Understanding Difficulties in Literacy Development

Dr. Gavin Reid is an international consultant and psychologist with consultancies in Canada, UK, Europe, Middle East, Asia and Australasia. He was Visiting Professor at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, in the Department of Education and Counseling Psychology and Special Education in 2007 and 2010.?He is chair of the British Dyslexia Association Accreditation Board and an ambassador for the Helen Arkell Dyslexia Centre in the UK and is a Consultant/Psychologist for the Centre for Child Evaluation and Teaching (CCET) in Kuwait and the Lighthouse Learning Centre in Cairo. He is also a director of the Red Rose School for children with specific learning difficulties in St Annes on Sea, Lancashire, UK.  He was formerly senior lecturer in the Department of Educational Studies (formally Department of Special Education), Moray House School of Education, University of Edinburgh, from 1991 to 2007. He has written 34 books on learning, motivation and dyslexia and lectured to thousands of professionals and parents in 75 countries. Some of his books have been published in Polish, Italian, Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, French, Latvian and Slovak. He is an experienced teacher with over ten years’ experience in the classroom and has held external examiner appointments at 20 universities worldwide for PhD and masters’ courses. He resides in Vancouver and Edinburgh. His email is gavinreid66@gmail.com and his website is: www.drgavinreid.com

• PART ONE: WHAT IS LITERACY? WHAT ARE ′DIFFICULTIES IN LITERACY′?Literacy: In search of a paradigm - Naz RassoolGlobalisation, literacy and society: Redesigning pedagogy and assessment - David Johnson and Gunther KressThe historical construction of dylsexia: Implications for Higher Education - Janet SolerPART TWO: ISSUES AND CONCEPTS IN PUBLIC READING DEBATES Literacy as a complex activity: Deconstructing the simple view of reading - Morag Stuart, Rhona Stainthorp, Maggie SnowlingThe irrelevancy - and danger - of the ′simple view′ of reading to meaningful standards - Victoria Purcell-GatesEhri′s model of phases of learning to read: A brief critique - John R BeechSiblings bridging literacies in multilingual contexts - Ann Williams and Eve GregoryBoys′ underachievement: Issues, challenges and possible ways forward - Joe Burns and Paul BraceyRe-counting ′Illiteracy′: Literacy skills in the sociology of social inequality - Geoff PaynePART THREE: LITERACY CURRICULUM POLICY CONTEXTSResearch and the National Literacy Strategy - Roger BeardLiteracy 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 OpenshawPowerful literacies: The policy context - Mary Hamilton, Catherine Macrae and Lyn TettPART FOUR: COMMUNITY, FAMILY, SOCIETY AND INDIVIDUAL IDENTITY The self-concept and its relationship to educational achievement - Robert BurdenThe self-concept and dyslexia - David PollakPART FIVE: SOCIAL JUSTICE, EQUITY ISSUES AND LEARNING DISABILITIESSpecial education′s changing identity: Paradoxes and dilemmas in views of culture and space - Alfredo J ArtilesThe cultural work of learning disabilities - Ray McDermott, Shelley Goldman and Hervé Varenne