Brenda Wawire

Research Focus

Brenda Wawire’s research focuses strengthening language and literacy skills among learners from linguistically diverse communities. She examines how component skills impact a multilingual child’s reading comprehension in English and understudied languages (i.e., Kiswahili). She examines evidence-based structured pedagogical approaches to support multilingual learners at risk of reading failure and pedagogical practices that help to transition to English. Her work also seeks to strengthen teacher education in best practices for foundational learning through curriculum review/reform, instructor training. Her research contributes to policy-relevant evidence to make education systems responsive to the learning needs of children and youth from diverse backgrounds.

My plans for the fellowship period

During my fellowship, I will examine how factors such as family traits, home environment, socio-economic status (SES) and individual characteristics impact a child’s education outcomes. I will explore the relationship between these factors among learners at risk of reading failure participating in targeted interventions to curb reading difficulties. The research will further examine how differences in the aforementioned factors affect the response to targeted interventions. Another primary objective of the research is to examine the causes of reading difficulties among multilingual learners from low middle-income contexts. I will develop and pilot-test a tool to screen for developmental dyslexia in Kiswahili. The tool will be tested for validity and reliability and used to screen for developmental dyslexia from the sample learners in Kenya. I will then examine individual differences among learners with dyslexia. Ultimately, this research will provide education stakeholders with an understanding of individual differences among poor readers and will consequently inform interventions that cater to whole child development. The screening tool for developmental dyslexia will provide direction for stakeholders to develop targeted interventions to support these learners, hence, help many children learn how to read that may have been overlooked or misunderstood before.

How will my work change children’s and youth’s lives?

My planned fellowship research will promote understanding of individual differences among developing readers in LMICs. The research will advance a theoretical understanding of how differences in children’s family traits, environment, socio-economic status, and individual characteristics account for individual differences in how learners at risk of reading failure learners respond to intervention. The empirical evidence from this research will provide the base to structure curriculums and use instructional strategies that vary based on a child’s skills and behaviors. This evidence will inform the design of intervention models that could better meet the individual needs of learners, creation of education experiences that adapt to children’s changing needs and to equip all children with knowledge skills and qualities to reach their full potential. Developing a valid instrument for screening developmental dyslexia in Kiswahili will enable researchers to track reading disabilities in Kiswahili, an African Lingua Franca. Learnings from these findings can help researchers in developing appropriate interventions for multidimensional learning and developmental processes and outcomes.