This book addresses a significant gap in the research literature on transitions across the school years: the continuities and discontinuities in school literacy education and their implications for practice. Across different curriculum domains, and using social semiotic, ethnographic, and conversation-analytic approaches, the contributors investigate key transition points for individual students' literacy development, elements of literacy knowledge that are at stake at each of these points, and variability in students' experiences. Grounding its discussion in classroom voices, experiences and texts, this book reveals literacy-specific curriculum demands and considers how teachers and students experience and account for these evolving demands. The contributors include a number of established names (such as Freebody, Derewianka, Myhill, Rowsell, Moje and Lefstein), as well as emerging scholars gaining increasing recognition in the field. They draw out implications for how literacy development is theorized in school curriculum and practice, teacher education, further research and policy formation. In addition, each section of the book features a summary from an international scholar who draws together key ideas from the section and relates these to their current thinking. They deploy a range of different theoretical and methodological approaches in order to bring rich yet complementary perspectives to bear on the issue of literacy transition.

Taking a dialogic approach, this edited book engages in analysis and description of dialogic discourse in a number of different educational contexts, from early childhood to tertiary, with an international team of contributors from Australia, Finland, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The chapters focus mostly on dialogic face-to-face discourse, with some examples of online interactions, and feature insights from educational linguistics, particularly the work of Michael Halliday. While the contributors come from a range of theoretical backgrounds, they all share an interest in language in use and engage in close analysis of transcripts of naturally-occurring interaction. Taking inspiration from Alexander and other theorists, they employ a fine-grained and analytic approach to the exploration of their data. The authors make use of the linguistic tools and models of language in society, in order to examine the turn-by-turn unfolding of the interaction. The authors relate their insights from disparate forms of linguistic analysis to elements of Alexander’s (2020) dialogic framework, situating the discourse in its contexts and discussing the pedagogical implications of the linguistic choices at play. In presenting this work from a range of situations and perspectives, the authors strive to demonstrate how dialogic discourse plays out in educational contexts across the world. The book aims to foster further research in this direction and to inspire educators to explore dialogic discourse for themselves. It will be of interest to a wide audience, including literacy researchers, linguists, teachers and teacher educators, as well as graduate students.

Children are already learning at birth, and they develop and learn at a rapid pace in their early years. This provides a critical foundation for lifelong progress, and the adults who provide for the care and the education of young children bear a great responsibility for their health, development, and learning. Despite the fact that they share the same objective - to nurture young children and secure their future success - the various practitioners who contribute to the care and the education of children from birth through age 8 are not acknowledged as a workforce unified by the common knowledge and competencies needed to do their jobs well. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 explores the science of child development, particularly looking at implications for the professionals who work with children. This report examines the current capacities and practices of the workforce, the settings in which they work, the policies and infrastructure that set qualifications and provide professional learning, and the government agencies and other funders who support and oversee these systems. This book then makes recommendations to improve the quality of professional practice and the practice environment for care and education professionals. These detailed recommendations create a blueprint for action that builds on a unifying foundation of child development and early learning, shared knowledge and competencies for care and education professionals, and principles for effective professional learning. Young children thrive and learn best when they have secure, positive relationships with adults who are knowledgeable about how to support their development and learning and are responsive to their individual progress. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 offers guidance on system changes to improve the quality of professional practice, specific actions to improve professional learning systems and workforce development, and research to continue to build the knowledge base in ways that will directly advance and inform future actions. The recommendations of this book provide an opportunity to improve the quality of the care and the education that children receive, and ultimately improve outcomes for children.

Beginning with a review of the theory and pedagogic practices that have been influential in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) contexts, this book examines the practice of joint construction in a genre-based approach to literacy pedagogy. It investigates how teachers guide students to co-construct a text, drawing attention to the contested rationale for teachers taking a leading role when writing collaboratively with their students. Informed by systemic functional linguistics, the book puts forward an accessible approach to the analysis of classroom discourse that centres on the dynamic mediation of meaning. Through examples of classroom interaction involving international students who are studying EAP, and specifically as preparation for university entrance, it illuminates how classroom metalanguage and the organisation of classroom talk enables teachers to guide but not provide wording; metalanguage also enables students to critique and justify their choices as they 'try out' new academic language, modify and improve their writing.

Provides a comprehensive, reader-friendly introduction to literacy teaching and learning, exploring both theoretical underpinnings and practical strategies.

This book presents the latest research on educational transitions from a variety of research traditions and practical contexts set in Australia, New Zealand, and several European countries. It examines, critically questions, and reshapes ideas and notions about children’s transitions to school. The book is divided into five parts, the first two of which emphasise diversity and inclusion, with Part II focusing solely on the transition to school for children from Indigenous cultures. Part III explores the notion of continuity, which has been widely debated in terms of its role in the transition to school. Part IV explores the transition to school through the notion of ‘crossing borders’. The final section of this book, Part V, includes ideas about future directions for work in the area of educational transitions, and presents the notion of transitions as a tool for change to policy, research and practice. The book concludes with a critical synthesis of the research outlined throughout, including recommendations regarding future research related to educational transitions.