1 Gender Politics in 21st Century Literacy Reform

This paper is a response to the troubling realisation that women in the 21st century do not have just representation in literacy reform. Improving literacy data has become a matter of government concern across the globe as economic security is increasingly linked to knowledge. However, research into literacy reform, in particular the Queensland Government’s Literate Futures undertaken by during the period 2001 to 2004, has shown that the process of developing and implementing high stakes literacy policy remains a gendered mine field. Although women were involved at all levels in the production, circulation and reception process (Blackmore, 2010, p. 103), their stories reveal continuing inequity in terms of pay and conditions as fought for by second-wave feminists, but also in more complex and personally challenging ways. Research is showing that the process of improving literacy outcomes requires both a strong commitment to reform and a deep knowledge of effective practice on which to build that reform (Blackmore, 2010; Elmore, 2006). In this essay I will explore the nature of emotion work and feminine pedagogies (Boler, 1999), two significant, but not usually considered factors contributing to the success of literacy reform. Historically, because the vast majority of early and primary years ’ teachers in many countries across the world are women, the teaching of reading has been women’s work. Traditionally it is women who assist the young to bridge the gap from the discourses of home and community into the discourses of schooling and the complex world of print. In academia, the teaching of reading is recognised as a specialised field informed by research into children’s ’ growth an