'One size does not fit all’: how five tertiary education organisations embed literacy, language and numeracy: case study findings

He whakapahuhu kahukura

Nick Zepke

3.1 Introduction

This case study investigates how one wānanga is exploring the provision of embedded literacy, language and numeracy (LLN). It documents how the institution attempts to follow its own vision for literacy using its foundation principles while at the same time attempting to support government policy. At the time of writing, embedding literacy is still a project, an aspiration, although strategic thinking and planning are for a whole-of-institution approach.

The wānanga supports the government and its agent, the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC), in their view that literacy is an economic good that prepares learners to be effective contributors in the workplace. The Literacy, Language and Numeracy Action Plan 2008-2012 (TEC, 2008, p. 6) describes LLN as follows:

Literacy is the written and oral language people use in their everyday life and work; it includes reading, writing, speaking and listening. Skills in this area are essential for good communication, critical thinking and problem solving in the workforce. It includes building the skills to communicate (at work) for speakers of other languages. Numeracy … includes the skills needed to apply mathematics to everyday family and financial matters, work and community tasks.

The Wānanga recognises this view of LLN as very important, labelling it ‘functional’ – a literacy that prepares people to function successfully at work, at home and in the community (Skills for Life Development Centre, 2006).

The Wānanga also holds and defends a wider view of literacy. It is very aware of its legal responsibility, as articulated in the Education Amendment Act 1989, to ensure that its provision is underpinned by tikanga and āhuatanga Māori (Māori tradition) (He Whakapahuhu Kahukura (HWK), 2009). Hence it espouses the provision of multiple literacies: cultural and critical literacy as well as functional literacy (HWK, 2009).

We want to ensure that our programme provision encompasses three things, cultural literacy, critical literacy and functional literacy and that they are interlocked and linked. They all support each other in the emancipation and conscientisation of our students so that we can improve the lot of others and they can experience higher levels of wellbeing and freedom and so that is why we engage in literacy. (A3)

The Wānanga’s holistic view of literacy recognises each aspect to be of equally high importance. Its approach is to recognise that functional literacy when it is separated from cultural and critical literacies does not support the advancement of the Mātauranga Māori world view to which the Wānanga is committed (HWK, 2009).

In this case study we trace the development of the Wānanga’s approach to embedding these integrated holistic literacies. Twenty-two people generated the data supporting the case study: four in individual interviews and 18 in two focus groups. Two of the interviews were with people in strategic positions working across the whole Wānanga; one was interviewed twice. Two were managers charged with implementing aspects of the strategy. One focus group consisted of eight tutors who were involved in the embedding; the other consisted of 10 support team leaders and advisors. Participants contributed in two phases. During the first phase data were gathered from the focus groups and three managers by one researcher; in the second the two strategic leaders were interviewed by phone by a second researcher.¹

The case study structure is shaped by the research questions set in the project brief and the literature review. It is organised under four major headings: Governance, Management, Pedagogy, and Professional development. Under governance the study considers the wānanga’s vision for embedded literacy and outlines some of the struggles underpinning strategic planning; under management it describes how embedding is managed and how learning cultures are established and maintained, and it provides some information about resourcing. The section on pedagogy outlines favoured approaches to learners and teaching and describes how assessments are made. The professional development section covers past and future training opportunities for kaiako (tutors).

3.2 Governance

Visioning

Research repeatedly recommends that embedded literacy is “built in not bolted on” (Millar & Falk, 2002; Wickert & McGuirk, 2005). The focus is on students and their needs for building both social and human capital (Balatti et al., 2006; Crowther et al., 2003; Tett & Maclachlan, 2008; Tusting & Barton, 2008). The vision for literacy provision in the Wānanga mirrors these findings from the literature. In the strategic document He Whakapahuhu Kahukura (2009, p. 4), a whole-of-organisation approach to literacy is pictured as in Figure 1. In the inner circleismauri ora,human consciousness and the human spirit. It suggests that holistic literacy is an aspect of conscious wellbeing. The second circle identifies the three pillars of literacy – cultural literacy, critical literacy and functional literacy. The third circle is where holistic embedded literacy contributes to achieving cultural, social, economic and intellectual transformations. The fourth circle, Aotearoa Identity, ensures that the Wānanga’s holistic embedded literacy programmes contribute to the identity and wellbeing of Aotearoa.

Figure 1. Multidimensional nature of literacies represented within a wānanga context

 

He Whakapahuhu Kahukura summarises the vision as follows:

The importance of a culturally and critically literate workforce that is able to make powerful use of the elements of sound functional literacy to support consciousness and emancipation is an essential element of success. (HWK, 2009, p. 6)

Interviews and focus groups, referred to as, for example, A3, C1, reinforce the written vision. The Wānanga has always been involved in literacy work. But its emphasis has traditionally been on “cultural literacy and so building a strong sense of pride [in] where you come from and your ancestral or cultural connections” (A3). The view of cultural literacy that emerged is visualised in one interview as a tree that is firmly rooted in the ground and is constantly growing and strengthening (B1). Given its belief that supporting economic goals is an important function, the Wānanga “aims to embed functional literacy into our vocational programmes” (B1). On the critical side, the vision is “very akin to the Freire model of using literacy to read the world, name the world, describe the world and transform the world, so we are looking for greater agency” (B1). Functional literacy enables students to read the world, the cultural aspects enable them to name the world and the critical approach empowers them to transform the world.

The politics of literacy education

Translating vision into a coherent strategy is never easy. Two different conversations have affected progress. On the one hand, getting agreement with TEC on LLN provision is difficult and has not been achieved at the time of writing. From TEC’s perspective, it seems that the Wānanga’s implementation of embedded literacy has been too slow.

We got to a stage that we were very slow in designing our strategy. One reason was because we had so many internal debates whether we should just take the money, and others were that we wanted a deeper understanding of what we were going to be placing in our communities for this generation and the next and so we were what TEC would call slow, but we might call it ... discerning, so TEC became frustrated with the pace that we wouldn’t just pick it up and run. (B1)

A number of participants expressed their view that TEC was uncomfortable with the Wānanga’s vision of a holistic literacy education comprising cultural, critical and functional literacies. Both ‘functional’ and ‘cultural’ literacy “sit outside the [government’s] policy direction and they don’t want us to focus on them” (B1). “[Yet] if we can’t learn to read, write, speak and listen through our culture, whose culture are we supposed to do it through?” (B1). Drawing on statute and Waitangi Tribunal findings, one respondent worried that TEC’s position may be a “deal breaker”. “If TEC won’t allow us to advance our cultural paradigms in embedded literacy, then we don’t have a strategy that we can support. If we don’t own the strategy, then how likely are we to honour it?” (B1).

The other conversation impacting on development and implementation involves Wānanga staff. There was general agreement among research participants that a literacy strategy is necessary for the organisation, but, particularly in the focus groups, there were many different views about how literacy education could best be provided. This suggests that, among participating tutors and advisors at least, a consensus about the approach the Wānanga should take is still developing. A number of participants were clear about the way embedded functional literacy worked and were supportive of it. There were others who seemed uncertain, expressing divergent views, not unusual in a shift to new policies and directions. One reported that “if they [students] have literacy issues I send them to an external organisation because it is not our policy to support students with numeracy or literacy issues so I send them to Literacy Aotearoa or some other agency”(F2). Another asked, “Is [embedded literacy] not a curriculum of its own?” (F2) and also observed, “I think it’s a specialised area, whatever that is.” One recognised the frequency of literacy issues and was in favour of an intervention “if that’s what the student wants though” (F1). This idea was supported by another: “I guess I am reminded of a student’s comments in the last year on a course, ‘I came to learn how to carve not learn how to read; if I wanted to read I would get on a reading programme’” (F2).

So “one of the key issues is around the meaning of literacy and the words have been a huge thing to overcome” (C1). This is not surprising. The last two decades have seen a significant shift in theories about literacy (Maclachlan & Cloonan, 2003): from a focus on functional approaches to one that espouses a critical, integrated, social practice view, sometimes referred to as New Literacy Studies. In NLS, literacy is understood as situational, taking its meaning and impact from the social context within which it is embedded and configured by the institutional life of organisations that shape such everyday activities, the ideologies and social relations that frame them (Hamilton, 2006). This shift is sometimes seen as competing conceptual paradigms, functional and critical/participatory (Rogers & Kramer, 2008); as an ideological divide, between frameworks that attempt to develop functional literacy primarily for competence in the workplace and Freireian approaches to literacy that attempt to use literacy as a means for people to liberate themselves from oppression (Murray, 2005). The shift is also seen as two literacy discourses – one technical and concerned with providing vocationally relevant literacy; the other regarding literacy as a social practice based in a specific, everyday context and promoting active citizenship (Crowther et al., 2003).

Strategic planning

The Wānanga is now focusing the vision into a strategic plan.

We’ve got to a position and that was always hardest in the Wānanga … and I find if you take your time at the front end and get your position right, what you stand for and what you are about, it’s easier to hit the water, so we have got to a position and are now moving at a great pace … towards our goals and if we can get through this stuff with TEC, I think it will really take off. (B1)

A strategic document has been produced. He Whakapahuhu Kahukura affirms that holistic literacy will be embedded: “Tauira will experience access to the areas of cultural and critical literacy integrated within functional literacy that is itself embedded within Marau (Māori world view)” (HWK, 2009, p. 8). It commits the Wānanga to working with key shifts in government policy and STEP priorities to deliver embedded literacy provision to students with foundation learning needs. It aims to increase the numbers of tutors who have participated in professional development for effective teaching in embedded functional literacy and numeracy. But along with upskilling in embedded functional literacy, the Wānanga commits to developing tutors who can synthesise functional delivery with cultural and critical literacy. He Whakapahuhu Kahukura includes some detailed responses to TEC’s guidelines leading to a capability plan. A detailed implementation plan is being developed which will integrate the TEC requirements within the overall strategy. The document reaffirms that:

Through embedding functional literacy and numeracy, … [the Wānanga] will develop an approach that is consistent with our philosophy, the needs of our tauira, kaiako. The approach will support the marau we develop, offer and resource and will support Aotearoa identity. (HWK, 2009, p. 9)

He Whakapahuhu Kahukura sets out the theoretical underpinnings for the strategy. It also addresses TEC’s guidelines for practice in considerable detail. A number of staff came to be very keen “to try and move this from a theoretical basis … to a practical level” (C1). The institution commissioned a literature review to provide it with information on how indigenous people around the world had addressed literacy issues. The literature review enabled the Wānanga “to help formulate our position … and to offer as many points of view as possible … [to] help us move forward” (A2). It also helped to fill an institutional knowledge gap about holistic literacy practices.

I was aware that we didn’t have great knowledge in this field so I wanted to develop a wider group of people who could talk about this [embedded literacy] and also wanted to get a distributed leadership approach to literacy in the institution. So I wanted to bring as many … [people as possible] into the picture by creating a steering group. The steering group would drive literacy practice in the institution. (B1)

The steering group has wide representation and a formal list of tasks and responsibilities distributed among its members. It exercises oversight of all aspects of the implementation of the literacy strategy such as budget, curriculum, student support, assessment and staff training. A national co-ordinator for the roll-out of the literacy programme provides strategic and operational advice to the steering group (HWK, 2009).

Another feature of the strategic approach is to craft implementation plans. He Whakapahuhu Kahukura addresses TEC guidelines by identifying and selecting specific level 1-3 courses for embedding functional literacy, identifying specific resource requirements and preparing a plan for effective evaluations. Curriculum development strategies specify that all programme learning outcomes will include reference to functional, cultural and critical literacies. Tutors delivering level 1-3 programmes will use learning progressions to develop resources, lesson plans and notes for students. There is considerable emphasis on training (HWK, 2009).

The way we got this going was to find an area and a group of tutors who were open and interested in this and to champion it at a local level and … bringing in from the TEC two progression trainers who we knew would have the right skills to be safe to work with those tutors and permission to run the pilot was where we started. That commenced in February and is still running through and what it created was a ground-up approach, to create some impetus from the tutors themselves about the value and that they could see the value for the students they were teaching. (C1)

Thirty-five teachers and support staff were involved in piloting the progressions. This focus on one group of programmes is working “extremely well. … It’s given us a core group of tutors who understand it [embedded literacies], are enthusiastic and have then shaped the plan about how we are going to approach embedding” (C1). Another advantage of the selective pilot project “is some ability for people in other parts of the organisation to explore what this looks like without committing to the whole story” (C1).

3.3 Management

“The view of Wānanga is that we have always been involved in literacy but it hasn’t been what is commonly now called functional literacy” (A3). Indeed, the Greenlight adult literacyprogramme is mentioned fondly by a number of research participants as an example of the longstanding focus on literacy within the Wānanga. But He Whakapahuhu Kahukura also notes that the institution “has been involved in the development of functional literacy programmes and staff training since 2003” (HWK, 2009, p. 8). Nevertheless, the deliberate embedding of functional literacy along with cultural and critical literacies is very recent, aspirational even. Implementation is not yet across the whole institution. It has been conceived as a ‘top-down’ strategic initiative and a ‘bottom-up’ pilot programme. Information about management is therefore emerging rather than final. Despite this, it is possible to construct a partial picture of management practices.

Leading embedding

Some managers and focus group members interviewed admitted to “still struggling a bit with the concept of embedding” (A1). Other focus group members and managers were comfortable with the concept. They were keen to discuss two management issues around embedding: how the pilot project is to be introduced and managed across the whole institution and who should take responsibility for this. “We have a rough model of a bottom-up approach for developing embedded literacy; now thought needs to be given actually to how you might implement that approach across the institution and how it might actually work in practice as far as different curricula are concerned” (C1). To this end a curriculum alignment project “is looking at how literacy might be embedded in our level 3 and 4 programmes” (A3). One manager thought an attitude change across the whole organisation was needed to manage the implementation process. “What it will take is for everyone to feel that they have investments [in embedding literacy] and acting on that” (A1). Who should take responsibility for this seems to be a contested point. One thought “it needs to be its own office like a supported unit” (F1); another argued that “the major supplier of literacy support is actually student support and that should have the formal function within the Wānanga” (A3). There was agreement with this: “I think that student support have a really strong role to play in terms of determining … a literacy issue” (F2). But perhaps the most frequently stated opinion agreed with “I believe it should sit everywhere. … Responsibility should be across every single department … that is everybody” (A2).

Operational planning

This last idea is being implemented. A management structure to support embedding functional literacy has been set up as a special project within the Wānanga (HWK, 2009). It has been shaped by an ongoing discussion among staff, “who have enjoyed it. I have had some senior staff … critique it [the structure]” (B1). The structure consists of a sponsor who operates at the strategic level. The responsibilities of this position are to exercise oversight of the steering committee, budget provision and line-managers associated with the project. The steering group contributes to decision making and ensures that embedding functional literacy is properly co-ordinated. Members of the committee have various responsibilities for selecting programmes for embedding, for curriculum re-alignment, for the organising of student services and for tutor training. A fixed-term strategic advisor is expected to ensure effective training and professional development of staff, provide strategic advice to the steering committee, offer support and advice in the embedding process and liaise with external agencies. There are two project co-ordinators. One has responsibilities around providing quality assurance expertise, assistance with integration of embedded literacy into ‘business as usual’ and, upon the completion of the project phase, providing institutional memory. The other is responsible for the training side of the project. This role is charged with delivering progressions and other tutor training, supervising the training team, and working closely with the strategic advisor and other project co-ordinator. Reporting directly to the training co-ordinator are trainers, who undertake the training and also are charged with helping to support the embedding process.

Creating literacy learning cultures

The Wānanga is well established, so already has a strong learning culture. This is well summarised in He Whakapahuhu Kahukura as:

Mātauranga Māori, tikanga and āhuatanga Māori … [which] provide the basis for learning in uniquely Māori world view ways and from Māori educational paradigms. These benefit tauira by implementing methodologies that are student centred, holistic, and contextually and culturally relevant for the environment. (HWK, 2009, p. 6)

But it was well accepted by research participants that embedding functional literacy across the organisation creates fresh challenges. “We are very busy and stretched but it’s [embedding literacy] good for our tauira” (F1). The ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ features of the current strategy are expected to create a literacy learning culture that penetrates to all levels and functions of the organisation. The steering group applies distributive leadership principles to create “a wider group of people who could talk about this field and show benefits to staff observing progress on the pilot project” (B1). A number of participants echoed the thoughts of one participant that creating a positive literacy learning culture “is a big challenge and it needs to be a collaborative effort; we need to take ownership of it as an organisation” (F2). Participants seemed committed to implementing the functional literacy strategy well: “I know we have been slow but want to pick up the benefit of how other people have done it and also it’s an acknowledgement of the complexity of it and engaging with an organisation of this size which is very busy and doing a lot of things … at the moment” (C1). There was a realisation “that it [embedding literacy] is actually not a top-up and it’s not an add-on. It is something that is actually fundamental” (A1).

Resourcing

Resourcing the functional literacy initiative has been complex. This is creating challenges:

The government drivers are that you have to make 3-5% profit each year and we’re moving into a position in 2011 where our EFTS are going to go from 21,000 to 19,000, so we can’t add head count or revenue costs to our bottom line so we have to subsume a lot of this business as usual activity over time into our existing practice, so we are going to have to ask our student support staff to do more with less. It’s not ideal, to be honest. (B1)

3.4 Pedagogy

Approaches to learning

Nearly all participants admitted to a focus on student success. Different participants, however, offered different interpretations of what this means. One thought that it “means having programmes, making decisions, having directions that are about what the students need, not what is required by the funders or anyone else” (F1). Another concurred: “A student has the right and ability to determine their own choices; our role is to present them with those choices” (F2). A third offered a more extreme view:

Basically the student is the centre of my thoughts and action. The student [in a] biblical sense is god and all of my actions and energy focus on that, so relationships are guided by serving the student so if you don’t like me or if I don’t like you, that’s not in the picture; you need me, I need you because we are both focused on the same end point. (F1)

The strong student focus was transferred to teaching embedded literacy. One participant offered that “literacy needs to be relevant … in terms of their experiences so it builds on what they already have and you extend them” (A1). Another felt that literacy learning should be felt but not noticed: “Literacy is like assessment; it’s best when you don’t know it’s happening” (A3). Another displayed a student focus by suggesting:

I think that when you are teaching literacy it needs to be contextualised. I think it’s really important that when testing for literacy levels, that it is content that students can relate to so one size doesn’t fit all; you can’t have one assessment tool for all. (F1)

Approaches to teaching

These strongly student-centred approaches to learning are apparent when participants discuss their approaches to teaching. They seemed to recognise that, explicit or not, students have individual learning plans:

I think we need to know about why they come to the class in the first place. Because we believe in the Wānanga in enhancement and the support of the individual, that is why they come to us, for a unique experience. (A2)

A number of participants emphasised that their teaching should take into account the context from which students come, thereby “ensuring that the contexts that are used are familiar to the students. [This] is vital because from there you set them up to succeed, not starting on a back foot” (F1). Others emphasised the importance of diversity. There were those who mentioned cultural diversity: “We must acknowledge our mix of students, that we come from all different cultures. Different sorts of cultures hold different sorts of values and different levels of value” (F2). A number also stated that their approaches to teaching needed to recognise different learning styles: “I think learning styles need to be considered when assessing and teaching literacy” (F2). This participant summarised neatly a consensus about suitable approaches to teaching their students:

I have always been of the opinion that a student wishes to complete a course of study that they have enrolled on and that my role is to do everything I can to help them be successful on that journey, whatever that entails. (F2)

Their affirmation of a student-focused approach to teaching generally was also evident when participants discussed teaching literacy specifically. While there were some differences of opinion about the value of embedding functional literacy and how to do it, in general participants agreed that teaching literacy needs to be student focused. Some advocated embedded literacy because:

That is the approach I would like to see because literacy for Māori has a huge history for being uncomfortable, you know, can’t read, can’t write, get the smack, remedial class take you out or bring someone to sit next to you, all of those kind of little things that have huge memories and painful memories for some people. So I would love to be able to make sure the literacy is stealth, subtle, painless and people just know that in some way it’s happening that they aren’t sure just how it’s happening but it’s happening and they are feeling great because of it. (A3)

Another participant “found that separating subject knowledge and literacy and numeracy can be quite isolating for some of our students. So if we embed literacy it becomes a natural part of the learning” (F1). Another thought that if “it is a skill they want or an interest they have, obviously the literacy and numeracy must be part of that” (F1). One participant saw that “trust is a huge thing for our students. If you bring in someone as the literacy kaiako to work alongside the subject area kaiako it really undermines the taonga” (F2). But there were also some warning words:

We have to be really careful that our literacy programme doesn’t take them in a direction they didn’t want to go and then they pull out because for many of them this is the only chance that they will get to re-engage with education and if we don’t get it right the stakes are high for us. (A1)

Assessing literacy learning

Participants offered a range of thoughts on assessment. Some were concerned about how to assess literacy levels. They were searching for a suitable assessment tool.

The next challenge we have now is the tool. The tool we’re hoping to use … measures functional literacy really well but we would really like a tool that tells us that culturally it’s doing some good stuff and critically it’s doing some good stuff because that would then fit nicely with our strategy. … When you are a marginalised minority group in New Zealand you always have to do something different and to add to it and enhance it to make it relevant to your context. (B1)

Other participants wanted to discuss the assessment process. Again contextualisation was a dominant theme. There was broad agreement that what were called ‘one size fits all’ tests can disadvantage learners who have not experienced the context behind test items. “I think that when you are testing literacy it needs to be contextualised” (F2). Another argued this even more strongly: “I think it’s really important that when testing for literacy levels, that it’s with content that students can relate to so one size doesn’t fit all; you can’t have one assessment tool for all” (F1). Others were concerned that “the word assessment and the word panic go together” (F1). This participant said, “We don’t tell students they are having a test; it’s more of a game and we assess them through that, more through observation” (F1). This participant was supported by another dealing with numeracy, who thought that “we need to look at bringing a more practical balance into some of the assessments because some of the games we play tell us where they are at with fractions, decimals, percentages and all of that” (F1).

3.5 Professional development

Professional development of tutors working in the embedded literacy project is high on the Wānanga’s agenda. Much has already been achieved or is in train. In 2007 a group of staff participated in the National Certificate in Adult Literacy (both Vocational and Educator Level 5) with Literacy Aotearoa. Later in 2007 staff participated in the pilot Learning for Living progression for adult literacy. Early in 2009 “A group of tutors were identified who were open and interested in [embedding literacy] and to champion it at a local level” (C1). The Wānanga brought in from TEC two progression trainers “who we knew would have the right skills to be safe to work with those tutors” (C1).

From February to June, 35 staff participated in the Learning Progressions for Adult Literacy. A working party focus group was established to assist in drafting this Capability Development Proposal. A staff member from this group was nominated to represent the wānanga sector in the review of the Literacy and Numeracy Assessment Tool Reference Group. (HWK, 2009, p. 8)

This training is ongoing at the time of writing and is creating “some impetus from the tutors themselves about the value of embedding literacy … for the Māori … students they were teaching” (C1).

In addition to the training process focusing on tutors involved in the current literacy project, there is a commitment to raise the capability of all tutors in embedded literacy teaching. But at the time of writing further development of training is still aspirational. There is a goal to achieve a consistent teaching approach. The variety of educational philosophies influencing practice is seen as a strength and one interviewee commented, “I want them to bring all of those gifts that they bring with them, but I also want a baseline consistency” (B1). Three separate strategies are designed to achieve consistency in diversity. One is to train learning support staff to be literacy specialists. “I want student support staff that are employed [to] either come with a high degree of literacy training … or that they are committed to literacy training and development as a requirement of the job” (B1). It will be the job of this group of about 20 people to train tutors across the organisation. Another strategy is to use tutor training in specific programmes:

Instead of our training development being for things like Māori for the office and letter writing, we may redirect some of those funds to embedding literacy in wānanga teaching, embedding functional literacy, embedding cultural literacy, embedding critical literacy as normal training and development. (B1)

Such strategies will result in “distinctive and powerful wānanga educators … [that] might be certified” (B1). Certification will probably be over three years and there could be monetary recognition of this.

3.6 Conclusion

This case study describes how one wānanga attempts to follow its own vision for literacy education while at the same time honouring government policy. It provides a number of insights into the profiling, development and delivery of embedded literacy within the Wānanga.

• The vital contribution of literacy and numeracy to Māori success is recognised and has historically been highly profiled within the organisation.
• The model of literacy education profiled within the organisation focuses on a holistic literacy inclusive of cultural, critical and functional literacies.
• Philosophy, development and practice are shaped by ongoing conversations within the organisation, conversations that are informed by diverse views and assumptions.
• The organisation has achieved a consensus to embed cultural, critical and functional literacies in foundation-level vocational programmes.
• This view of literacy belongs to a situational, social practice discourse thought to be well matched to Māori needs and aspirations, but that is at odds with a narrower technical and economic discourse.
• Strategic thinking about developing embedded holistic literacy is ongoing. This aims for a whole-of-organisation approach that is currently piloted in one part of the organisation.
• A strategic document has been prepared that contains both a strong philosophical position and a detailed implementation plan.
• The strategy is being implemented by a high-level steering committee whose members penetrate to all levels of the organisation and who oversee curriculum design and staff training.
• A bottom-up approach is evidenced in the pilot programme that is expected to inform and influence programmes across the organisation.
• A strong learner focus is evident among staff.
• Staff training is ongoing and plans for developing new approaches are being prepared.