Enriching Education in the Early Years

Research

Translanguaging Read Aloud

In Nigeria, many young learners speak their mother tongue at home but receive school instruction in English. These English Language Learners need to develop both oral English language skills and foundational reading skills to succeed academically.

Effective literacy instruction for English Language Learners requires the strategic use of both languages. Specifically, translanguaging pedagogy consists of instructional strategies that intentionally integrate English Language Learners’ skills in their mother tongue to promote meaningful learning of both oral English skills and literacy skills.

Reading aloud is one of the most important methods for teaching emergent readers the skills and knowledge needed for reading success. Strategically reading aloud English storybooks using translanguaging pedagogy may be one avenue for promoting oral English and literacy skills amongst young English Language Learners.

Ongoing research is attempting to develop and evaluate the impact of a methodology for reading aloud English storybooks while making cross-linguistic connections during the reading aloud and extension activities. Dependent variables include oral English skills, print awareness, phonological awareness, listening comprehension in mother tongue (Hausa), listening comprehension in English, and reading fluency in English.

SENIOR RESEARCHERS

Prof. Katrina A. Korb
Dr. Grace Selzing-Musa

Tarbiyya

Millions of Northern Nigerian children are regularly exposed to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) such as abuse, poverty, and violence. Toxic stress resulting from exposure to ACEs threatens lifelong physical and mental health. Resilience can mitigate the negative health outcomes caused by toxic stress, enabling children to successfully adapt despite the challenges they face. Two interventions that develop character strengths related to children’s resilience were created and evaluated in this project.

The Tarbiyya curriculum was developed for Northern Nigerian children (Nursery 3 – kindergarten – through Primary 2) to enhance personal character strengths related to resilience: hope, joy, and perseverance. Each character strength has 4 lessons: the first three lessons help children learn more about the character strength through indigenous songs, stories, games, and handcrafts, with a supplementary magazine. The fourth lesson is a celebration of learning modeled after traditional celebrations such as cultural festival and naming ceremony. The Tarbiyya curriculum can be accessed here.

Another factor that enhances resilience is nurturing teacher-pupil relationships. The Kauna curriculum was developed for early childhood educators to enhance character strengths related to positive relationships: love, social intelligence, and teamwork. Each character strength has eight lessons with indigenous stories, proverbs, songs, games, and handcrafts that help educators learn more about the character strength as well as applying the character strength to their classroom practice. The Kauna curriculum can be accessed here.

The dependent variables of pupil character and resilience, teachers’ character, and the teacher-pupil relationship were measured at three points: pre-test, post-test, and delayed post-test three months after treatment. Sources of data included pupils, parents, and teachers.

Results found positive impacts of Tarbiyya on pupils’ character and resilience. In the qualitative results, parents and teachers also reported improved socio-emotional learning and reading skills. Kauna (the teacher curriculum) positively impacted teachers’ character at post-test. Interestingly, the teacher-pupil relationship was positively impacted at delayed post-test only.

Future research is aimed at examining the impacts of Tarbiyya on academic outcomes as well as expanding the Tarbiyya curriculum to include modules that promote relational and societal thriving. Based on challenges measuring resilience in the target population, additional research is needed to develop a valid measure of resilience amongst young children in Nigeria.

 

PUBLICATIONS

 

UNPUBLISHED CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

  • Ishaku, U. G., Korb, K. A., Selzing-Musa, G., & Ngwodo, N. (2025, August). Assessment of the psychometric properties of resilience instruments among Northern Nigerian children. Poster presented at APA (American Psychological Association) 2025, Denver, USA.
  • Ishaku, U. G., Korb, K. A., Selzing-Musa, G., & Ngwodo, N. (2025, August). Prevalence and types of adverse childhood experiences among Northern Nigerian Adolescents. Poster presented at APA (American Psychological Association) 2025, Denver, USA.
  • Ngwodo, N., Korb, K. A., Selzing-Musa, G., & Ishaku, U. G. (2025, July). The power of love: Utilizing indigenous cultural resources to improve teacher-pupil relationships. Paper presented at the 2025 OMEP 77th World Assembly and Conference, Bologna, Italy.

 

SENIOR RESEARCHERS

Prof. Katrina A. Korb
Dr. Grace Selzing-Musa
Utek G. Ishaku
Nanmah Ngwodo

 

LINKS

 

Literacy Cooperatives

In Nigeria, a common approach for overcoming the challenge of scarce resources is a cooperative, which is a democratically controlled organization where members voluntarily contribute assets to meet specific needs. The contextually-relevant practice of a cooperative is applied to the education sector to overcome the challenge of scarce reading materials and the need for contextually-relevant teacher training in reading aloud through a CODE Context Matters Research Grant. The purpose of a Literacy Cooperative is to empower teachers to use reading aloud as an effective strategy for literacy instruction, which is accomplished by providing educators with both the materials (storybooks) and training needed for reading aloud to promote positive reading outcomes.

A Literacy Cooperative typically includes 11 educators and one Literacy Coach. The Literacy Cooperative meets every other week for about 90 minutes for training in repeated interactive read alouds and to rotate culturally-relevant storybooks amongst Cooperative members. The training includes peer mentoring, direct instruction, time for planning and practice, and microteaching with feedback. Teachers are trained to use read aloud to teach the literacy skills of vocabulary, comprehension, print awareness, and phonemic awareness.

Literacy Cooperatives were initially evaluated based on its impact on teachers’ knowledge of best practices in literacy instruction and use of literacy instructional strategies as well as pupils’ reading motivation, with positive impacts on all variables. Ongoing research is examining the effect of participating in Literacy Cooperatives on educators’ teaching satisfaction.

 

PUBLICATIONS

SENIOR RESEARCHERS

Prof. Katrina A. Korb
Dr. Janet M. Esyin

 

LINKS