Why phonics hasn’t won the reading wars - yet

TES Magazine, June 3, 2025, By Holly Korbey

Excerpt from TES Magazine

The reading wars have been “vociferous” in Australia, says author and LaTrobe senior lecturer Nathaniel Swain. University professors who train teachers have been especially resistant to reforms. “They saw phonics as being really backward, and just one part of a range of ways of teaching students to decode or to teach them to make meaning,” Swain says.