This study is a qualitative text analysis of the state's public inquiry (SOU 2018:57) according to Carol Bacchi's (2009) Foucault-influenced analysis tool: "What's the Problem Represented to be?" (WPR) which is based in poststructuralist theory. The policy's incentives are the international measurements of fourth-grade and 15-year-olds' reading comprehension, PIRLS and PISA respectively. Quantitative measurements in large population groups are generally stated as motives for initiating policies in contemporary welfare states. The starting point in this study is class as class aspects tend to be toned down in today's society despite the fact that parents' level of education has an approximately as strong connection with basic reading skills and in the long run school results as with the variables gender and Swedish/foreign background together. Based on class the purpose of the study is to investigate how the state's public inquiry, which addresses all children's and young people's reading, assumes that the spread of reading comprehension has increased for decades between socioeconomic groups of children and young people in Sweden alongside with school segregation. The conclusion is that the policy's represented "problem" is a decreasing reading interest in all student groups including the middle class which can affect personal finances and Sweden's position in competition between OECD-countries. The "problem" is furthermore that not all parents have similar resources or attitudes to their children's reading comprehension and reading habits, basically culture and education, as the ideal middle class parent. According to the WPR method "problem" representations within policies result in effects for people, and thus a large share of the population: the group of children, young people and their parents who are highlighted in the study tend, from the position from which the policy is produced, "the bourgeois gaze", to disappear and at the same time to be singled out through the neoliberal and neo-philantrophic discourses that underpins it.

Lästester genomförda av IEA, PIRLS och PISA, både inom Europa och i världen, har visat att eleverna i Sverige genom åren har uppnått allt sämre resultat på lästester. Att kunna läsa är något som är nödvändigt för att kunna fungera i vårt samhälle, både i skolan, senare i yrkeslivet och i privatlivet. Examensarbetets övergripande syfte är att undersöka vilka faktorer i skolan som kan ha del i den sjunkande läs- och skrivförmågan hos eleverna. Examensarbetet förtydligar begreppet literacy närmare och redogör för de faktorer som vi, genom en avgränsad sökning, funnit kan ha påverkan på elevernas studieresultat. Då läroplanen är det dokument som skolan ska förhålla sig till, finns det i examensarbetet en jämförelse om vad som skrivs om undervisning och ämnet svenska mellan Lgr 80, Lpo 94 och Lgr 11. Metoden som används i denna uppsats är kvalitativ intervju. I studien deltog tre lärare som arbetat i ca 15 år inom läs- och skrivundervisning.   Resultaten i examensarbetet har visat att majoriteten av de intervjuade lärarna anser att elevernas läskunnighet blivit bättre, snarare än sämre, vilket är vad de internationella undersökningarna visat. Resultaten visar också att läs- och skrivundervisningen har förändrats till att mer fokus läggs på innehåll än form, jämfört med tidigare. Enligt de intervjuade lärarna är det viktigt att både lärare och föräldrar har en positiv attityd till läsning, för att även eleverna ska få en positiv attityd.

The aim of the thesis is to compare current approaches to the development of reading skills at the primary school level in Czech Republic and Norway. In the thesis are staked out the terms of reading (čtenářství) and reading literacy. Further there is comparison of the PIRLS research results and marginally the PISA-reading literacy part results. The topic is implanted in the context of the school reform in Czech Republic and Norway. The thesis includes a brief characterization of Norwegian school system. The foundation of this thesis is that the current level of reading literacy in Norwegian schools is similar to the Czech ones. The thesis gives answers to questions: Which approaches uses the Norwegian and Czech school system to develop reading skills of the pupils. Do this approaches react on the reading skill's level of the pupils? Are these approaches functional? Is it possible to apply some of the Norwegian approaches in the Czech environment? There are used methods of analysis of the materials, observation and interviews in this work. The main conclusion of this thesis is that the biggest benefit of Norwegian school system is it's unity, orderliness and presence of vision which are the missing factors in Czech school system.

Syftet med undersökningen är att ta reda på hur en kommun arbetar med läs- och skrivutveckling i grundskolan. Vilka är riktlinjerna för ett gemensamt arbete och hur arbetar skolan för att höja elevernas förmåga. Undersökningen är av kvalitativ data och använder semistrukturerade intervjuer för att kunna återge informanternas tankar om läs- och skrivinlärning. Intervjupersonerna var lärare, specialpedagoger och en språk-, läs- och skrivutvecklare i kommunen. Kommunens arbete i frågan är omfattande även om resultatet för elevgruppen på läs- och skrivförståelsetester har sjunkit. Kommunens arbete har på många plan precis påbörjats när det handlar om att arbeta fram språkplaner för åk F-3, åk 4-6 och åk 7-9 samt ett arbetsdokument med rutiner för hur arbetet med läs- och skrivsvårigheter ska gå till. Det är upp till varje skola att arbeta utifrån de kommungemensamma arbetsdokumentens bestämda planer och rutiner. Det som kom fram i undersökningen var att arbetsgången, vem som gör vad i arbetet med elevernas läs- och skrivutveckling inte är helt fastställt utan ett pågående arbete. Elevernas läs- och skrivutveckling behöver bli en helhet, då det i intervjuerna togs upp att progressionen i grundskolans arbete med läs- och skrivutveckling behöver förbättras. Det behöver finnas ett samarbete mellan de olika årskurserna i grundskolan. / The purpose of the survey is to find out how a municipality works with reading and writing development in primary school. What are the guidelines for a joint work and how does the school work to increase the students’ ability? The survey is based on qualitative data and uses semi-structured interviews to reflect the informants’ thoughts on reading and writing learning. The interviewees were teachers, special educators and a language-, reading and writing developer in the municipality. The municipality’s work on this issue is extensive, although the result for the student group on reading and writing comprehension tests has dropped. The municipality’s work has just begun on many levels when it comes to developing language plans for preschool - year 3, year 4-6 and year 7-9 as well as a working document with routines for how the work with reading and writing difficulties should proceed. Based on the municipal working documents, it is up to each school to work on the specific plans and routines. What emerged in the survey was that the workflow, who does what in the work with the students' reading and writing development, is not fully established but it is an ongoing work. The students’ reading and writing development needs to become a whole, as it was mentioned in the interviews the progression in the compulsory school’s work with reading and writing development needs to be improved. There is a need for cooperation between the different grades in primary school.

Magister Educationis - MEd / Drawing on the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study - PIRLS (Howie, et al., 2008), which highlights the reading literacy crisis in South African schools, this study investigated the literacy crisis in relation to reading literacy in Grade Four of the Intermediate Phase. The purpose of the study is to contribute to the debate about challenges around the reading literacy acquisition of South African school children by investigating the current teaching and assessing of reading comprehension practices of language teachers in multilingual Grade Four classes in disadvantaged contexts, focusing on reading comprehension in English and Afrikaans Home language. This study uses a qualitative research approach. Data was collected in Grade Four Afrikaans and English Home Language classes at two schools in the Western Cape, using observation, interviews and document analysis. To analyze the data, the study aligns itself with a learner-centered model (Wilhelm 2004). This learner-centered model draws on Vygotsky’s socio-cultural and constructivist teaching and learning approaches and will be the foundation to analyze current teaching and assessing of reading comprehension practices of language teachers in the Grade Four Afrikaans and English Home Language classes at two multilingual schools focusing on teachers’ questioning skills. It is hoped that this study will contribute to an understanding of the current reading literacy crisis experienced in South African schools and inform more effective teacher training.

Uppsatsen är en komparativ studie om läsundervisningen i två klasser i Sverige och Danmark. Den danska läroplanen, Fælles Mål, 2009, har tydligare riktlinjer angående läsning, vilken vi har jämfört med den svenska läroplanen, Lgr11. Två rapporter om elevers läskunnighet sammanfattas i uppsatsen. Delar av rapporterna har lyfts då vi anser att dessa är betydelsefulla för elevers läsning. Till exempel har vi redogjort för betydelsen av olika läsmaterial och individuell läsning. Syftet med studien har varit att göra jämförelser i läsundervisningen och läroplanerna. För att kunna jämföra läsundervisningen beslutade vi oss för att genomföra observationer och därefter samtal med lärare i Sverige och Danmark. Resultatet är att läsundervisningen bedrivs i stort sett likartat på båda skolorna. Skillnaden vi sett kan likväl finnas mellan skolor i Sverige och vise versa i Danmark. Resultatet hade troligtvis sett annorlunda ut om urvalet varit större. Dock är läsundervisningen av största prioritet, oavsett om den bedrivs i Sverige eller Danmark. Som bisyfte har vi tagit reda på om det finns någon kännedom om rapporterna Northern Lights on PISA 2006 och PIRLS 2006. Kunskapen om rapporterna är vag hos båda lärarna i undersökningen.

The aim of this study is to validate the Tshivenda learner performance in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2006 in which there is an anomaly in the Tshivenda language group. By comparing the performance of the Tshivenda learners to that of learners who wrote the PIRLS 2006 test in the other official languages, the notion of performance is related to equivalence in translation in that, if the learners wrote equivalent instruments across all official South African languages, then it is possible that the difference in performance was related to different translation equivalence. Therefore, the validation of the learner performance in this study is directly linked to the validation of the translation. The South African national results of PIRLS 2006 revealed that the Tshivenda language speakers, who had written the PIRLS tests in a secondary language, achieved higher scores than those Tshivenda speakers who had written the tests in their mother tongue (Tshivenda). This result was considered an anomaly. This research investigated the role of translation as an influencing factor in learner comprehension, which may have contributed to this anomaly. Some of the procedures and standards set in place for PIRLS 2006 related to translation and verification were examined. Issues of language and culture, with specific reference to the availability of media in Tshivenda are discussed in the literature. Further investigation was conducted into what translation entails including translation and back-translation, equivalence and non-equivalence as well as the comprehension processes required by each of the four released PIRLS 2006 texts. This study is a secondary analysis of data gathered for PIRLS 2006. Permission to use the data was given in 2011 by the Centre for Evaluation and Assessment at the University of Pretoria, the PIRLS National Centre. Details of the original sampling, collection and analysis methods are provided as part of the discussion on the quality assurance, validity and reliability of the original study. The secondary analysis of the data utilised a mixed methods approach which involved Classical Test Theory and Content Analysis in order to accurately explore this data. The results of this study indicated that, despite the fact that the back-translation revealed many errors, the translation did not affect the learners’ level of comprehension. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2015. / tm2015 / Science, Mathematics and Technology Education / MEd / Unrestricted

This study aims to determine the effect of school conditions on learner reading achievement in primary schools in South Africa. Reading skills are not only imperative for further study but are essential for economic and meaningful citizenship. Initiatives such as the Quality Learning and Teaching Campaign, geared to improve the quality of education for all children and to ensure improved learner achievement have resulted in an increase in educational spending. Despite such initiatives, learner achievement remains poor. In order to measure the relative relationship between school conditions and learner reading achievement, this study focused on selected variables from the PIRLS 2006 South African data, notably from Grade 5 learner reading achievement, teacher and school questionnaires. A secondary data analysis through multiple regression technique was utilised in an attempt to measure those school conditions that may enhance or impede learner reading achievement. This study follows the tradition of school effectiveness research by utilising the context-input-process-output (integrated model for school effectiveness research) model as espoused by Scheerens (2000; 2005). The integrated model was adapted combining school and classroom factors in order to measure the effect of school wide processes on learner reading achievement. Although this study was unable to measure the effect of educational leadership on learner reading achievement, it found significant school and classroom factors associated with learner reading achievement. This study highlights the importance of improving the teaching and learning of literacy across all 11 official languages. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / tm2015 / Science, Mathematics and Technology Education / MEd / Unrestricted

This study aims to establish the relationship between reading literacy in the primary school and parental attitudes and behaviour to reading. Reading literacy is another dimension of literacy (Dubin & Kuhlman, 1992), notably the ability to understand and make use of written language (Mullis, Martin, Kennedy, Trong & Sainsbury, 2009). Despite various educational improvement initiatives undertaken by the South African Education system (ANAs, SACMEQ, TIMMS, PIRLS) as a means of creating systems to improve standards of education (Education Policy Act 2015 of 1998), learner achievement in the primary school remains low. This study makes use of selected variables from the PIRLS 2011 parent questionnaire to measure the extent of the relationship between learner reading achievement in Grade 5 and home level factors such as learning environment, parental behaviours in reading and parental attitudes towards reading. It adopts a secondary analysis design and makes use of quantitative approaches (Creswell, 2003). The Developed model of Home Learning Environment, Parental Behaviours and Parental Attitudes to Reading and Reading Literacy Achievement was adapted from the model of attitudes, behaviours and reading as developed by Abu-Rabia and Yaari (2012). This study was able to establish that the home learning environment and parental behaviours to reading had negative association with reading literacy, meaning that in their absence reading literacy would decrease. It established that parental attitudes to reading had positive association with reading literacy, meaning that in the presence of positive parental attitudes, reading literacy would increase. This highlights the importance of parental involvement in learner reading development. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Science, Mathematics and Technology Education / MEd / Unrestricted

Denna studie är en mixstudie av kvantitativ forskning med kvalitativa inslag. Studiens syfte är att undersöka hur anpassningar som görs i lättlästa texter/böcker påverkar textens läsbarhet och elevernas läsförståelse. I undersökningen används två textstycken från två olika böcker, böckerna kommer från samma bokförlag och ena boken är enligt förlaget klassificerad som lättläst. Dessa texter används för att göra två olika textanalyser (komparativ textanalys och läsbarhetsindex) och ett test som bygger på texterna i form av två enkäter.  Denna studie utgår ifrån en konstruktivistisk kunskapssyn vilket betyder att elever konstruerar kunskap genom att vara aktiv och själv ansvara för lärandet. Den konstruktivistiska kunskapssynen definieras i denna uppsats genom att utgå från ett sociokulturellt perspektiv och kognitivt perspektiv och vad dessa två olika perspektiv bidrar med till den konstruktivistiska kunskapssynen. 41 elever i årskurs tre från tre olika skolor gjorde testet. Undersökningens resultat visade att den lättlästa boken ej hade någon högre läsbarhet eller högre påverkan på elevernas läsförståelse.