ABSTRACT
High rates of poverty and other adverse conditions place Aboriginal schoolchildren at a hefty disadvantage. Yet despite what could be viewed as insurmountable barriers to literacy, large swathes of indigenous children are being successfully taught to read and write in regions of the country’s Northern Territory, Queensland and Western Australia. Australia’s proximity to New Zealand, the birthplace of Reading Recovery, has also created something of a bias towards whole language and ‘balanced literacy’. Despite its poor evidence base, whole language techniques and culture pervade Australian education. From unions, whose leaders passionately oppose phonics, to the commercially produced ‘reading diaries’, unquestioningly bought and taken home, Australian schools are steeped in outdated practice. The experts warned that the whole language, whole word and ‘balanced literacy’ methods, popular throughout teacher training institutions and schools, were doing a great disservice to many children.
