Research, adult literacy and pushing the boundaries of what is known
Have you ever read a 15-page paper without understanding what it says? If you answered yes, we may be able to shed light on how to avoid such experiences, particularly for classroom teachers or leaders seeking research-based decision-making and practice guidance.
As a non-native English speaker and researcher in the field of education, I find that reading research papers is a daily task that requires constant focus and a high level of skill. The task of comprehending research literature can be difficult for novice readers who are either new to the domain or new to this type of literature, and perhaps even more difficult for non-native speakers of the language in which the material is written. But if we were to assume that only non-native speakers have trouble reading academic literature, we would be underestimating the scope of the issue.
The word 'research' is derived from the French word 'recherche', which means 'to search for' or 'to seek'. Instead of waiting for others to assign reading materials, research is a proactive process involving the constant pursuit of new information and solutions. It entails not only studying what is known, but also pushing boundaries to uncover what is unknown. This aspect of research literacy requires a high level of adult literacy, including the ability to read and write proficiently, as well as comprehend, interpret, and analyse written texts.
In 1993, Kirsch and his colleagues[2] conducted a comprehensive study using The National Adult Literacy Survey, which assessed three categories of literacy from Level 1 (low) to Level 5 (high): prose literacy, document literacy and quantitative literacy. Level 5 literacy is associated with tasks requiring readers to navigate dense text, interpret complex visuals and perform multiple numeric operations, frequently with distractions. These tasks require sophisticated inferences and the application of specialised background knowledge, similar to what academic journal readers encounter. Only 4% of adults in the United States reached Level 5 literacy (or 'research literacy') in 1992, according to the survey.