A READING BASED MODEL OF SCHOOLING

This paper outlines a model of formal education that treats reading as its fundamental mode of learning, and learning to read as the underlying goal of its pedagogic practices. The model is developed from three theoretical perspectives, firstly Bernstein’s (1990, 1996) sociological theory of education as a pedagogic device, secondly an analysis of language and language learning grounded in systemic functional linguistics (SFL) (Halliday 1993, Martin & Rose 2003, 2007, Painter 1998), and thirdly from action research in literacy teaching conducted over three decades by the Sydney School (Martin 2006, Martin & Rose 2005). The model is a dynamic one, interpreted at three scales of change, the evolution or phylogenesis of schooling as a cultural institution, the individual development or ontogenesis of learners, and the unfolding or logogenesis of its discourses, including the learning interactions in which reading skills are acquired. The goal of the model is to describe conditions internal to education that produce unequal outcomes, enhancing the opportunities of some students while disadvantaging many others, as a foundation for designing a pedagogic practice that can overcome this disadvantage (Rose 1999, 2004a, 2005, 2006, Rose & Acevedo 2006a&b, Rose, Gray & Cowey 1999, Rose, Lui-Chivizhe, MacKnight & Smith 2004). Development of the model integrates action and reflection: observations in practice continually enrich and modify the theory, which in turn refines and expands the practice.