Abstract:
This study was commissioned by the New Zealand Ministry of Education to investigate the literacy and language knowledge and teaching practices of mathematics and science teachers in Year 7, 9 and 11 classrooms. One reason such a study is important is because there is an apparent mismatch between theory and policy that emphasises the importance of subject-literacy instruction, and actual classroom practice. This mismatch is evident in New Zealand, for example, in a recent Education Review Office Report which describes literacy instruction in Years 9 and 10 as “somewhat bleak” (Education Review Office, 2012), as well as overseas, for example, in the seminal article “Why Content Literacy Is Difficult to Infuse into the Secondary School: Complexities of Curriculum, Pedagogy, and School Culture” (O’Brien, Stewart, & Moje, 1995). Despite these reports, there appears to have been little systematic collection and analysis of evidence of classroom-based literacy practices in the upper primary and secondary levels in New Zealand.
