Community engagement within educational contexts recognises communities as active partners in learning and change. Communities, including teachers, parents, learners, and other stakeholders shape how learning is understood, how resources are used, and how interventions are sustained (Cherrington et al. 2018). To understand the context of this study, one first needs to understand the context of the community.

Cherrington et al. (2018) further describe the community as complex and dynamic systems that shape how meaning is constructed, how individuals within the group relate to one another and the other groups, and how power is distributed and experienced. Universities are tasked by policy to address societal challenges by engaging with communities to bring about change (Department of Education 1997). Private higher education institutions are new to the space of community engagement and seek to learn with and from those with whom they engage, hence our commitment to this project.

Sathorar and Geduld (2021) posit that considering the community voice will yield sustainable benefits. Successful engagement is only possible if it is built on trust (Sathorar & Geduld 2021). The communities in this study comprised the researcher, academics serving as workshop developers and presenters, funders acting as observers, teachers, principals, community volunteers trained as reading club facilitators, senior education specialists acting as advisors, learner support staff, parents, and learners. The communities found an ideal home in the reading clubs as they were multifaceted and required multiple role players to be both functional and sustainable. The study community comprised 12 no-fee primary schools in the same Education district but across four towns. English was the first additional language of all the schools; three schools had isiXhosa as home language, and nine schools had Afrikaans as home language. Teachers at the schools shared the same language contexts as the learners.

According to Gardiner (2008), schools in rural areas often have very limited resources; this includes reading books in home languages and structured opportunities to practise reading. The distance from main centres hampers access to resources, and teachers often lack the time and skill to offer support. As language and literacy were the key concerns of the school community, it made sense to establish and grow reading clubs within schools. This brought the resources to the school, and the dedicated reading club facilitator became an in-house resource to not only support structured opportunities but also to compensate for the lack of time available from teachers. Positioning the reading clubs in school facilitated easy access, and as most learners were within walking distance from their schools, it also provided an opportunity during class for support. To establish a reading culture in a community, the reading environment in the home, school, and community must be improved simultaneously (Doiron & Asselin 2010). Adults in the home do not always have the time, skill or reading material to establish reading practice at home. Training community members who were appointed by the Department as education assistants and reading champs provided an opportunity to simultaneously improve the reading culture in the school communities. Scheckle (2022) further states that learners from poorly resourced schools, both in South Africa and internationally, have limited access to books; this was evident in all the schools involved in the project. Where there is limited access to reading material, a reading club provides a space for learners to engage in reading practices and develop their literacies around the books they read (Scheckle 2022). However, these schools lacked funds to acquire books, and this was not provided for; Department of Education budgets only made provision for textbooks. Children need books to read that are not only associated with learning.

Reading, and therefore other literacy practices, is not neutral; context informs the meaning-making process. It is thus essential to provide context-relevant books. Doiron and Asselin (2010) further state that the books must be in local languages and reflect local interests; furthermore, learners must have a choice in what they read, to foster meaningful literacy engagement. This is especially relevant in the Intermediate Phase, where reading is no longer taught, but rather practised, to encourage mindful reading for comprehension and engage learners. This project aimed to establish well-resourced reading clubs to enable learners to read books that they enjoy, to firstly establish a reading practice and secondly, provide an opportunity to develop their reading-for-meaning skills. Training of reading club facilitators, provision of books and other resources are central factors in ensuring the success of the interventions, but this requires dedicated time and space. Scheckle (2022) suggests that previously disadvantaged schools can utilise reading clubs as sites to develop reading strategies. The opportunities afforded by reading clubs can be viewed as reading practice intervention.

International and South African research highlights the importance of structured reading strategy instruction, vocabulary development, and skilled teaching reading methods for successful interventions (Carter et al. 2024). Additionally, effective teacher education and the resourcing of reading materials were highlighted as crucial components for improving reading comprehension outcomes. However, despite some positive findings, the effectiveness of literacy interventions in South Africa remains inconsistent, largely because of implementation challenges, limited teacher capacity, and variability in intervention programme quality (Mguga et al. 2023). This variability led to inconclusive results regarding the overall effectiveness of the interventions.

The Literacy and the Right to Basic Education Report further questions the effectiveness of interventions and argues that the PIRLS statistics released in 2023 revealed that 81% of Grade 4 learners in South Africa cannot read for meaning in any language, up from 78% in 2016 (Huston, Polzer-Ngwato & Morse 2023). The government has commissioned various interventions, and it is essential to note that most intervention studies focus on the Foundation Phase to improve learners’ preparation for the PIRLS assessments, resulting in limited support for Intermediate Phase learners and teachers. The effectiveness of these interventions remains questionable, with little evidence to suggest that they are successful (Mguga et al. 2023). This might be because there is no assurance of sustainability or effective implementation. This study specifically focuses on both Foundation and Intermediate phases, and sustainability is at the forefront of the engagement project.

However, Oxley and De Cat (2021) found, in their research on language and literacy interventions in the United Kingdom, that the most effective among existing language-based interventions are those that target word-level skills, specifically vocabulary, spelling, and morphological awareness. This has not been the key focus of this study. The focus was mainly on reading for enjoyment to establish a reading practice – support to struggling learners included a focus on vocabulary and spelling before focusing on reading for meaning. Comprehension-based interventions showed smaller effects, suggesting that reading comprehension is more difficult than learning vocabulary. The review also identified a lack of provision for older children; this justifies the decision to include the Intermediate Phase in the project.

It is therefore possible to deduce that positioning the reading club as an intervention for literacy development for all learners can address the concerns referred to above. Carter et al. (2024) further emphasised the necessity for a more rigorous scientific approach in future research to strengthen the evidence base for reading comprehension interventions in the South African context. In addition, Holmes et al. (2021) state that involving schools in intervention processes can enhance relevance and adaptability of interventions, leading to more trustworthy research findings. The authors further emphasise the importance of involving beneficiaries in the design of interventions to align them with evolving needs of schools, thereby facilitating their adoption in practice. It therefore makes sense that participants should be at the forefront of voicing the what and the how, and a community engagement project provides an opportunity for this.

The Bua collective contends that the topic of how we teach reading has been a subject of debate, and these contestations have often been described as the literacy wars (Abdulatief et al. 2018). In the context of this study, the author had no intention of becoming involved in these debates and drew on the available resources. The Science of Reading (SOR) primarily focuses on phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension in the foundational grades, and it involves a structured approach. This study situates the reading clubs not as formal teaching spaces but as flexible environments supporting multiple literacy practices that contribute to reading development. Pretorius and Spaull (2016) concede:

Decoding, comprehension, and fluency may then be incidental consequences that can arise through exposure and repeated practice. It must be noted that this complemented reading support within the reading club, but it was not a primary focus. The preceding training of the reading club facilitators drew on multiple strategies suited to the needs of each school and considered engagement in various literacy practices as part of literacy development.

To address these challenges, the Eastern Cape Department of Education in the district of this study has released a reading improvement plan outlining the requirements, as shown in Figure 1. To date, very few of these have been provided by the Department of Education, and this engagement project aimed to address this gap specifically. Carter et al. (2024) strengthen the argument for a multi-pronged approach to interventions in schools, which aligns with the choice of an implementation science framework to guide this research study.

The community engagement and implementation were already in place before the document in Figure 1 was released and met all the specified requirements. The excerpt in Figure 1 mentions key change levers: planning and communication (already completed in consultation and collaboration with all 12 schools); teacher development (teachers trained in all 12 schools in both phases as seen in the graph in Figure 2); resource provision (all school provided with all resources as seen in Table 1); parent and community support (reading club facilitators were drawn from parents and community members); monitoring, research, and feedback (implementation was monitored throughout, data collected for research and findings will be shared, and we also had reflection sessions). It can thus be concluded that we adhered to all departmental requirements. The National Research Council (1998) states that effective teaching strategies, supported by professional development and adequate resources, can significantly improve reading outcomes and the community engagement project aimed to provide this. To ensure the success of this intervention, the community engagement project aimed to bridge the gap between theory and practice by providing materials, training, and implementation support.

The use of Implementation Science is an emerging field in literacy studies (Duda & Wilson 2018). The purpose of this study was to investigate resource-rich reading clubs as a vehicle for literacy development in an engagement project with 12 previously disadvantaged schools in a rural Eastern Cape district. Everyone needed to have a clear understanding of the expectations, so that the reading club as an intervention programme could be implemented with genuine commitment (Duda & Wilson 2018). Throwing interventions and resources at schools will not solve our current literacy crisis, as shown in the review of literacy interventions above. Duda and Wilson (2018:6) suggest that three components must be considered for successful interventions:

The choice to position the reading club within an implementation science framework enhances validity by systematically researching and applying evidence-based practices to ensure that interventions are not only practical in the schools but also feasible, relevant, and successful in real-world settings (Fixsen et al. 2005). By applying this framework, the study could be systematically planned for implementation and evaluation, ensuring that the interventions were effective, sustainable, and tailored to the unique needs of the 12 schools (Nilsen 2020). This had the potential to enhance the likelihood of achieving meaningful improvements in literacy development. Reading club activities and interactions contributed to a shared learning and development experience. Nilsen (2020) describes a far more generalised approach to using the Implementation Science Framework, which was applied to this study in the following ways:

Evaluation occurred continuously through observations, reflective sessions, feedback reports, and focus groups, ensuring that the intervention was responsive to the evolving needs of the schools. These five steps of Implementation Science enabled the author to document how the reading clubs were initiated, supported, and sustained across the 12 schools, and how contextual dynamics shaped their functioning. It strengthened the interpretation of findings by linking participant experiences to the structures and supports embedded in the intervention. Qualitative methods are particularly well-suited for implementation science, as they enable in-depth exploration of the context, environment, processes, and the support mechanisms, as well as the perceived connections between research and practice (Shingles et al. 2024). This process provided an opportunity for the reading clubs to become a space where learners and reading club facilitators could engage with relevant reading material through reading, storytelling, writing, drawing, poetry, and dramatisation away from school literacies in social, cultural settings.

The study, while underpinned by an implementation science framework, was also grounded in Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of literacy. Sociocultural literacy theory emphasises the social and cultural aspects of learning (Vygotsky 1978). Vygotsky’s theory emphasises the role of social interaction, guided participation, and collaboration within a community in facilitating literacy development. Vygotsky’s theory further aligns with the principles of community engagement, where learning is shaped through engagement with others and where we learn with and from each other (Jaramillo 1996). While implementation science focuses on the systematic implementation of strategies and integration of literacy interventions within real-world settings, social cultural literacy theory contextualises literacy practices, making them relevant for the participants, and it is socially mediated between all participants. By integrating Vygotsky’s theory, this study acknowledges that reading clubs function as social learning environments, where reading club facilitators and teachers can bring text to life by constructing meaning through engagement, scaffolding texts to provide support, and align lived experiences with culturally embedded literacy practices. Reading club facilitators can co-construct meaning through discussions, shared reading and storytelling. Through this collaborative process, literacy becomes more relevant, meaningful, and practical, aligning with a constructivist approach (Dyasi & Mosito 2022).

A qualitative multi-site case study design within a constructivist paradigm was used to generate data during this study. A multi-site case study framed this study to understand how the reading clubs operated within the context of all 12 schools (Creswell et al. 2016). The multi-site case study further allowed for comparisons across schools, highlighting both shared and unique experiences (Yazan 2015). The constructivist paradigm enabled the co-construction of meaning between the researcher and the participants, placing value on multiple perspectives and lived experiences (Creswell & Creswell 2017). The choice of a qualitative research design was appropriated because of the multi-faceted nature of this study, and it fostered an in-depth understanding of the perspectives of the participants and the role of the researcher (eds. Denzin & Lincoln 2005). The author was an active participant and served as trainer, facilitator, monitor, observer, implementing partner, and researcher in the engagement project.

The study took place in 12 previously disadvantaged schools within the Sarah Baartman district in the Eastern Cape, which is 250 km from the HEI. All the participating schools were no-fee schools. The schools were spread across four towns in the rural educational district.

The district is predominantly Afrikaans. Two of these towns can be described as hamlets. The contexts of the schools are best understood by their language contexts. English was the first additional language in all 12 schools; three of the schools had isiXhosa as home language, and nine of the schools had Afrikaans as home language. The teachers had the same language contexts. The schools are under-resourced and are all situated in poor socio-economic communities. Unemployment is high, and schools have limited fund raisers to complement funding. The reading clubs initially targeted Grade 1–4 learners but expanded to include Grade 5–7 learners as the capacity of the reading club facilitator increased. Learners were not research participants but were beneficiaries of the intervention.

Participants were Afrikaans and isiXhosa mother tongue speakers. Teachers in Foundation phase taught in their mother tongue. The Intermediate Phase teachers taught Afrikaans Home Language and isiXhosa Home Language, and/or English as First Additional Language. Schools had a Foundation Phase coordinator and an Intermediate Phase; however, because of the size of Schools B and G, they only had one coordinator. The participants included the trained teachers and the one appointed reading club facilitator at each school. All 12 reading club facilitators were observed, submitted their monthly written feedback reports, and participated in the focus group discussions. The open-ended questionnaires were for all participants after each workshop, and 22 (10 Foundation Phase and 12 Intermediate Phase) coordinator teachers participated in the focus group discussions; the two independent monitors submitted written summary reports of their observations. Over the four years of engagement, we only had three men throughout the project – the rest were women. All the participants lived in the communities or the district that they served.

The engagement project was divided into two phases:

Phase 1: This phase specifically addressed teaching strategies and support for inclusive education, as well as how to address barriers. Upon concluding this phase, feedback from participants indicated that they required support with reading, as it was perceived as a significant barrier to learning. Reading clubs were established in all 12 schools to support reading intervention, and planning for resourcing and implementation commenced. During this phase, teachers (as coordinators), education assistants, and reading champions (as reading club facilitators) were trained to use applicable resources and reading strategies for interventions across different grades and to facilitate reading within their designated roles. Reading books were provided for Grades 1–4.

Phase 2: By 2024, all the schools had regular reading club sessions, and each school had a dedicated reading club facilitator who was paid a stipend. Each school created a dedicated space for its reading club, and it was provided with stationery, reading books for learners in Grades 5–7, stationery, and other relevant reading club material. There was also an independent monitor who visited the 12 schools fortnightly to offer support. This observation was to monitor whether the training was effective, and that the reading club facilitator was able to confidently implement the strategies and facilitate the sessions. It also provided an opportunity to observe the support given by the coordinators, and whether they were managing the administration and resources effectively.

As time was identified as one of the main constraints by teachers, the provision of a full-time reading club facilitator was a valuable resource for this intervention. It was important for teachers to be actively involved as coordinators to give facilitators the necessary support, and to ensure that they align activities with the planning. The private HEI was mandated to train educational assistants and reading champions to facilitate reading and offer in-class reading support. The ESF provided all funding for the stipends, reading books, reading club resources, and stationery. Furniture, literacy events, and funds for monitoring and training workshops.

Although multiple data collection tools were used throughout the project, this study only focuses on the data sets collected through the observation of the reading club facilitators, the written monthly reports, the focus group discussions, and the open-ended questionnaire responses. Yin, Stake and Merriam contend that the researcher must draw data from multiple sources to capture the complexity of the case under study in its entirety; this also enhances trustworthiness through triangulation (Yazan 2015).

Observation was conducted at all 12 reading clubs, and informal discussions were held with the reading club facilitators and coordinators at each school following the observations. The observations were conducted by the two independent monitors who visited each school every second week to observe scheduled sessions and offer support and guidance. As the researcher and implementing partner, the author performed monitoring every second month through observation and reflection sessions. The purpose was to observe whether the training received was effectively implemented and whether resources were used optimally.

The monthly reports provided detailed descriptions of learner attendance, activities, challenges, successes, and engagement. They served as an accurate record of implementation and were an authentic reflection of what happened on the ground.

Open-ended questionnaires were issued to all participants after each workshop or training session; these included teachers and reading club facilitators, and captured perceptions of support, resources, impact, and challenges allowing for readjustment. Although this was in English, it could be answered in any language. Participants were provided with hard copies, and a digital copy was provided on WhatsApp.

Focus groups were conducted and recorded, with teachers serving as coordinators and reading club facilitators. The focus group sessions were an ideal way to gather rich, detailed descriptions of participants’ experiences and beliefs, based on the data generated over the months of engagement (De Vos et al. 2012). The focus groups provided a communal space for participants to share their thoughts, feelings, and experiences with one another in response to questions and to reflect on their journey. The group interaction encouraged participation and provided an opportunity to generate high quality data and address concerns, especially considering the limited responses in the questionnaires (De Vos et al. 2012). The data collection tools used, reflected how resourced reading clubs were implemented, experienced, and perceived across contexts as shown in the data analysis.

A narrative of thematic analysis was employed to compare and link the results obtained from the qualitative data, facilitator reports, focus groups, open-ended questionnaires, and observations (David & Sutton 2011:596). Furthermore, Bless, Higson-Smith and Sithole (2013) states that qualitative analysis aims to describe and understand respondents’ lived experience and examine how they construct personal meaning. It also aims to describe the range and diversity of participants’ experiences while amplifying their voices and studying participants in their natural contexts. An in-depth data analysis at the end of the study was conducted to establish how the teachers and reading club facilitators perceived and experienced the resourced reading clubs as a vehicle for literacy development.

Qualitative thematic analysis ‘works with a wide range of research questions, especially those related to participants’ experiences or understanding and construction of particular phenomena in particular context’ (Braun & Clarke 2006:87). In this study, the author used the phases of thematic analysis as suggested by Braun and Clarke. The primary sources of data required for analysis were reports and notes of observations, the reading club facilitators’ monthly reports, responses on the open-ended questionnaires, and transcripts of recordings made during focus group discussions. Transcriptions had to be accurate to ensure participants’ voices came through unaltered. In addition, multiple readings were made of the observation reports, the facilitator reports, and the responses to the questionnaires. Manual coding schemes were used to make it easier to group the responses, and as patterns emerged, themes were identified. The themes were named, and it was ensured that the language used was unbiased and understandable to all participants (Creswell & Creswell 2017). The dominant themes that emerged were agency, legitimacy, confidence, accomplishment, commitment, and gratitude and reflect in the ways in which the participants engaged in the project and made sense of the intervention. These experiences of the participants can be interpreted through both Implementation Science and Sociocultural Literacy theory. The increased agency and confidence reported by facilitators show how training, coaching, and access to resources supported their ability to perform their roles with greater competence and consistency. As the reading club facilitators began to see the positive outcomes in learners, a sense of accomplishment and legitimacy emerged. This suggests that the intervention strengthened their sense of achievement and validated their contribution within the school and community. From a sociocultural perspective, the themes of commitment and gratitude highlight how literacy practices are shaped by relationships, shared values, and culturally embedded interactions. The reading clubs became social spaces where facilitators and learners co-constructed meaning, affirmed one another, and developed deeper emotional investment in the programme. Together, these theoretical perspectives show that the success of the intervention was influenced not only by the resources and support guiding implementation but also by the social and cultural dynamics that shaped the lived experiences of the reading club facilitators.

Ethical clearance was obtained from the private HEI where the researcher is employed. The ethics clearance number is R.00048 (REC). Approval and consent to conduct the research were granted by the relevant authorities at the Department of Education in the Sarah Baartman District and the Circuit Management Cluster. Informed consent was obtained from all 12 school principals, the two monitors, the teachers who served as coordinators, and the reading club facilitators. Participation was voluntary and participants understood that they could withdraw from the project at any time. Pseudonyms were used for all schools and participants to ensure confidentiality and anonymity.

There was a poor response to the questionnaire, but the reading club facilitators were diligent in submitting their reports, were eager to be observed, and were very vocal in the focus group sessions. They were free to speak in the language that they were comfortable with, as can be seen in Box 1. Many of the facilitators entered the project feeling ill-equipped to lead the reading clubs. During discussions, they shared how, after each workshop, they felt more empowered, and after each reading club session they felt more capable. Their confidence and sense of accomplishment grew as they designed activities and planned events, as can be seen in Box 2. They were further validated when learners would rather attend reading club than enjoy breaks. They also expressed sincere gratitude for the opportunity for employment, and the stipend provided an income. Their commitment was evident, and this was reflected in the attendance at the training workshops as well as the number of volunteers who came forward to serve as facilitators of the reading clubs. The reading club facilitators felt confident leading the reading clubs, and a clear sense of accomplishment emerged during the focus group discussions. Their monthly reports, along with shared photographs and videos on their reading club activities via the Language and Literacy WhatsApp group, depicted a fun and interactive space. Because of limited funding, the 12 reading club facilitators could only work twice a week in their respective schools in 2024 but were contracted for 5 days a week for 10 months in 2025.

Implementation Science explains this shift as opportune conditions created through training, resources, and monitoring that allowed the reading club facilitators to grow in confidence and competence. Sociocultural Literacy Theory further positions this growth through interaction, guided participation and shared literacy practices. This growth was evident when the facilitators were observed during their reading club sessions.

All the schools were no-fee schools; thus, stationery was provided twice a year. Stationery supplies offered a creative outlet, demonstrating that reading comprehension or understanding the text does not have to be abstract. The summary of the questionnaire responses clearly showed that teachers and reading club facilitators alike valued the resources. They indicated that learners enjoyed the creative activities the most and loved creating their own stories. This was only possible with the resources and training provided, as shown in Table 1. The resources in Table 1 shows the extent of support provided to the schools.

All schools received books for double the number of learners in the targeted grades. The books were relevant to the age group, and the context and languages were appropriate. Schools appreciated the ability to select their own book titles – it gave them agency, allowing them to tailor the selection to their school’s needs. In addition, the schools were also supplied with stocked book trolleys, which made it easy to move them to where they were needed for in-class support. The Intermediate Phase especially appreciated the book trolleys, as learners with reading challenges could use any available reading material. Getting a book in every child’s hand was key to the success of the reading clubs. There is always the risk that if resources are provided, the gratitude of the communities might influence the feedback. However, the participants appeared to be sincere and authentic during all interactions with the author, as can be seen in the excerpt from written responses in Box 3.

The findings show how resourced reading clubs, grounded in community engagement and supported through Implementation Science structures can contribute to literacy development in rural schools. Providing resources is an enabling condition for successful implementation.

The engagement project brought meaningful value to the teachers, particularly in the day-to-day realities of teaching in under-resourced and high-pressure school environments. During focus groups discussions, teachers expressed that having trained reading club facilitators especially eased the pressure of time to support learners. The project also introduced practical strategies and much-needed resources, which teachers could immediately apply in their own classes to strengthen reading practices. Beyond classroom support, teachers appreciated that the afterschool reading clubs helped build learners’ interest and confidence in reading, which had a positive influence on their formal schoolwork. The partnership with the HEI and ESF created a sense of shared purpose, and provided teachers with a supportive space to reflect, learn together, and feel less overwhelmed by the literacy challenges they face, as can be seen in Box 4. Overall, the questionnaires completed by teachers all agreed that the project added value by reinforcing teachers’ efforts, improving learner engagement, and fostering a stronger culture of reading within the school community.

Fifty EAs and RCs appointed by the Department of Education were trained, although we only appointed one trainee per school as a paid reading club facilitator. These trainees had been upskilled and returned to their communities, as relayed in Box 1, where they could support their own children, neighbours, or family members with homework or, specifically, with reading. It has been reported by schools that an unintended consequence of the initial training is that some of these trainees have been offering extra reading lessons and support to struggling learners in their communities. This meant that the community engagement and implementation of our programme had a ripple effect in the community, extending beyond the confines of the classroom or school borders into accessible support for learners who generally would not have had access to support structures. The broader community also became involved when schools showcased literacy events such as Read Aloud Day, World Book Day, and Literacy Day. School H also took learners from their reading club to visit a hospital and an old age home to showcase their reading – this was a delightful picture that they shared in the WhatsApp group. This provided learners, teachers, and facilitators with a sense of accomplishment and gratitude from those they visited. This ripple effect reflects strong community engagement and aligns with literature, emphasising participatory approaches (Holmes et al. 2021).