Living literacy : an exploration of post-primary teachers' understandings of literacy during the implementation stage of a national literacy strategy in Ireland

The aim of this study is to gain an insight into post-primary teachers’ understandings of literacy at both conceptual and practical levels, during the implementation stage of a national literacy strategy. It is timely given the fact that literacy is currently delineated in international and national policy documents as a priority in education, and this exploration of teachers’ understandings of literacy is understood in light of the introduction and implementation of the Irish national literacy strategy, Literacy and Numeracy for Learning and Life, 2011-2020. The research objectives that underpin this study aim to explore how teachers understand literacy as a concept, how they promote literacy in their practice and what they have experienced as part of the process of implementing a national literacy strategy. Central to this study is the acceptance that ‘literacy’ is a complex and contested concept. The findings reveal how largely, teachers’ conceptual understanding of literacy is quite traditional and narrowly understood as primarily reading, and to a lesser extent writing. Therefore, this study points to a gap between policy and practice, between what is outlined in policy rhetoric and what is experienced in teachers’ lived realities. Furthermore, it highlights that the range of literacy strategies adopted by teachers in this study to promote literacy at both classroom and wholeschool level is narrow, raising questions around teachers’ capacity to fully support adolescent literacy development and implement the curriculum as envisaged in policy documents. Finally, it presents some of the opportunities, as well as obstacles, to education policy implementation in Ireland, focusing on the implementation of one national strategy. As a result, this study builds on the knowledge generated by previous national and international studies and contributes to the existing body of research concerning both literacy and policy. However, it also offers a number of insights that have the potential to inform teachers’ classroom practices pertaining to literacy while also raising questions concerning how teachers can successfully enact policies in Irish education.