National report to the International Development in Europe Committee, IDEC

FinRA, Finnish Reading Association Chairperson: Ann-Sofie Selin

http://finnishreadingassociationenglish.blogspot.fi/Report by: Ann-Sofie SelinAddress: Västerlånggatan 26 C 74, FI-20100 Turku/Åbo, Finland e-mail: aselin at abo.fi

Report for AUGUST 2016

FinRA, The Finnish Reading Association, was chartered as a national affiliate of the International Reading Association in 1971. The association was founded in 1968, and the name FinRA was registered in 1981. FinRA has approximately 200 members, among those researchers, teacher educators and other academic staff; the majority being teachers working to promote language and literacy development in children.

During four decades FinRA has played an important role for educators who have benefited from the quarterly journal Kielikukko, publications, instructional material, and professional activities like seminars and literacy conferences. The editorial board and the chief editor Vuokko Kaartinen welcome articles in English and Scandinavian languages. Please check the website for details.

Important dates:

FinRA promotes literacy by arranging the Conference that brings together colleagues from 34 countries. The work of volunteers both within FinRA and together with friends and colleagues close to FinRA makes it possible to keep the participation fee low enough for as many interested as possible to be able to participate. As before, we offer a platform for teachers to communicate with researchers and researchers to do the same with teachers, and other professionals in the field. Sessions are in English, Finnish, Swedish and other Scandinavian languages. Finland has not that many migrants compared to most of our guest countries. The schools in hosting Turku are receiving recently arrived pupils with some 30 languages. Therefore learning in another language is one of the eleven topics at the conference. The 2016 Finnish reformed curriculum implemen-tation this academic year has also inspired the organisers.

FinRA in collaboration with the Nordic and Baltic Sea Literacy associations networking with ILA, IDEC, FELA, ELINET supported by the City of Turku/Åbo is proud to work for and to

Support Education ‒ Ignorance is devastating!

3rd BALTIC SEA – 17th NORDIC LITERACY CONFERENCE TURKU/ÅBO /SUOMI FINLAND │14−16 AUGUST 2016

Making meaning - literacy in action

3rd Baltic Sea – 17th Nordic Literacy Conference

14−16 August 2016

340 participants from 34 countries: 46 from the Nordic countries (Denmark, Iceland, Norway & Sweden)47 from Russia43 from other IDEC/FELA countries Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland and UK, and from Italy 38 from the North-Americas (Canada & USA)10 from Asia (Japan, Hong Kong, Kazakhstan, Singapore & Taiwan) 1 from Argentina and 3 from AustraliaFrom Finland 152