Preparing pre-service teachers for the challenges of English spelling instruction

This article presents the experiences of a teacher educator preparing pre-service teachers (PSTs) for teaching literacy in primary and literacy across the curriculum. The teaching of literacy is complex, involving content, cultural and linguistic knowledge. Here, I focus on one key concern within Initial Teacher Education (ITE): knowledge about language. This links to Teacher Professional Standard 2 - Know the content and how to teach it (AITSL, 2017, Standard 2), which is discussed in more detail later, in relation to the effectiveness with which ITE units cover both pedagogical approaches and literacy content knowledge.