Enlightened Literacy Beyond the Reading Wars

This book, Dr Deborah Duncan Owens explores the long debate about how reading should be taught in U.S. public schools. The book explains how this debate has influenced education policy for many years, especially through the strong focus on phonics.

Although phonics is an important part of learning to read, Dr Owens argues that too much focus on it has narrowed the way literacy is understood and taught. She also shows how political and economic pressures have affected literacy research and classroom practice. To move beyond this, she introduces “enlightened literacy,” a broader approach that supports reading skills, human growth, democracy, and global citizenship. This approach is based on four ideas: broad thinking, care for people, curiosity, and practical learning.

“As a retired teacher, I 100% agree with Dr. Deborah Duncan Owens … This is equally relevant to our schools here in Australia. This is a book that I would recommend to all teachers of literacy”- Jacquie Walker, Editor.

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