Dr Tracy Kitchen works in student academic development at Rhodes University, focusing on how language can unlock literacy in South Africa’s schools.
With a PhD in Linguistics and Applied Language Studies, she applies linguistic principles to strengthen reading comprehension and teacher training.
Her work highlights how current systems mis-measure literacy and fail to give teachers the tools they need to build deeper reading skills.
Why don’t teachers currently have the skills to build reading for comprehension in learners? What role do the textbooks – that only build shallow reading skills and produce a false sense of literacy – play in this? What support do teachers need to help learners build the critical, higher-level reading skills that are missing?
Kitchen says: “South African learners are tested on the basics but rarely taught the skills to read between the lines – and teachers aren’t given the systemic support to change that. We need to teach teachers how to teach just as much as we need to teach them what to teach.”
