Developing Critical Literacy: Teacher Candidates in Initial Teacher Education Programmes

Abstract

This paper will focus on recent curriculum initiatives in developing academic literacy in English as a requirement in Initial Teacher Education programmes, the PGDE (Post-Graduate Diploma in Education Programme) and in the BEd (Bachelor of Education Programme). The course in which these new curriculum initiatives were implemented is instructed in two languages, English and Arabic, at the Bahrain Teachers College. This impetus in curriculum initiatives is a result of the reform movement in Bahrain, (Bahrain Education Reform, 2006). This paper will discuss the processes and the strategies enabling the development of critical academic literacy in teacher candidates. These enabling strategies are for developing both content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge across several academic courses at BTC.