How We Read Podcast
In this educational podcast series hosted by Loh Chin Ee (Associate Professor from the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University), we explore how children, adolescents and adults learn to read. Learning to read is not just a matter of phonics as many might believe.
Neither is learning to read something that stops at childhood. Rather, learning to read is a complex enterprise that includes finding the right book, having reading role models, being immersed in book-full environments and searching for new ways to approach different kinds of texts through different stages of life. This series takes you into the world of reading, from childhood to old age, to uncover the art and science of learning to read.
S2 - Episode 1: Do We Still Need Physical Bookstores?
Rent and raising costs are a perennial issue for bookstores who have to compete with e-books and online vendors. How will physical bookstores survive? What forms of technology and tricks of the trade can they turn to improve profits and for sustainability? And do we still need physical bookstores?
Episode Guests:
- Ibrahim Tahir, Founder of Wardah Books
- Alex Chua, co-founder of Book Bar
- Sung Yuen Ling, Manager of Maha Yuyi
s2 - EPISODE 2: THE SOCIAL LIFE OF BOOK CLUBS
Despite laments about the decline of reading, book clubs are having a renaissance moment in Singapore. Who goes to book clubs and why do they attend these sessions? What do the popularity of book clubs tell us about reading in this day and age?
Episode Guests:
- Alex Chua, co-founder of Book Bar
- Ibrahim Tahir, Founder of Wardah Books
- Myra Garces-Bascal, Assistant Dean for Research and Graduate Studies, Associate Professor, United Arab Emirates University
- Gan Sujia, PhD Student, National Institute of Education
S2 - EPISODE 3: BUILDING READING COMMUNITIES
One way to building a national reading community is to create a vibrant reading community that celebrates national literature. This first episode of the 2nd season of the HWR podcast examines the work of the Singapore Book Council and National Book Development Board in developing local and regional initiatives around books and reading.
Episode Guests:
- Charisse Aquino-Tugade, cultural worker, Executive Director, National Book Development Board (NBDB), The Philippines
- William Phuan, Executive Director, Singapore Book Council
BONUS EPISODE: CHARISSE AQUINO-TUGADE
In this bonus episode, Charisse Aquino Tugade, cultural worker and Executive Director of the National Book Development Board of the Philippines (NBDB), explains how the NBDB spearheads reading access and representation. Amid challenges faced by the publishing industry, Charisse shares innovative strategies for enhancing reading access and supporting Indigenous communities.
Episode Guest:
Charisse Aquino-Tugade, cultural worker, Executive Director, National Book Development Board (NBDB), The Philippines
Podcast Host
Loh Chin Ee
Loh Chin Ee is Associate Professor and Deputy Head (Research) at the English Language and Literature Academic Group at the National Institute of Education. She graduated from the University of Albany, State University of New York, where she was involved with literacy research projects at the Centre on English Learning and Achievement, including the National Study of Writing Instruction with Arthur Applebee and Judith Langer.
Formerly a secondary school teacher, she has taught at Raffles Girls’ Secondary School, Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) and Yishun Town Secondary School. She currently teaches pre-service, inservice and postgraduate courses on literature education, reading and school libraries at NIE.
Chin Ee’s research focuses on literacy and literature education at the intersection of social class and globalisation. She is invested in using innovative research methods such as socio-spatial approaches and visual methods and drawing on insights from interdisciplinary connections to uncover insights about how better to improve students’ access to reading resources and practices. Her research has led to her current interests in the design of learning environments, school libraries and equity.
Findings from her Building a Reading Culture: A Nation-wide Study of Reading and School Libraries have been widely shared and significantly improved policy and practice on reading and school libraries in Singapore, while contributing to the international body of knowledge. She is current working on the Designing Libraries of the Future Study and focusing on studies of reading in print and using technology.
Recent books published are The Space and Practice of Reading: A Case Study of Social Class and Reading in Singapore (Routledge, 2017) and Literature Education in the Asia-Pacific: Policies, Practices and Perspectives in Global Times (Routledge, 2018).
Chin Ee is also the co-editor of Teaching Literature in Singapore Secondary Schools (Pearson, 2013), Little Things: an Anthology of Poetry (Ethos, 2013) and co-author of Teaching Poetry to Adolescents: a Teachers’ Guide to Little Things. Her work has been published in Teaching and Teacher Education, Changing English, Literacy, Journal of Adult and Adolescent Literacy and Anthropology and Education Quarterly, among others.
She is Book Review co-editor of Pedagogies, an international journal, and founder of enl*ght, a NIE-based student-run publication for Literature teachers. She has spoken widely internationally and within Singapore on literature education, reading, school libraries and the design of learning environments.
Photo by Wesley Loh (Memphis West Studios)