Fifty years of literacy education: A history of the United Kingdom Literacy Association

The United Kingdom Literacy Association (previously the United Kingdom Reading Association) is a charity committed to the advancement of literacy education. Continuity and Change charts the Association’s development over fifty years within different English educational scenarios which are briefly described together with some of the relevant linguistic developments of the time. The resulting account shows how the Association’s central mission to inform teachers so that they can make valid pedagogical choices has been variously interpreted over the years to fit current needs while leaving unchanged the Association’s conceptualisation of language as broad and capable of expansion. It is hoped that the book will be of interest not only to members of the Association but to those wishing to access a brief overview of changes to English literacy education over five decades, those concerned with patterns of professional development, and those interested in how a small organisation can maximise changing opportunities for influence without losing sight of its charitable aims. Above all, it will be of interest to all those who see the past, not as a time when people acted differently, but as providing essential knowledge for present decision making.