The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted in 2015 represent an important opportunity to improve learning globally. In this light, this chapter draws on a unique set of early literacy assessment results and demographic information from six African countries (Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Tanzania, and Zambia) to better understand the role that language plays in influencing early reading outcomes. While these data have been published in individual country reports, the information has not been analyzed and released prominently in the narrative surrounding learning outcomes in the region, although data like those presented in this chapter have begun to reverse this tendency. Following this introduction, a brief history is provided of postcolonial trends in literacy acquisition and language policyin sub-Saharan Africa from about 1960 to the present day, documenting the current language of instruction policies for twenty countries. Key questions are also outlined to drive the interest in gaining a better understanding of the variation in literacy acquisition in a selection of target countries for which we have data; then the chapter documents the data and methods usedas well as the results. Finally, the chapter discusses the implications of this work a for future policy and planning to achieve the promises made under the SDGs.

This chapter goes into the role of children’s self-regulation in their transition from home to school. Over the last two decades, a sizable body of research has documented the importance of the early childhood years as a critical foundation not only for a successful transition to school, but for literacy success in elementary school and beyond. There is evidence that a complex set of factors in the child, family, school, and larger sociocultural context, independently and in interaction, shape the growth of early literacy skills over that crucial time period. Recently, attention has focused on a set of skills called self-regulation (also known as executive function or effortful control), which has been shown to uniquely impact children’s literacy development and academic growth across the school years, as well as success in adult life. This chapter focuses on how self-regulation can be conceptualized. In addition, it examines the extent and nature of individual differences in self-regulation during the transition to school and what unique impact it has on early literacy and later academic achievement. Finally, it is explored to what extent self-regulation can be modified through appropriate environmental stimulation in the home and school environment.

In the present study the effects of the literacy ecology of the home on children’s literacy development in rural Rwanda were examined. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected as part of a larger randomized control trial of a literacy intervention in eastern Africa. First, the Literacy Ecology theoretical framework is described as a frame of reference for the present study. Second, survey, ethnographic, and child-reading data are reported from a rural district in Rwanda; these illustrate connections between home and community literacy and children’s early reading achievement. Finally, future directions and implications of the findings for efforts to improve children's early literacy attainment in lower- and middle-income countries are explored.

This chapter reviews examples of socioeconomic and sociocultural factors, the influence they exert on literacy development, and explanatory mechanisms for these influences. Research on variables with a broad geographic base is reviewed under the themes of socioeconomic status, literacy teaching practices at home, and the dynamics between the home and school language. The level of family income, household wealth, and parental education capture socioeconomic status and are often indicators of children’s access to literacy resources. Activities at home capture formal and informal teaching moments which may nurture literacy learning. Family choices about the language of instruction and teacher attitudes are examples of the intangible links between home and school language. These factors are potentially as important in explaining individual differences in children’s literacy attainments as within-child factors such as vocabulary knowledge. The associations of socioeconomic and sociocultural factors with emergent literacy, component skills of literacy, and grade-level achievement tests are also examined, framing the discussion around findings that are more consistent across contexts. It is concluded that educational practice that is sensitive to socioeconomic and sociocultural disadvantage needs to prioritize access to resources and instruction that consolidates skills and reduces fragmented development in literacy skills.

This chapter goes into the postcolonial development of literacy in the Caribbean. To begin with, the sociolinguistic background of language and literacy planning in native and (ex-)colonial languages across Caribbean nations is highlighted. Over the past century, a far-reaching process of decolonization has taken place in the Caribbean, a region of insular territories with mostly native Creole-speaking communities, in between North and South America. Special attention is given to the use of these languages in education and the effects on the actual attainment of literacy levels in native and colonial languages across Caribbean states. There is an additional focus on postcolonial literacy development in the Dutch Caribbean; this is an interesting case in which the Creole language Papiamentu has become highly valued in media, education, and other social domains, replacing Dutch. The focus is on the gradual implementation of Papiamentu literacy in the curriculum, and the literacy levels in native Papiamentu and Dutch as a (foreign) colonial language throughout the primary grades, and their relations with school success. Finally, a future perspective on postcolonial literacy development in the Caribbean is provided.