[NLA] building policy vision

[Eileen Eckert]

While we make a final push to protect funding for the current fiscal year, I 
have some thoughts and questions about building a long-term policy vision. 
I've seen in the list archives, and participated in, a number of threads 
concerning policy as it affects a specific issue or group of learners, and 
I've seen general statements about themes that don't get very specific, but 
I haven't seen much that puts the particulars into a larger framework.

We've talked about policy around learners dealing with crisis or trauma 
(most recently). In that discussion, the teacher (and program) 
characteristic of caring and respect for each learner was paramount, along 
with the need for program-level policies that recognize the needs of 
learners in crisis or dealing with the effects of trauma. In other 
discussions, such as one around reading methodology, the affective component 
of the teacher-learner relationship was not mentioned much (if at all). 
There, the emphasis was on teacher knowledge and expertise around teaching 
strategies, specifically phonemic awareness, with one contributor going so 
far as to imply that not basing reading instruction on phonemic awareness is 
educational malpractice. So what if you were a program administrator hiring 
a teacher and you had to choose between a cold fish with a master's in 
reading and all the "competencies" to teach phonemic awareness or a caring, 
compassionate, engaging teacher with a bachelor's degree in English and a 
willingness to learn? What if we had federal level policy that dictated your 
decision, put in place because the specific discussion around needs of 
low-level readers OR traumatized learners (as if people can't be both) was 
generalized to the level of a federal mandate? What if we had state or 
federal policies that elevated some teacher characteristics to the level of 
necessities while ignoring others (as we do, of course)?

When you advocate for literacy policy, or make policy decisions yourself, is 
there a big picture? Are there some unifying themes or underlying principles 
that make specific policies complement each other? What are they, and how do 
they work?

Thanks,
Eileen







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