School leadership and whole-school support of struggling literacy learners in secondary schools

The needs of struggling literacy learners beyond the early years of schooling warrant greater attention. For struggling literacy learners to attain their academic, vocational, and social goals, schools should position literacy as a whole school priority and enhance opportunities for student literacy learning across all learning areas. However, it is not known if literacy is typically supported as a whole school commitment in contemporary secondary schools. This paper draws on survey data from the Australian nation-wide 2019 Supporting Struggling Secondary Literacy Learners (SSSLL) project. Findings suggest that many mainstream secondary school teachers do not perceive that there is a whole-school approach to support struggling literacy learners in their schools, or that there are adequate strategies and supports to meet the needs of struggling literacy learners in their schools. Findings also suggest that regardless of place, school leadership commitment to ensuring that struggling literacy learners have their literacy skills developed across all learning areas may be crucial to the realization of a supportive whole-school culture for struggling literacy learners. [Author abstract]