Disrupting hierarchies and constraints in children's experience of reading in primary school

While literacy scholars have supported guided (ability-grouped) reading for its pedagogical potential, concern over social inequity and ability grouping in general has been voiced by important scholars (Francis & Tereshchenko, 2020; Gillborn et al., 2021; Reay, 2017). Reinforced by my thesis which pointed to strong negative effects of ability-grouped reading, I believe my thesis needs translated into a form that directly impacts teaching practice for three reasons (this translation is the key aspect of the fellowship application):

• Ability grouping has proved largely impervious to academic critiques that highlight its racist and classist qualities (Francis, 2017; Gillborn, 2008).

• My research offers practical solutions to teachers who have relied on hierarchical groups when philosophically opposed to them, because of difficulties in teaching less fluent readers otherwise.

• There is a long history in educational research that highlights, as my thesis did, inequality of hospitality to different social and cultural experiences (e.g., Esteban-Guitart & Moll, 2014; Heath, 1983; Pahl & Rowsell, 2020). I have come to understand as a teacher, teacher educator and researcher, the difficulties schools can have in translating such theory into sustained practice.

Theoretical and abstract ideas can be more readily understood and utilised, without necessarily being diluted, through exemplification of those ideas. My intention, therefore, is to write and co-produce a book, an ‘anti-manual’, with a small group of teachers that would do some of the hard work of translating theoretical insights from my thesis into teaching practice. The teachers would try out and possibly extent pedagogical ideas from the thesis (24% new research). I term it an ‘anti-manual’ because as well as being a practical guide of literacy pedagogies that could reduce inequity, it would also contain a radical proposition, that equity is not achieved just by substituting one pedagogy for another but by educators noticing and disrupting their own assumptions around race, class, and gender. The new research would be a form of “academic activism” through consciousness raising and filming teachers at work (McCarthy & Grosser, 2023; Wilson & Milne, 2013). This work would include facilitating and capturing “a-ha moments” (Ahmed, 2017), in which teachers recognise taken-for-granted assumptions and are motivated to make changes. The book will contain QR codes that link to a dedicated website housing film clips, which would also be a forum for teachers to connect over ideas to disrupt literacy hierarchies. Although I will write the book, it will contain testimony from the teachers on the pedagogical changes made.

My fellowship at Stirling will also provide opportunities to bring my research to policy makers at Scottish Government through involvement in the Stirling Centre for Research into Curriculum-making (SCRCM). I will produce ‘knowledge exchange’ (KE) material based on my research findings and set up meetings with policy makers in the area of literacy education and the poverty-related attainment gap (https://www.gov.scot/publications/closing-poverty-related-attainment-gap-report-progress-2016-). Involvement in the sociology/education department will also develop my understanding of how university-based KE operates, as well as giving me opportunities to teach, and introduce my research to education and sociology students.

In addition, to further establish an academic track record, I will write two journal articles based on my thesis, ‘Identity, resistance and social class in ability-grouped reading’, for submission to the British Journal of Sociology of Education and ‘Rethinking reading difficulties in primary school: an inter-disciplinary approach’, for submission to the Journal of Literacy Research. I will also deliver papers on these subjects to the United Kingdom Literacy Association International Conference and that of the European Sociological Association in 2025