This chapter goes into the sensitivity to contextual factors in literacy interventions in countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and other countries that together have been called the Global South. Over the past decades, the measurement of children’s learning has been maturing as a field and has therefore come to be valued as an indicator of success for educational interventions. These have identified literacy and communication as a learning domain and the ability to read as one of the areas of measurement for global tracking. Moreover, the UN Sustainable Development Goals, with the aim of quality education for all by 2030, hashighlighted the need for sensitivity as to what constitutes "quality" and to whom. It is against this background that experiments with literacy interventions in the Global South were reviewed in this chapter. In this review, the focus was on the sensitivity of literacy and foundation learning in developing countries to contextual and cultural factors. The chapter starts with a description of the perspectives that led to the identification of the focus areas in our qualitative analysis. In addition, the methodology of using cultural probes to examine interventions and their evaluation is explicated. Finally, a narrative synthesis of findings and a discussion about the implications for evaluation of the next generation of literacy interventions is provided.

In this introductory chapter, we examine the worldwide distribution of literacy, its development with schooling, and the sources of individual variation in literacy outcomes. Various perspectives on global variation are discussed while also aiming for a common framework to describe literacy development that recognizes demographic boundaries in the world, on the one hand, and its global variation as a function of bio-ecological markers on the other hand. In this introduction, we draw attention to the wealth of recent research on variations in literacy development that arise across regions and that reflect the multiple interrelated influences of individual, home, school, and societal factors. Furthermore, observations on the neurobiological and ecological markers related to global literacy are discussed. These include the role of writing systems, genetics, brain foundations, self-regulation, and sociocultural, contextual, teacher, and parental factors in global literacy development. An explanatory framework is also provided showing that literacy development involves gaining reading fluency and spelling to facilitate reading comprehension and writing, that it builds on language, and that child characteristics and home- and school-support factors combine to influence individual variation, within an indirectly influential sociopolitical context.

In this final chapter, a wide-angle perspective is provided on the major issues that arise when one thinks globally about literacy. Despite many important differences across the globe, literacy development suggests some general patterns that reflect nearly universal phases and shared operating principles. Although the “development” of literacy begins early through natural processes of language development and conceptual development, it is school experiences, explicitly designed to teach reading, that we expect to ensure the achievement of literacy. Each classroom within a school is its own literacy ecosystem, with one or more teachers, students, literacy curriculum materials, assesments, and regulated interactions. The classroom itself is embedded within other systems – the school, the community, the larger school administrative units, and local, regional, and national government control agents. A Global Literacy Framework is presented, showing that literacy development is embedded in language development and can be predicted by (a) system factors, referring to variations in the linguistic and writing systems, (b) child factors, associated with the neurobiological foundation of children’s learning capacity, and (c) support factors, associated with processes in the home and at school. All these influences exist within a sociopolitical context that exerts influence broadly across the system.

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.

Children typically record dramatic growth in reading skills in primary school. This is not surprising since reading instruction has been placed at the heart of primary school curricula. Irrespective of country, learning outcomes in primary schools everywhere articulate the expectation that children will read, comprehend, and write to express themselves well. This chapter focuses on children who fall behind these stated literacy expectations within their school system, arguing that, while some will qualify for the diagnosis of dyslexia, all those who struggle will need a measured response from the primary school system. A cursory look at the decision-making framework that primary schools follow for those who fall behind shows variation across countries and also within countries, including those that have a well-articulated protocol of referral and response. Given this, it is useful to think of school systems as placed at different points on a continuum of support, with schools that have no discernable provisions and schools with multilayered provisions put at either extreme. This variety may reflect differences in access to resources for screening, diagnostic testing, and tiers of targeted interventions.