studied classic English literature   teacher of English’ was a feature of teacher training
to gain an appreciation of their linguistic and literary   programs in several of the young nation’s Teachers’
heritage.                                                  Colleges.119 In the 21st century, as explained earlier,
In Western Australia, for example, the curriculum          this remains a controversial expectation.
emphasised English classics and schools used a             By the middle of the century, Australian education
standard ‘reader’ (The School Paper) which “pursued        was enjoying a degree of calm and order, with
dual projects of constructing a specific Australian        governments concentrating on expanding the
identity while defining a British imperial identity from   provision of schooling in response to post-war
which it is informed.”115
                                                           population growth resulting from immigration and
The concept of Standard Australian English                 higher birth rates.
(formalised in the Australian Curriculum) was yet
                                                           The decades through to the 1950s saw a relatively
to come, although there was growing interest in
                                                           conformist approach. English lessons emphasised
Australian slang and local writers.
                                                           “reading, recitation, spelling, dictation, writing
Repetition and rote learning were standard in              compositions or essays, punctuation, synthesis,
classrooms throughout the nation, with the alphabet        analysis, parsing, derivation and handwriting in a copy
and words copied many times in order to perfect            book.”120 Teachers drilled parts of speech and spelling,
handwriting and spelling. Grammar instruction was a        with students practising in commercially produced
very formal process; mastering the rules of English        workbooks or worksheets.
involved parsing exercises in which students broke
                                                           Spelling and dictation had priority over composition.
down complex sentence structures into their syntactic
                                                           Topics were generally narrow and assigned by the
components, broadening their vocabulary at the same
                                                           teacher: reporting on a school excursion, weekend
time.
                                                           activities or a favourite holiday.121 Students were
An archaeological study of the role of writing slates      rarely afforded opportunities to write fiction and
and pencils in colonial Victoria found that “pupils        imaginative pieces.
would normally spend six to eight years in primary
school, without ever having the opportunity to
compose an original expression.”116                        Revolution (1960s)
Concerns about the nature and quality of English           International challenges to traditional education
language instruction were raised in the early post-        methods and institutions were a feature of the 1960s,
Federation years — particularly in relation to teacher     with rebellion against elitism and ‘high culture’
quality and what students would learn.                     expressed through university riots in Europe, the
                                                           United States and other countries. Anti-war and
In 1904, the NSW Parliament’s Trade and Commerce
                                                           anti-establishment protestors saw politicians and
Committee argued that “Great emphasis should be
                                                           bureaucrats, in particular, as targets. This period is
laid on writing, spelling, composition and reading …”
                                                           also known for neo-colonial literature, increasing
    It is strongly recommended that every subject          interest in a ‘green revolution’, and the rise of
    in the curriculum should be regarded as an             computer technology.

                                                                                                                      11
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