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How inclusive is the Literacy Hour?
Author(s) -
Wearmouth Janice,
Soler Janet
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
british journal of special education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.349
H-Index - 38
eISSN - 1467-8578
pISSN - 0952-3383
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8527.00208
Subject(s) - dilemma , literacy , curriculum , pedagogy , government (linguistics) , national curriculum , sociology , inclusion (mineral) , mathematics education , perception , psychology , political science , social science , philosophy , linguistics , epistemology , neuroscience
In this article, Janice Wearmouth and Janet Soler, both lecturers in the Faculty of Education and Language Studies at the Open University, explore the implications of recent Government initiatives for pupils who experience difficulties in literacy development. The authors focus, in particular, on their perceptions of the contradictions between the inclusive requirements of the National Curriculum and the prescriptive pedagogy of the National Literacy Strategy. The National Curriculum now requires teachers to respond to pupils' ‘diverse learning needs’; the National Literacy Strategy is founded upon an expectation that all pupils in Key Stages 1 and 2 will be taught a daily Literacy Hour. This article explores the impact of these contrasting policies on classroom practice and concludes by drawing upon evidence of previously existing good practice in order to propose ways of resolving this dilemma.