Since 2008, the UKLA has been working in partnership with The Open University, both to research the Reading for Pleasure agenda, and to support the profession in developing evidence-informed practice that positively impacts upon young readers.
Our first joint research project- ‘– revealed the significance of teachers’ knowledge and use of children’s literature and other texts in order to increase children’s motivation for reading (Cremin et al. 2014). It also identified a coherent strategy to develop children’s RfP, and a RfP pedagogy. Consequently, UKLA launched the children’s book awards to support the profession in widening their knowledge of children’s texts and appointed dedicated National Council members to retain the profile of RfP.
Subsequent UKLA and OU collaborations have been extensive, including twice yearly reading for pleasure conferences since 2018, over 100 OU/ UKLA Teacher Reading Groups annually run by volunteers across the country, RfP student ambassadors in Higher Education institutions who support their peers who are also training to be Teachers, and a RfP Quality Mark. The original study has subsequently been endorsed in the NPQLL (UCL), the DfE (2023) Reading Framework and in Ofsted’s (2022) Research Review.
