Presented with an Honorary Degree, Doctor of Letters (honoris causa) by La Trobe University yesterday, Hanford was praised for her work in bringing the ‘global reading crisis’ to the forefront of mainstream consciousness.
Hanford’s multi-part investigation charts the rise of the debunked ‘whole language’ movement which spread throughout the US school system (and indeed that of other countries, including Australia and New Zealand), casting a critical eye on the authors and corporate publishers that influenced its monumental take up in schools.
When Hanford spoke to EducationHQ last year, she said she wasn’t scared to drop names and call out widely-used programs and materials that went against decades’ worth of cognitive science research showing how children best learn to read.
“It was a natural progression as a reporter [to be like], ‘OK, just follow the story’,” she said at the time.
“And it just became very clear that that was the story to follow.”
La Trobe contend the series has had a global impact.
Last year EducationHQ revealed that Victoria’s shift the evidence-based instructional practice was first sparked by Sold A Story, with Education Minister Ben Carroll crediting the series as the impetus for his awakening to the science of reading and the force behind the phonics mandate that now applies across the state’s public schools.
“I’ve only been the (education) minister for just literally 12 months. And one thing I always do as a minister is go outside and read as many books and get as much reference material as I can,” he told political journalist and radio commentator Paul Kelly at a school improvement summit.
“And so, one of the things I listened to was the podcast Sold A Story … and the great history on the reading wars over 50 years around the world, essentially.
“…I [dug] a bit more into the science of learning; that what does go on behind our eyeballs is complicated. It’s not a natural process, and the kids needs to be taught.”
Educators, dyslexia advocacy groups and literacy experts had long criticised the Victorian Government’s lack of commitment to drive evidence-based teaching practice at scale, and namely to weed out instructional approaches rooted in whole language/ balanced literacy.
Since it launched in 2020, the university’s Science of Language and Reading (SOLAR) Lab has been leading reform in reading instruction.
Led by Professor Pamela Snow and colleague Associate Professor Tanya Serry, the Lab offers a suite of short courses for educators keen to deepen their knowledge of the linguistic basis of reading, how the English writing system works, and what evidence-informed structured literacy practices entail.
Serry previously told EducationHQ that teachers’ thirst for information was intensifying well before the Lab came into the picture.
“I actually see it as we literally tapped a vein that was ready to be tapped, in terms of the content that we offered,” she said.
“We would have been thrilled if we had 50 participants in our first course – we needed 30 to be financially viable for the university – and we got 800.”
The university claims it was the first in the country to align reading instruction in initial teacher education with the science of reading.
Farrell emphasised that Hanford’s work was aligned with that within La Trobe’s School of Education, which also has a focus on explicit instruction in its Science of Mathematics Education (SOME) Lab and a wider Momentum Schools research project.
La Trobe claims to be the first institution to meet the new requirements put forward by the Teacher Education Expert Panel, with all core content now focusing on evidence-backed teaching instruction.
Professor Joanna Barbousas, Dean of Education and Pro-Vice Chancellor of Education, Impact and Innovation, said experts had repeatedly called for a more structured approach in the classroom to address Australia’s spiralling literacy and numeracy results.
“Emily’s measured and methodological deep-dive into the teaching of reading has untangled a complex web of research mis-steps and conflicts of interest that have had – and in many cases, continue to have – serious implications for teacher preservice preparation, school sector policy and classroom practice,” Barbousas said.
“Sold A Story brought mainstream attention to an ongoing crisis in Australian education that La Trobe is attempting to solve.
“It is only through broader recognition of the importance of cognitive science in the classroom that we can begin to address them for the sake of future generations of teachers and students.”
Sold A Story was one of the most-shared shows on Apple Podcasts in 2023, and one of Time Magazine’s top podcasts of the year.
Hanford told EducationHQ that an outsider was really needed to reveal the problem “hiding in plain sight in education”.
“Sure there’s been pushback, there’s been a pushback on the reporting I’ve done for many years,” she said.
“And I think that’s partly why the reporting was needed – I think there were a lot of people with a lot of stake in certain beliefs and certain products.”
The fallout from Sold A Story has been significant.
Heinemann (the educational publishing goliath that took in hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue during the 2010s selling programs based on the whole language theory) was reportedly facing “financial fallout”, as US school districts shifted to the science of reading, according to APM.
In a statement released in 2022, Heinemann accused the podcast of “promoting false and divisive claims” and suggested it misstated financial information.
“…[it] radically oversimplifies and misrepresents complex literacy issues,” the publisher wrote.
“The series presents an incomplete narrative that ignores significant evidence of teacher and student success with Heinemann programs, includes many inaccuracies and relies upon multiple sources with undisclosed competitive interests,” it added.
Fountas & Pinnell also responded to “misinformation” about their resources and approach in a “Getting the facts” post.
The post aimed to offer “clarity” and “corrects the most egregious inaccuracies”.
Meanwhile, Lucy Calkins, a long-time professor at Columbia University and one of the central authors featured in Sold A Story, has turned away from the three cueing theory she previously promoted, dropping the practice from her reading curriculum.
The discredited three cueing theory encourages children to ‘guess’ at words using pictures and context, instead of sounding them out and decoding the text.
“People have labelled [the podcast] as misinformation. We stand by the reporting,” Hanford said.
“We have multiple reporters, editors, fact checkers and lawyers reviewing everything that we do. It’s thoroughly vetted and reported.
“And, you know, people can label it misinformation if they want, but I think what is very clear to me is that every day I hear from parents and teachers who say, ‘Thank you for telling the story’.”
Hanford said she was contacted by teachers more than anyone else.
“That, to me, says a lot.
“And I hear from teachers overwhelmingly saying, ‘I needed this, we needed this, this has opened my eyes’.
“So, I feel that it’s done an important service…”
The podcast, produced by APM Reports, has drawn numerous honours including a duPont, an Edward R. Murrow and a Peabody nomination.
