How do structured pedagogy programmes affect reading instruction in African early grade classrooms?

‘Structured pedagogy programmes’ (SPP) have recently become a dominant approach in interventions across low and medium-income countries (LMICs) to address the so-called ‘reading crisis’. SPPs entail a range of interventions including reading materials, lesson plans and teacher support aimed at changing instructional practice. This paper considers the impact of SPPs on pedagogy. As part of evaluations of the Literacy Achievement and Retention Activity (LARA) and the Read Liberia programmes, observations of 188 early grade reading lessons in Uganda and Liberia were conducted between 2017 and 2022. These included programme (treatment) classrooms and comparator (control) lessons. Both programmes aimed to improve the reading abilities of early grade learners through the training and coaching of teachers and the provision of materials, including daily scripted teacher guides. The article considers the intended curriculum of the two programmes and analyses the differences between treatment classrooms implementing the programmes, and control classrooms. The paper argues that while the ‘what’ of the SPPs (the textual base and curriculum content) is clearly defined and impacts pedagogy to some extent, the ‘how’, or interactive aspects of the pedagogy are diffuse in programme intensions and show little impact on instructional practice. The distinction between the what and the how of pedagogy highlights the need for a more developed theory of pedagogy underlying SPPs. Further, the analysis draws attention to the sociocultural aspect of pedagogy in shaping instruction, arguing for experimentation in contextually-sensitive pedagogies that work more with the grain of teachers’ local, existing practices.