Introduction

This book arose out of an Economic and Social Research Council (UK) funded international research seminar series entitled ‘Raising Standards in Literacy’ that was held during 1999-2000. The issue of literacy standards has been a topic of heated debate for many years. Closely tied to this debate have always been concerns about whether different teaching methods and teaching styles impact upon the standards of literacy children achieve and how these standards can be measured. This is an international debate. Different paradigms of literacy teaching are under review worldwide.