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`To be or not to be?': The politics of teaching phonics in England and New Zealand

Open University, UK, j.m.soler{at}open.ac.uk

Roger Openshaw

Massey University College of Education, New Zealand

There is currently intense national and international interest in which particular methods of teaching reading are the most effective for early literacy acquisition. The great bulk of research work that is cited in these debates, however, focuses almost exclusively on the evaluation and comparison of particular programmes underpinned either by phonics or whole language approaches (Soler and Openshaw, 2006). Despite the fact that policy makers and literacy educators around the world are able to draw upon a common body of literacy research, there is a huge variation in the extent to which phonics is adopted as the major programme in different national contexts. This article provides a comparative study of the widely differing reception accorded the teaching of phonics in England and New Zealand respectively.

Key Words: early literacy • instructional approaches to teaching reading • national literacy policies • phonic knowledge

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Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, Vol. 7, No. 3, 333-352 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/1468798407083662


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This Article Abstract Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Soler, J. Articles by Openshaw, R. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?