Organising primary grade literacy environments in Mozambique

Print-rich environments are critical to early literacy development. This study profiled how teachers organise literacy environments in 21 early-primary classrooms (grade 1–3) in rural Mozambique. We focused on two dimensions of classroom literacy environments—physical environments (e.g. access to literacy resources, visibility of print materials, presence of writing space and tools) and instructional environments (such as lesson structure, teaching methods and techniques, instructional support)—and their interactions in the daily work of Mozambican teachers in classroom settings by using classroom observations, teacher interviews, and teacher and school administrative data. Our study revealed strengths (e.g. teacher efforts in developing print materials) and weaknesses (e.g. restricting students’ independent use of teacher-produced print materials) in teachers’ organisation of literacy environments in their classrooms. More importantly, synergistic relationships between the two domains of classroom literacy environments were demonstrated. Policy and research implications of these findings are discussed.