The challenge
Home reading rates in Australia are declining, with many children increasingly stating that they don’t like to read. While technical skills are important, research shows that technical skills alone do not create lifelong readers.
Parents and caregivers can also feel pressured or isolated in fostering literacy. Understanding that reading is a ‘symphony’ of community support, where ‘will’ and ‘skill’ are cyclical partners, helps families and children to enjoy and feel motivated to read (note: Children’s Book Council of Australia’s 2026 Book Week theme is ‘Symphony of Stories’).
The aim of this project was to provide a framework to help teachers, families and communities foster a love of reading that supports children’s long-term wellbeing and academic success.
Project overview
In response to the concerning decline in children’s enjoyment of reading and home reading practices across Australia, 51 advocates of reading for pleasure, including educators, authors, illustrators, children’s book publishers, academics, teacher librarians, and librarians, engaged in a community conversation on 1 July 2026 at Deakin University’s Corporate Centre in Melbourne, Australia. This process was inspired by, and drew on, some key features of other consensus-seeking methodologies, such as an adapted form of the Delphi Technique (see for example, Hasson et al., 2000) for iterative idea generation; and, a Nominal Group Technique (see for example, McMillan et al., 2016) for incorporating processes that reduced the risk of a dominant voice.
This innovative methodological approach invited stakeholders to share their thoughts, and engage deeply in a series of dialogue-provoking activities centred around a complex educational issue until consensus was reached. Critical to this approach was the underlying premise that every participant’s voice was heard, acknowledged and represented in the consensus (as formal or anonymous authors of the final discussion paper), rather than subsumed within interpretations of the participants’ perspectives as is often the case in other consensus orientated methodologies.
Outcomes
The discussion paper, collaboratively created by 51 literacy advocates of reading for pleasure, provides a framework to help teachers, families and communities foster a love of reading that supports children’s long-term wellbeing and academic success.
Funding
This Discussion Paper was supported by Deakin University’s Faculty of Arts and Education (Grant Project No. PJ09588).
Timeline
A Community Conversation was held on the 1 July 2026 at Deakin University’s Corporate Centre in Melbourne, Australia.