Approaches to English literacy teaching in the Central Pacific Republic of Kiribati: quality teaching, educational aid and curriculum reform

Abstract

English literacy competence in the Central Pacific Republic of Kiribati is considered important for employment, overseas study and general engagement with a globalizing world. It is also considered as a key factor in the current government's response to climate change and sea level rise, enabling skilled relocation of I-Kiribati to other countries if necessary. This article synthesizes a range of literature sources based on Kiribati literacy education to highlight: a general perception that English literacy standards are in decline; the role of the teacher in addressing that decline; pedagogical approaches to teaching literacy, particularly the historic swing from a highly structured and socially conservative teacher-centred approach to that of a very liberal student-centred approach; and the reliance on Australian and NZ educational aid and consultancy in literacy education. These issues require further debate and investigation in light of unique development problems in Kiribati marked by: rural to urban drift; an increasingly youthful population; limited employment possibilities, and eventual possible large-scale repatriation due to sea level rise. The article tentatively suggests an approach to literacy education based on a four resources model that balances teacher and learner-centredness with socio-cultural and political aspects of literacy.

Keywords:

• literacy
• development
• curriculum
• educational policy
• Kiribati
• aid

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank Fiona Stuart, Assistant Research Fellow, from the University of Otago College of Education for her assistance in proof reading this manuscript.

Notes

1. The author, a former secondary school English teacher in Kiribati, spent several months in 2011 accessing key literacy teaching documents, including curriculum, teaching resources, government reports and other agency reports into language and literacy teaching in Kiribati. This article has emerged out of the author's much wider investigation into Pacific education and literacy teaching trends supported by the University of Otago College of Education, New Zealand. All material examined is publicly available in either the National Library and Archive, the Ministry of Education, the Curriculum Development and Resource Centre, a number of primary and secondary schools and the website of the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID). Visits to government agencies, archives and schools were done with the consent of the Ministry of Social and Internal Affairs, Bairiki, Republic of Kiribati.

2. The name of one of the initial aid projects designed to dramatically increase the amount of English reading material children could access in otherwise largely oral home and community language environments (Benson, 1993).

3. Advocates of the culturalist model of reclaiming and re-indigenizing actually make such assertions when attempting to reconcile many Pacific people's desires for so called Western knowledge and forms of schooling, including English language competence for their children. Consider, for example, “Pacific people [as] passive vessels” (Herrmann, 2007, p. 41), in need of a decolonization of the mind (Puamau, 2005), in “identity denial” (Sanga, 2002), in need of “re-education” and “repatriation” (Fasi, 2002, p. 34).