Persons in improving their teaching experience can attend any literacy schooling program and obtain a literacy degree. One such significant academic degree is Master 's Degree in Literacy Education. This kind of literacy license can be accomplished by joining an online program that can be complete in only 33 hours. Persons who already have a job as a teacher or a tutor can apply for this web-based program to improve their training expertise and gain their degree. These web based programs are the best mode to increase their techniques and reach higher ranks in their career.

The teachers who are qualified with bachelors' literacy degree, and have joined their workplace for knowledge, can still learn more and get web based Master 's Degree in literacy schooling very easily. The main objective of this literacy degree is to train and prepare professors for improving their tutorial techniques and methods.

The teaching skills and procedures of imparting literacy hold great significance as they determine if learners are in fact benefiting from all these or are simply wasting their time. The only principle of a master 's literacy license course is to help professors teach more proficient the applicants by greatly improving their reading and writing skills.

The main objective of these web based literacy degree programs is to improve teens skills through extensive reading, discussions and writing. Also, among the most important objectives, can be the teaching of specific strategies and methods of the correct schooling ways to learners. All these knowledge will be implemented in their learning style consequently resulting the optimum benefit.

The curriculum of this degree include all core actions of Literacy educations such a learning of relevant theories; getting prepared in educational technology, learning to be a leader; devising instructional techniques, learning to make fair assessments; and conducting related researches. This literacy degree is deliberately designed for the enhancement of procedural teaching of Literacy for teens of various age groups.

The students of Master 's literacy degree are anticipated to conclude either a project or render their cumulative experience when this academic program comes to end. Among other effects, students will also have to concentrate on presentations, specific exams and projects as well as the creation of portfolios.

Most people grow up using the word "literacy" to refer to an ability to recognize words on a page, or in the simplest vernacular, to read. Yet today, literacy has come to mean so much more. Our abilities as individuals and as a culture depend on our understanding of a continual growth toward literate thought and recognition of it in societal norms. It requires an understanding of cultural and literacy landscapes based on example and acquired knowledge from several areas in order to gain a global perspective. Robert Rosen in his book Global Literacies discusses the acquisition of business acumen as literacy on several levels including personal literacy, social literacy, business literacy and cultural literacy requiring a "collaborative individualism" to use the applied knowledge for the benefit of those around us.1

No longer is simply "getting along" good enough to be a world-class organization. It is acquired from acting in concert with personal beliefs derived from historical precedent and cultural expectations to grow an organization. Rosen believes that it is provided through executive leadership by which "good leadership is a major catalyst for growth; bad leadership can be the primary cause for business failure."2 It is one of the hard realities of businesses that focus leadership efforts on the numbers of the business and cause them to overlook other areas, or literacies, that will advance the organization beyond average performance toward exceptional growth.

How can these literacy theories be put into practice for businesses today? Rosen poses five good questions that are applicable to all businesses regardless of size, the market being served, or the country in which it operates. These five universal business questions are as follows:

1. Where are we going?

2. How do we get there?

3. How do we work together?

4. What resources do we need?

5. How do we measure success?

Corresponding with the questions as listed, the business must have and recognize why the business exits, or the purpose. The business requires a road map or plan to move it forward. The business must exploit internal and external relationships though networks to gain knowledge of competitive advantages and core competencies. The business must define and refine the resources that it will need in order to remain competitive through innovation and differentiation. Finally, it must know what has to be measured in order to be successful. Each element is a necessary part of becoming a globally literate company.3

Leaders today, more than ever, must be constant students of world economics. The focus on economic growth has for many years been the driving force behind the privatization or deregulation of many industries and markets. Many countries have allowed physical borders to disappear and politics to be secondary as national economies take shape and expand. This has required countries to recognize the steps needed to be taken to first, to become competitive and second, to stay competitive. Functional competitiveness relies on eight specific quantitative and qualitative factors which Rosen states as follows:

o Openness: Is the economy open to international trade and finance?

o Finance: How well developed are the financial markets?

o Technology: What is the quality of the technological infrastructure?

o Labor: Is the labor market efficient and flexible?

o Government: What is the level of government regulation of the economy?

o Infrastructure: What is the quality of the physical infrastructure (e.g., transportation and utilities)?
o Management: Is the business management trained in modern techniques?

o Institutions: How impartial and stable are the judicial and political institutions?4

Assuming the recognition of the above areas listed, each area has a plethora of circumstances that must work in concert for the organization to gain and sustain momentum in the competitive marketplace. Which literacy is more important to understand and implement? The answer lies within certain aspects of every literacy discussed based on a sense of history. Without recognizing the past, it is difficult for companies today to recognize business patterns that are emerging. The world is providing a new and unprecedented chaos for leaders that has not had to be managed in quite some time, if ever. The chaos is forcing unprecedented change on organizations and their leadership requiring fast response time and flexibility to maneuver through the turbulence.

Jason Jennings and Lawrence Haughton wrote a book that dealt with the speed requirements of today's business organizations. They put it this way:

"Most business people are so busy working for their business or in their business that they never find the time to wok on their business. Thus, they fail to anticipate what might happen or what they might be able to make happen."5

It is with an understanding that leadership and organizations must recognize within their business literacy that navigating through the chaos requires a sense of history. Without historical precedent, future survival becomes difficult and future success an improbability. Rosen calls this being a "historical futurist"6 requiring "business-literate leaders...[to] explore and celebrate the past, understand and own the present, and imagine and create the future...each phase [building] on the next."7

Does any single literacy outweigh the others? If so, which one, or must they all work together to drive the organization's literacy quotient? Depending on the situation that arises, leaders have to determine the literacy landscape of the facts that govern decisions for their organizations. Many leaders may have indeed inherited a "leadership-resistant architecture" reflected by a "conspiracy of busyness"8 that provides multiple challenges for them. The associates that are part of the organization may appear to be working, or busy, but not necessarily providing the forward motion needed to create positive business inertia. As such, their organization will tend to behave more on the level of an "ecosystem where more have access to the whole, and [their] people support and nurture one another with trust"9 though the actual functionality of the organization is in question. This is in stark contract to the rugged individualism that was reflected in the growth fueled by technology companies over the last two decades.

Other leaders may have a completely different set of circumstances with which to work requiring not only creative approaches, but creative decisions that take into consideration the literacy biases of the organization. This may be based on any one of a number of factors suggesting that the type of leader at the top of the organization as well as the type of organization itself, are subject to a historical and social literacy bias. Only when the business performs a self-assessment as to the values and true culture that is part of the landscape will the organization ensure that decisions are indeed correct for on-going survival and forward progress of the business.

"Different cultures differ on several concepts embedded in pragmatic trust [which poses questions such as]: What is a promise? Should I define self-interest as the interest of myself or of my group? Should I place more value on relationship or on rules? Pragmatic trust requires disclosure."10

Rosen states that "social literacy fosters the communication of knowledge" and to be effective the communication must first "clarify priorities and expectations" telling people what needs to be done and "to create the right tone" by making the people feels good about the decision.11

A truly global organization functions in an open atmosphere that fosters creativity, experimentation and pragmatic trust through disclosure to grow the business multi-nationally as well as multi-locally. As shown above by Jennings and Haughton, the speed by which a company moves is paramount. The technology flow and increasing amount of information that must be disseminated creates complex business equations that have to be solved in order to prosper. As a result, the aspect of both social and cultural literacy weighs heavily in most decisions leaders make by providing a sense of history necessary to see where the organization has come from and provide the ability to recognize repetitive circumstances within the organization. The future is indeed an unknown. However, effective leadership, by recognizing cultural and social norms, can provide a valid organizational road map to follow, but only by recognizing the input of the organization as a whole.

Is it more important for leadership to set literacy into motion, or can it begin at the lower levels of the organization? Rosen provides a plethora of examples of top leadership interviews and survey questions that support the top-down theory. Not one case is sighted where organizational change is driven from within the lower echelons of the organization suggesting the leadership for change is imperative for forward progress. This is not to argue that workers at lower levels are unimportant to the process of growth. On the contrary, leadership must provide "the best of impatience with a constructive push for excellence [that] creates just enough anxiety to move people forward not paralyze them." Rosen uses the example of a rubber band stating that "if you pull it too hard, it breaks. If you don't pull it hard enough, you don't maximize the potential of the band."12 This sets the stage for connective teaching because great leaders are indeed both great students as well as great teachers.

"Work must be a place of insatiable curiosity, a breeding ground for the lifelong development of all employees. Learning emerges from the creative juxtaposition of people, ideas, and technology, not from isolated endeavors of individuals. Connective teaching makes this happen. [It] engages all the skills of personal and social literacy."13

By recognizing these top skills, both leadership and employees can identify the most significant aspect of working with and influencing others.

Inspiration - Employees need a sense of significance that inspiring leaders bring with them to an organization. The inspiration is supplanted with motivation for internal as well as external success.

Communication - Knowing the intuitive elements of communication, not only the power of the words that are being used, but also the verbal and non-verbal signals within a conversation or negotiation are critical. When used properly, communication provides a strategic framework and context for understanding.

Listening - Hearing both the spoken and unspoken is critical to an organizations success. It means listening with not only the ears, but also with the head and the heart. It means recognizing moods as well as verbal and non-verbal communication

Common Goals and Values - The understanding of common objectives which coordinate with individual and organization value systems are critical to success. Without commonality of approach and understanding, the organizations ability to look forward is stunted.

Teaching and Coaching - Leaders must take a co-active approach to both teaching and learning.14 They must establish a routine that constantly supports team efforts along with the established objectives of the organization. It is a reaffirmation of both individual and collective purpose.

Replacing Conflict with Creative Action - It is functionally unwise to dwell on chaos whether internally produced or externally imposed. By addressing each challenge with creative solutions an organization will instill a sense of pride that fosters positive cultural effects.

Hiroshi Okuda, President and CEO of Toyota Motor Corporation in Japan employ these tactics to support his management style. Heavily weighed in Japanese social and historical literacy, he has re-energized and challenged Toyota. Without all the component parts that are mentioned above, the continued success of both his leadership style and the organization's global prowess would falter.

Are there other literacies that should be considered as part of the equation for success? Certainly moral and ethical literacy are important components of the literacy landscape. They have been sadly overlooked in recent years by primarily corporate leadership within the United States. Why has this not happened in other countries? It is from insatiable greed and lack of moral business training which litters the corporate world with numerous examples of poor judgment and ethical inconsistencies.15

In addition, the political landscape of the world is changing and effecting traditional business models requiring adaptation. War and unilateral action, although not unprecedented in world history but certainly unprecedented in American history, are requiring global businesses to adjust organizational policy and procedures. New issues are emerging as a result such as internal security, external sales efforts, communication style, and global positioning to name just a few.

John Sculley, ex-CEO of Apple Computer, was being interviewed by Warren Bennis concerning reoccurring themes in business. Sculley's remarks to him are powerful, direct, and poignant.

"The old hierarchical model is no longer appropriate. The new model is global in scale, an interdependent network. So the new leader faces new tests, such as how does he lead people who don't report to him - people in other companies, in Japan or Europe, even competitors. How do you lead in this idea-intensive, interdependent-network environment? It requires a wholly different set of skills, based on ideas, people skills, and values. Traditional leaders are having a hard time explaining what's going on in the world, because they're basing their explanations on their experience with the old paradigm."16

If the people following the leadership are disinclined to follow, the issue becomes one of internal culture and the necessity of providing a reason and willingness to accept change. Without good reason or accepted willingness on the part of the employees, the leadership is required to stay with old paradigms to guide the organization or simply watch where the masses are leading and then follow them. By stating the above, the aspect of historical literacy could be treated negatively at which time the social literacy will become prevalent and fortuitous within the organization. The leadership will tend to "just go with it" to keep priorities focused and the business intact. Employee empowerment is no longer just forethought, but an internal culture that will produce results.

By working together, employees and management can structure the company to provide the business with a sense of purpose, a plan for the future, an integrated network for internal and external communications, resources that are the tools for growth, and the ability to establish a system of measurements that establish forward progress for the organization, the business, and the individuals participating. Rosen argues that knowledge, relationships, and culture are the primary factors that produce intangible "soft" assets which can be viewed in the following forms of capital:

o Financial capital: The money, investments, property, and equipment.

o Human capital: People and their abilities, knowledge, skill sets, experience.

o Customer capital: Customer relationship management.

o Organizational capital: Systems, structure, and processes.

o Reputation capital: Image and brand cache.17

Leaders around the globe continue to be focused on results and the measurement process which allow them to "build a culture of accountability and [an on-going] sustainable enterprise."

The process of recognizing cross-cultural literacy landscapes is one that requires time and an in depth understanding of global leadership. Though all the literacies that Rosen discusses are important, the aspect of understanding both the social and historical literacy landscapes are paramount for organizational success. The challenge becomes one of recognizing the organizational self-sabotage of "ethnocentrism and blind thinking."18 In the end, leading by example using a basic understanding of social and historical literacies allow businesses today to understand and thrive within cross-cultural literacy landscapes.

By Nicolas Jonas
Analyst, OECD Directorate for Education and Skills

Photo credit: Alexander Dummer/Unsplash

Single parenthood is an increasingly common phenomenon across many OECD countries, and one that affects primarily (though not exclusively) women. It can also have an impact on learning, as single parents face unique challenges. The pressure of balancing work and family can limit a single parent’s professional development, the well-being of their household and the development of their children. But little is known about how a single parent’s literacy proficiency and cognitive ability are related to children’s education results.

In a new working paper, we analyse data from the Survey of Adult Skills to examine the relationship between literacy proficiency and a range of family-related indicators – including fertility rates and family composition. This relationship has potentially important implications for social and education policy, as the family, together with schooling, is one of the most important settings in which children develop and reinforce their literacy skills. A clearer picture of parents’ characteristics and behaviours can therefore help us get a better understanding of how literacy advantage and disadvantage is transmitted to their children.


In most countries that participated in the survey, we found that young adults with low literacy proficiency have a higher probability of being a single parent, and that this relationship holds among both men and women between the ages of 16 and 39. Among those who scored in the lowest 20% in their country on literacy proficiency, 11% of young women and 4% of young men are single parents. Among the top 20%, the proportions are significantly smaller: just 4% of women and 1% of men. This association is largely explained by the fact that adults with higher levels of literacy also have higher levels of educational attainment. As a result, they tend to start families later in life than their less-proficient peers.

It would be interesting to identify groups of children from low-literacy families who are at risk of developing low literacy themselves. But our survey gathered a limited amount of information on the literacy proficiency and educational attainment of respondents’ partners, so we were only able to obtain figures on children living in single-parent families. On average, in the 30 countries for which data was analysed, some 3.5 percent of children aged 15 years or younger live in households where the single parent (generally the mother) is in the lowest 20% of the national literacy distribution. These children tend to receive less family support for their education – particularly in terms of economic and educational resources, and parental involvement in their schooling.

There are still other areas to explore, as well. In OECD countries, rising divorce rates – which increase the number of children living with a single parent – are concentrated among less educated and less literacy proficient couples. This trend is increasing over time, which has important implications for educational disparities between children from advantaged and disadvantaged families. Determining what drives these disparities is the first step toward determining how to reduce them.

By Pablo Fraser
Analyst, OECD Directorate for Education and Skills

Photo credit: Shutterstock

When we launched the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) more than 10 years ago, we began with a simple question: what can teachers tell us about their work? At the time, this was a novel approach; TALIS was the first global survey to ask teachers and school leaders about their work and learning environments. But over time, it’s become clear that a better understanding of the conditions under which teachers work (and students learn) can help countries face diverse challenges and improve policies.

Our first report, released in 2008, focused on the most important issues that teachers face in their careers, such as the importance of school leadership, professional development opportunities and the implementation of effective pedagogical practices. The 2013 TALIS conducted a more in-depth analysis of these topics, and broadened its scope to 34 countries. Now, we’re preparing to release findings from our most recent survey next year – and it couldn’t come at a more critical time.

The teaching profession has undergone profound transformations over the past decade. Globalization and new technologies have changed the skill sets that today’s students will need to thrive in their world; and student bodies are increasingly diverse, with a wide and varied range of needs that education systems must meet. High-quality teachers can help guide students through this changing landscape, which is why effective education systems seek to attract, develop and retain the best and the brightest. We hope that our TALIS findings will help advance that goal.

A cross-national perspective on teaching and teacher’s work can help shape new policies and practices across the world.

Over the last two years, we’ve surveyed more than 240,000 teachers and 13,000 principals in nearly 50 countries and economies. As with previous cycles, the 2018 TALIS covered lower secondary schools in all countries, though some countries participated at the primary and upper secondary level, as well. The framework for the study is based on 11 themes, covering both emerging issues, such as innovation, and those that have endured across previous cycles, such as school leadership.

In surveying teachers and school leaders, we asked them about their teaching practices – including how they manage classrooms and assess students – as  well as practices that extend beyond the classroom, such as how often they collaborate with peers or participate in decision making processes. We also gathered information on characteristics that have been shown to influence teaching practices: educational background; professional confidence (or self-efficacy); satisfaction and motivation; and career expectations. And because teaching practices can vary across different school environments, our survey included information on school climate, classroom composition and leadership structures, among other indicators.

When our analysis is finalized, we’ll be able to compare key indicators across different countries, and get a better idea of how these indicators relate to one another. We’ll also be able to compare and understand indicators at the school and teacher level, and under different educational contexts. This kind of cross-national perspective on teaching and teacher’s work can help shape new policies and practices across the world.

We’ll be releasing the 2018 TALIS results in June 2019. Until then, we’ll be describing different aspects of the survey in a series of posts on this blog – so stay tuned for more!


Read more:

• Teaching in Focus #24: Changing interests and sustained knowledge in the TALIS 2018 framework

By Josette Arévalo 
PISA-D National Project Manager and Executive Director of the Instituto Nacional de Evaluación Educativa of Ecuador
and
María José Guevara Duque
PISA-D Lead Analyst and Director of Educational Research at the Instituto Nacional de Evaluación Educativa of Ecuador

Education has been a priority in Ecuador for more than a decade. In 2006, Ecuador approved a 10-year educational plan by national referendum, and the 2017-2021 National Development Plan sets forth an ambitious objective related to the education sector: “To guarantee a decent life with equal opportunities for all people”. Access and equality are priorities in the education sector, but the quality of education, infrastructure and the availability of resources are concerns, as well.

In order to understand if we are making progress toward our objectives, we need comprehensive, reliable and rigorous evaluation processes. That is why Ecuador’s Ministry of Education decided to participate in the PISA for Development (PISA-D) initiative. In joining PISA-D, the ministry aimed to improve our understanding of the major challenges that students face in the final years of formal education, and to complement the results of our national assessments – Ser  Estudiante, Ser Bachiller and Ser Maestro – with a more global perspective. Our organisation, the National Institute of Educational Assessment (Ineval), was appointed to carry out PISA-D throughout Ecuador. We conducted the field trial of the school-based assessment in 2016, carried out the main data collection in 2017, and spent 2018 analyzing and reporting the results.

Results from PISA-D will not lead to overnight changes in Ecuador, but they do provide us with an important starting point.

Results for Ecuador were mixed. Students said they feel safe and happy at school, but the results underscored a need to improve the quality of education they receive. The average 15 year-old in Ecuador only reaches PISA proficiency level 2 in reading, and maths scores are low, as well – particularly among girls and underprivileged students. One of the main challenges for our educational system today is to not only provide children with the knowledge they will need throughout their lives, but to ensure that the most vulnerable populations are not excluded from the system.

Participating in PISA-D has provided Ecuador with valuable data about our educational system, and with perspectives that could not be gained through national assessments alone. The program has also helped strengthen our national capacity to carry out large-scale educational assessments in the future.

The PISA-D results will allow us to better assess the effectiveness of Ecuador’s education system, in terms of achievement and learning, and to identify areas to concentrate our efforts. Participating in international programs will also allow us to closely track our progress toward both national and international objectives.

Nevertheless, assessments alone cannot improve the quality of education. Policy makers should now use these results to develop concrete actions, and to evaluate the effectiveness of policies that have already been implemented. Researchers, meanwhile, should use our PISA-D findings to develop new lines of enquiry, which can then inform future policy making. Results from PISA-D and national assessments will not lead to overnight changes in Ecuador, but they do provide us with an important starting point.


Read more:

• Instituto Nacional de Evaluación Educativa 
• PISA for Development: Results in Focus
• PISA for Development

Photo credit: Duangphorn Wiriya/Unsplash

PISA for Development Results in Focus and the PISA for Development international database will be released on 11 December at 9:00 AM CET. Seven countries will launch national reports of their school-based assessment results between 11 and 14 December 2018.

Learn more about PISA for Development here.   

By Michael Ward
Senior Policy Analyst, OECD Development Co-operation Directorate
and
Raphaelle Martinez Lattanzio
Team Lead - Education Policy and Learning, Global Partnership for Education

Photo credit: Nikhita S/Unsplash

Yesterday, representatives from multilateral organisations, civil society, philanthropic foundations and the private sector gathered in Brussels for the Global Education Meeting (GEM) – a conference, convened by UNESCO, that focuses on the most pressing issues facing education today.  For the first time since the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goal for Education (SDG 4) in 2015, policy makers and education experts came together to take stock of the progress made towards achieving this goal, and the challenges that remain. Their discussions couldn’t come at a more critical time.

The world today is facing a learning crisis, with more than 260 million children, adolescents and youth not in school, and 617 million (six out of ten) not being able to read a simple sentence or perform basic maths. Yet education remains critically underfunded across the world. If we are to achieve SDG 4, low- and lower-middle-income countries will need to close an annual funding gap of US$39 billion. It is therefore urgent to explore current trends in education financing, and to identify challenges and opportunities to invest in quality, equitable education.

This is exactly what we did in one GEM workshop, which focused on how to bridge the funding gap to achieve SDG 4. The workshop brought together representatives of the Global Partnership for Education and the OECD, as well as UNESCO colleagues and representatives from a wide range of countries: Bangladesh, Brazil, China, France, Kenya, Mongolia and Norway. Representatives from civil society and private foundations also participated in the workshop.

We discussed three key issues:

• How to increase domestic resources for education without adding to the burden of poor households;
• How to increase international resources for education and improve aid delivery mechanisms; and
• How to allocate and use resources for education more effectively to ensure equity.

The workshop opened with an overview of current trends in education financing, including the latest data on aid to education, and domestic resource mobilisation and spending. We also explored which funding policies lead to better quality and equity in education. Participants recommended policy solutions to ensure that funding to achieve SDG 4 not only increases dramatically but is effectively allocated and targeted to reach countries and populations with the greatest needs.

We also examined how to mobilise greater domestic resources, and effectively distribute them to help achieve countries’ educational objectives. Countries still need to do more to meet their commitments on education spending, while focusing on spending resources well and ensuring that they reach the most marginalised populations, including migrants.

National governments are not prioritising education, and education budgets are not reaching those in greatest need.

Domestic resources account for most global education expenditure, and their share is rising thanks to increased tax revenue. But national governments are not prioritising education, and education budgets are not reaching those in greatest need. As a result, the household costs associated with education remain a disproportionate burden for families who cannot afford to send their children to school.

Development assistance plays a key role, as well. Aid to the education sector, by both volume and as a share of total aid, has reached its highest levels since 2002. But current levels are still not enough to close the US$39 billion annual financing gap to achieve SDG 4, and humanitarian aid to education still falls short of the recommended target (4% of all humanitarian aid). We discussed what must be done to reverse these trends, including innovative, non-traditional sources of development assistance, results-based aid and triangular cooperation.

UN Sustainable Development Goal 4 aims to "ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all".

At the end of our discussions, our moderator, Fanny Benedetti of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of France, summarised the main takeaways from our workshop. She noted that the world needs to mobilise additional resources and increase domestic spending for education. Heads of state and finance ministers must take the lead on this, and donor countries must mobilise more foreign assistance for education.

Donors must honour their commitment to aid targets (0.7% of GNI) and allocate at least 10% of their development assistance to education. Ms. Benedetti also identified the need for national governments to more effectively allocate and deploy domestic and foreign resources for education, targeting those who are most disadvantaged. Peer learning among countries can help meet this goal.

By the end of the GEM, it became clear that if we are to achieve SDG 4, the international community will need to draw from both domestic and international resources, as well as non-traditional sources. Most importantly, to have the most sustainable impact, it is critical for all major funders of education – governments, aid agencies, philanthropic organisations and the private sector – to align their financing behind strong national plans to provide free, and quality education for all.


This article was also published by the Global Partnership for Education.


Learn more:

• Global Education Meeting 2018