Student teachers' concepts of literacy and numeracy

The UK Government's Key Stage 3 Strategy (KS3S) aims to transform teachers' approaches, including pedagogy, and pupils' expectations in England. It places new demands on specialist subject teachers to undertake cross‐curricular work in the fields of literacy and numeracy development. However, there are insufficient research data concerning trainee teachers' readiness for such a broadening of their responsibilities, and it is also unclear whether, or how, teachers will be trained in the underpinning pedagogies associated with literacy and numeracy. This study, funded by the British Academy, investigated how trainee teachers across a range of disciplines conceive of literacy and numeracy, as such pre‐concepts are likely to frame their approaches to teaching, and, thus, impact on the effectiveness of the cross‐curricular elements within the Strategy. It discovered differences according to subject background and between attitudes to literacy and numeracy. The interview process was found to be helpful in getti...