City researcher awarded UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship • City St George's, University of London

Dr Katrina Dulay has received funding to improve reading comprehension among primary school students in the Philippines

By Mr George Wigmore (Senior Communications Officer), Published Thursday, 18^th July 2024 (Updated Monday, 22^nd July 2024)

Dr Katrina Dulay, Lecturer in Developmental Psychology in the School of Health & Psychological Sciences, has been awarded a prestigious UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Future Leaders Fellowship (FLF) to improve reading comprehension among primary school students in the Philippines.

The aim of the FLF scheme is to develop the next wave of world-class research and innovation leaders in academia and business. The four-year funding allows recipients to tackle ambitious and challenging research and develop their careers, and it can be extended for up to a further three years to support a long-term focus on a particular area of research.

Improving reading comprehension

The United Nations aims for all youth and a substantial proportion of adults to achieve literacy by 2030. However, despite years of educational investment from governments and international organisations, many children in the Global South continue to exhibit below-average levels of reading comprehension.

There are also significant barriers to instituting impactful interventions. In particular, the Philippines ranked last in reading comprehension assessments among 79 countries in the OECD's 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment. It also ranked 5^th among 6 Southeast Asian countries in the 2019 Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics assessment.

Dr Dulay said:

The Philippines is relatively understudied and in urgent need of reading intervention. With the funding from UKRI, I aim to conduct a longitudinal study that identifies the cognitive skills and social supports associated with different reading outcomes and design a new set of interventions that cater to the children who need them the most.

Addressing research gaps

The project is poised to address significant gaps in current reading research and practice. Dr Dulay's preliminary studies have highlighted the urgent need to move beyond existing models of reading development, which often do not consider the unique linguistic and cultural contexts of non-English speaking regions.

As part of the study, Dr Dulay will develop a contextualised, ecosystems approach to reading development in the Global South. It will involve using co-production methods to involve local communities and stakeholders across the different phases of the project and will adopt an interdisciplinary, multi-method, and multi-sectoral approach.

Dr Dulay said: “This investigation will help understand which language and reading skills should be targeted and how the literacy ecosystem can best be engaged in a reading comprehension intervention. In this project, I will be working with colleagues in education, linguistics, and psychology, using both qualitative and quantitative research methods, and engaging with partners in the academic, government, and community sectors. Making sure that the research includes diverse perspectives and resonates with realities on the ground is a great way to achieve long-term and sustainable impacts on children’s reading development in the Philippines.”

Overall, these initiatives aim to build a replicable framework for reading theory and intervention that can be used in different communities in the Global South, or anywhere where gaps in reading achievement are observed within the population.

Along with colleagues at City and the University of Oslo, the project partners include the University of the Philippines Center for Integrative and Development Studies – Education Research Program (UP CIDS-ERP), Department of Education Schools Division Office – Marikina City, and Interactive Children’s Literacy Project.

Dr Cynthia L. Ayles, Assistant Schools Division Superintendent, OIC – Office of the Superintendent said:

SDO-Marikina is very much grateful first to God who gave this opportunity for our division to be selected and be part of these noble deeds. Secondly to Dr Dulay and UKRI for this endeavour and lastly to the former SDS, Dr Ma. Evalou Concepcion A. Agustin, and our CID Team headed by Mr Joseph T. Santos, for forging this partnership.
On behalf of our DepEd family, thank you so much. We are positive enough that through this research-based project on reading and literacy, we both come up with age-appropriate, contextualised, and effective learning resources for us to attain our goals in shaping our learners to become good and proficient readers in the future. Hoping that the product of this partnership will benefit not only the Marikeños but the whole country as well.

Hashtags