A study of literacy teaching in state primary schools of Northern Cyprus: literally critical?

ABSTRACT

This study explores current literacy education in state primary schools of Northern Cyprus from the perspective of primary school teachers. The Northern Cyprus context is unique in that it has recently been receiving a considerable number of immigrants and state primary schools now include students from various backgrounds. This then raises the need for exploration of the issue of how literacy is taught to these culturally and socially diverse students. Data were collected from 20 classroom teachers teaching at 10 different schools in five districts. Semi-structured interviews were used to gather data. The findings of the study suggest that the recently developed curriculum for primary state schools is not successfully implemented in practice, and that teachers still tend to possess traditional teaching practices, which do not allow student voice or critical pedagogy, as well as integration of students’ home lives into the lessons, but are exam focused. A possible reason for this seems to be teachers’ lack of awareness of the philosophy of the new curriculum.

KEYWORDS:

• Critical literacy
• literacy
• curriculum
• Cyprus
• critical thinking

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Fatma A. Altintug

Fatma A. Altintug is a senior lecturer at European University of Lefke, Northern Cyprus. She received her master’s degree in ELT from European University of Lefke, and she is currently continuing her PhD in Education at University of Sheffield, UK. Her research interests include English literature, critical thinking, and literacy. She is currently teaching in ELT department.

Emre Debreli

Emre Debreli is an Associate Professor of Education at European University of Lefke, Northern Cyprus. He received his master's degree in TEFL from University of Essex, UK, and his doctoral degree in Educational Sciences from University of Reading, UK. His research interests include teacher education, teacher cognition and critical literacy. He is currently the director of English Preparatory School and the Chairperson of the ELT department.