Based on current research, debates and concerns, this Reader adopts a cross disciplinary approach to understanding and working with those who experience difficulties with literacy. It provides a broad view of difficulties in literacy and related educational and curriculum learning issues across a range of ages, phases and settings.

The Reader first considers questions of literacy, before going on to look at literacy development in relation to:

" Issues and concepts in public reading debates

" Literacy curriculum policy contexts

" Community, family, society and individual identity

" Social justice and equity issues and learning disabilities

This Reader is relevant to all postgraduate students of Literacy, as well as educators, professionals and policy makers.

PART ONE: WHAT IS LITERACY? WHAT ARE ¿DIFFICULTIES IN LITERACY¿?
Literacy: In search of a paradigm - Naz Rassool
Globalisation, literacy and society: Redesigning pedagogy and assessment - David Johnson and Gunther Kress
The historical construction of dylsexia: Implications for Higher Education - Janet Soler
PART TWO: ISSUES AND CONCEPTS IN PUBLIC READING DEBATES
Literacy as a complex activity: Deconstructing the simple view of reading - Morag Stuart, Rhona Stainthorp, Maggie Snowling
The irrelevancy - and danger - of the ¿simple view¿ of reading to meaningful standards - Victoria Purcell-Gates
Ehri¿s model of phases of learning to read: A brief critique - John R Beech
Siblings bridging literacies in multilingual contexts - Ann Williams and Eve Gregory
Boys¿ underachievement: Issues, challenges and possible ways forward - Joe Burns and Paul Bracey
Re-counting ¿Illiteracy¿: Literacy skills in the sociology of social inequality - Geoff Payne
PART THREE: LITERACY CURRICULUM POLICY CONTEXTS
Research and the National Literacy Strategy - Roger Beard
Literacy policy and policy literacy: A tale of phonics in early reading in England - Kathy Hall
¿To be or not to be?¿: The politics of teaching phonics in England and New Zealand - Janet Soler and Roger Openshaw
Powerful literacies: The policy context - Mary Hamilton, Catherine Macrae and Lyn Tett
PART FOUR: COMMUNITY, FAMILY, SOCIETY AND INDIVIDUAL IDENTITY
The self-concept and its relationship to educational achievement - Robert Burden
The self-concept and dyslexia - David Pollak
PART FIVE: SOCIAL JUSTICE, EQUITY ISSUES AND LEARNING DISABILITIES
Special education¿s changing identity: Paradoxes and dilemmas in views of culture and space - Alfredo J Artiles
The cultural work of learning disabilities - Ray McDermott, Shelley Goldman and Hervé Varenne