A brief outline of the Reading Ambassadors KE venure

1. Knowledge Exchange
PGDE English: Reading Ambassador’s Programme
University of Strathclyde
Navan Govender
2020

3. READING
AMBASSADORS
This is an enhanced
partnership venture
between the PGDE English
programme (Strath school of
education) and secondary
school English/Literacy
departments in West
Scotland.
Proposition: To integrate literacy
support mechanisms in secondary
schooling with literacy education in ITE
People: Secondary English teachers, S1
learners, PGDE English student
teachers, and ITE academics
Place: West Scotland School
Partnership (online model for
increasing access)
Process: Collective decision-making
about literacy intervention/support
with teachers and academics (i.e.
praxis)
Profit: At piloting stage – Future
funding to be sought
Personal: Drawing on own work and
research agenda in critical literacies
and social justice education
Societal: Inequalities in literacy
attainment; access to resources for and
practices of (critical) reading
Commercial: Engaging in-service
teachers (and StrathPGDE graduates) in
continuous involvement in professional
development with and through Strath.
Legal: Working within and beyond the
remit of existing educational policy in
English language and literacy education
– speaking back to policy?
Technological: Merging technological
access with widening access initiatives
for teachers, learners, and academics
Ethical: Working toward building a critical,
contextually-responsive, and sustainable
approach to teacher education that supports
learners’ development
Locally responsive;
internationally competitive
Ideological frame, perspective, approach:
What informs the design, implementation,
and measurements?

4. Creating dialogic engagement between
teacher education and teacher practice
Positive social impact on both student
teachers and learners transitioning into
secondary education
Drawing in critical literacies, reading for
pleasure, and other socio-cultural models
of language and literacy education
Accessing the needs and cultural
referents of learners, teachers, and
schooling communities and informing
teacher education provision and practice
Redefining literacy education
as critical and within a
culturally sustainable
pedagogy
Releasing opportunities for
contextually-responsive and
globally-relevant research
Repositioning where knowledge
production occurs, and the boundaries
between institutions/participants

5. Researcher-practitioner communities
engaged in continuous redesign
Conference presentations (research)
School and faculty seminars (praxis)Publications and funding
CPD &
StrathPGDE English newsletter
Direct impact on PGDE English
Theorising praxis for academic and
non-academic audiences
Public engagement: webinars,
symposiums, classroom/HE practice,
media articles, podcasts, etc.