[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-seo-602332-105":3,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":81,"doc-detail-602332-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"ok",{"site_id":7,"language":8,"slug":9,"title":10,"keywords":11,"description":12,"schema_data":13,"social_meta":74,"head_meta":76,"extra_data":78,"updated_unix":80},105,"en","science-of-reading-policies-international-impacts-and-impressions-volume-33-number-73-november-11-2025","Science of Reading Policies - International Impacts and Impressions - Volume 33 Number 73 November 11 , 2025","","Amid concerns of a global learning crisis, foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN) has become a recent focus for low- and middle-income countries. In 2021, India launched a major initiative to achieve universal foundational literacy by 2026–27, despite the term having been largely absent from earlier policy discourse. Using corpus-based critical discourse analysis of 90 government and non-state documents, the study identifies strategies that legitimize FLN through science and evidence, build consensus via common-sense framing, and mobilize urgency through emergency and crisis temporality. The article argues these crisis-driven narratives are tied to broader privatization and political consensus agendas in education rather than specific literacy approaches.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & Report",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/science-of-reading-policies-international-impacts-and-impressions-volume-33-number-73-november-11-2025/602332/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/science-of-reading-policies-international-impacts-and-impressions-volume-33-number-73-november-11-2025/602332.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"dawugda","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-01","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":55},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",6,{"@type":57,"mainEntity":58},"FAQPage",[59,65,69],{"name":60,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":62},"What concern motivates the focus on foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN)?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"The article addresses concerns about a global learning crisis that has made FLN a recent focus area for low- and middle-income countries.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"How did India make foundational literacy a policy priority?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"The study uses corpus-based critical discourse analysis of 90 documents to identify discursive strategies, including using science and evidence to build legitimacy, common-sense framing to create consensus, and urgency through emergency and crisis temporality for immediate action.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"Why does the article argue that crisis-driven FLN narratives are not just about literacy approaches?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"It emphasizes that foundational literacy discourse in India is highly political and argues that crisis-driven policy narratives are linked to broader agendas of privatization and political consensus in education.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},602332,1792735734,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",[84,88,92,96,101,105,110,114,119,122,126],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":85,"show_sort_weight":86,"slug":87},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":89,"show_sort_weight":90,"slug":91},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":93,"show_sort_weight":94,"slug":95},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":97,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":98,"show_sort_weight":99,"slug":100},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":55,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":102,"show_sort_weight":103,"slug":104},"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":106,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},8,30,"research-report",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":117,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":120,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":121},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":123,"slug":125},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":97,"slug":129},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":131},{"doc_id":79,"user_id":132,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":111,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":55,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145},3985747870947,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_3d24733baf745e90a7e4bdd5f77d97b2","| Science of Reading Policies: International Impacts and |  |  |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| \u003Cbr>Impressions |  |  |\n| education policy analysis archives\u003Cbr>A peer-reviewed, independent, open access, multilingual journal | \u003Cbr>\u003Cbr>\u003Cbr>\u003Cbr>\u003Cbr>\u003Cbr>\u003Cbr>\u003Cbr>\u003Cbr>\u003Cbr>\u003Cbr>\u003Cbr>\u003Cbr>\u003Cbr>\u003Cbr>\u003Cbr>\u003Cbr>\u003Cbr>\u003Cbr>\u003Cbr>|  |\n|  | | |\n|  | Arizona State University |  |\n| Volume 33 Number 73 November 11 , 2025 ISSN 1068-2341 |  |  |\n\n“Established beyond any debate…”: Foundational Literacy and the Making of a Policy Priority in India  \nAbhinav Ghosh  \nHarvard Graduate School of Education  \nUnited States  \n&  \nTanushree Sarkar  \nUniversity of Missouri-Columbia  \nUnited States  \nCitation: Ghosh, A., & Sarkar, T. (2025) .“Established beyond any debate…”: Foundational literacy and the making of a policy priority in India. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 33(73) . [https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.33.8648](https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.33.8648) This article is part of the special issue Science of Reading Policies: International Impacts and Impressions, guest edited by Danielle Dennis and Rachael Gabriel.  \nAbstract: Amid concerns of a global learning crisis, foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN) has become a recent focus area for low-and middle-income countries (LMICs) . For instance, in 2021, India launched one of the world’s largest initiatives to achieve universal foundational literacy by 2026–27. Given that the term “foundational literacy” was largely absent from earlier policy discourse in India, little is known about how this idea was made salient to become a current policy priority. Through a corpus-based critical discourse analysis of 90 documents and reports published by government and non-state actors, we identify several discursive strategies used to prioritize FLN as a policy priority in India. These include using science and evidencebased discourse to produce legitimacy for foundational literacy; building consensus by projecting common sense; and producing a temporality of emergency and crisis towards immediate action. We emphasize that the foundational literacy discourse in India is highly political. In particular,  \nwe argue that such crisis-driven policy narratives and discourses are not so much tied to specific literacy approaches as they are to larger agendas of privatization and political consensus in education.  \nKeywords: foundational literacy; education policy; discourse analysis; India; education privatization  \n“Establecido más allá de cualquier debate…”: Alfabetización fundamental y la construcción de una prioridad política en la India  \nResumen: En medio de preocupaciones por una crisis global del aprendizaje, la alfabetización ynumeración fundamentales (FLN, por sus siglas en inglés) se ha convertido recientemente en un área de enfoque para los países de ingresos bajos y medianos (PIBM) . Por ejemplo, en 2021, la India lanzó una de las iniciativas más grandes del mundo para lograr la alfabetización fundamental universal para 2026–2027. Dado que el término “alfabetización fundamental”estaba prácticamente ausente en el discurso político anterior en la India, se sabe poco sobre cómo esta idea llegó a ser una prioridad en la agenda de políticas actuales. A través de un análisis crítico del discurso basado en corpus de 90 documentos e informes publicados por actores gubernamentales y no estatales, identificamos varias estrategias discursivas utilizadas para posicionar la FLN como una prioridad política en la India. Estas incluyen: el uso del discursocientífico y basado en evidencia para legitimar la alfabetización fundamental; la construcción deconsenso mediante la proyección de un sentido común; y la producción de una temporalidad deemergencia y crisis para motivar una acción inmediata. Enfatizamos que el discurso sobre alfabetización fundamental en la India es altamente político. En particular, argumentamos que estas narrativas y discursos de política impulsados por la crisis no están necesariamente vinculados a enfoques específicos","cbCaibmcsrFMxnkE","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaibmcsrFMxnkE","pdf",543561,22,"English","# “Established beyond any debate…”: Foundational Literacy and the Making of a Policy Priority in India\n## Abstract\n## Keywords\n## Resumen / Resumo","[{\"question\":\"What concern motivates the focus on foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN)?\",\"answer\":\"The article addresses concerns about a global learning crisis that has made FLN a recent focus area for low- and middle-income countries.\"},{\"question\":\"How did India make foundational literacy a policy priority?\",\"answer\":\"The study uses corpus-based critical discourse analysis of 90 documents to identify discursive strategies, including using science and evidence to build legitimacy, common-sense framing to create consensus, and urgency through emergency and crisis temporality for immediate action.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does the article argue that crisis-driven FLN narratives are not just about literacy approaches?\",\"answer\":\"It emphasizes that foundational literacy discourse in India is highly political and argues that crisis-driven policy narratives are linked to broader agendas of privatization and political consensus in education.\"}]","Science of Reading Policies - International Impacts and Impressions - Volume 33 Number 73 November 11 , 2025 | PDF",1792094491,55]