What do we know about teaching literacy to the world's most vulnerable children?

The world does not know, authoritatively, what works when we are talking about literacy for the world’s most vulnerable children - this is among the overarching conclusions drawn from a project jointly conducted by CfBT... [ view full abstract ]

The world does not know, authoritatively, what works when we are talking about literacy for the world’s most vulnerable children - this is among the overarching conclusions drawn from a project jointly conducted by CfBT Education Trust (CfBT) and The National Foundation of Education Research (NFER).

Education is key to improving the lives and welfare of those most disadvantaged in the world economy. However, it is difficult to know how best to improve educational outcomes when the research evidence is unclear and often contradictory.

This paper will introduce the ideas behind the CfBT/NFER project – in particularly highlighting the policy contexts in which the findings are intended to be used; the rich data set and web-based tool that will present both the weaknesses and strengths in the global research on literacy interventions and the methodological foundations – the complex, but interesting, questions about how quality of evidence can be judged.

The potential usefulness for the research, donor, and education policy communities is enormous. The conclusions of the project will help policy makers, donors, education specialists and teachers to improve educational outcomes in the developing world and provide the research community with a clear map of what needs further investigation and how. As a community we will be better able to support the development of knowledge that will improve the quality of literacy teaching for the worlds’ most vulnerable children.