Overview
The University of South Australia and Language Australia coordinate a local Node as part of the national Adult Literacy Research Network (ALRN) in South Australia.

Objectives
The Adult Literacy Research Network (SA) aims to:

• build networks and partnerships between groups involved in adult literacy, language and numeracy
• increase and promote research activity about adult literacy and learning
• disseminate information about current practice.

The Node aims to promote research and inquiry about adult literacy teaching and learning. Node activities need to be responsive to vocational education and training (VET) and higher education providers and therefore the advisory and consultative structures will aim to build collaborative partnerships with key stakeholders.

Universities, providers, practitioners and government agencies are asked what they believe the Node should achieve. The stakeholders are also asked to identify ways in which they can initiate and support activities.

In general, the SA Node aims to enhance the professional entity of the adult literacy field through its individual and organisational members.

Benefits for practitioners and policy makers include:- access to seminars and workshops, access to materials and resources from national research projects, support to write grant applications and to conduct and publish research, access to small grants to conduct research on adult literacy, language and numeracy and opportunities to develop a culture of critical inquiry in these areas. Some grants will be available to support practitioners to attend local and national conferences.

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The ALRN (SA) conducts research orientated workshops for local practitioners and ALRN(SA) research grant recipients. These seminars and workshops aim to build a visible research culture in South Australia which is able to respond to local needs in the area of adult literacy and numeracy provision.

THE 1997 SEMINAR PROGRAM

DR. STEPHEN BILLETT

"Constructing Vocational Knowledge in Workplaces: What This Might Mean for New Apprenticeships"

This seminar aimed to provide DETAFE staff with some understanding of how workers have acquired the knowledge they need for workplace performance. Drawing on the findings of a series of studies which examined how workers have constructed vocational knowledge in the workplace, the strengths and weaknesses of the workplace as a learning environment were discussed. These findings were then used to address questions about how vocational education curriculum might be structured to maximise the potential to develop the forms of knowledge required for workplace performance and how the potential for the transfer of knowledge can be maximised. A focus on New Apprenticeships was used to provide a context within which the findings of the research might best be appraised.

Dr. Stephen Billett is the Director, Centre for Learning and Work Research, Lecturer, School of Vocational, Technology and Arts Education, Griffith University. He has worked as a vocational educator, educational administrator, teacher educator, professional development practitioner within TAFE and policy developer in the Queensland state training system and more recently as a teacher and researcher located at Griffith University.

His research interests include the social and cultural construction of vocational knowledge. Learning in workplaces has been the focus of his research work, particularly how vocational expertise can be developed in workplace settings. In addition, he has a broad interest in policy and practice within adult and vocational education.

He is the Director of the Centre for Learning and Work Research which focused on learning in, and for, the workplace, along with broader interests in vocational education. In addition, he is the editor of the Australian Vocational Education Review.
 
 

TRICIA BOWEN

"Developing Inclusive Curriculum for Language and Literacy Teaching" and 'Making a Difference' Curriculum: Language and Literacy Teaching

Tricia Bowen and Helena Spryou co-wrote the Making a Difference curriculum, funded by the Australian National Training Authority (ANTA). The project developed inclusive curriculum for the language and literacy field.

In these workshops, Tricia outlined the Making a Difference curriculum and provide suggestions regarding its use as an effective "hands-on" resource material for teachers and practical suggestions on how best to access these materials. Tricia also examined the issues surrounding the curriculum and the implications for TAFE Women's Studies and Vocational Preparation programs.
 
 

DELIA BRADSHAW

"Reading Teabags' And 'Redefining Knowledge, Redetermining The Future"

"Reading Tea Bags"
In many contemporary policy documents, words and values we have long cherished are often missing or devalued. Based on the belief that naming equals power, this session circulated around the following questions:

An empty cardboard tea packet helped to ground this far-ranging discussion.

"Redefining Knowledge, Redetermining the Future"

The proximity of the new millennium prompts questions about our destinies and destinations as adult educators. As a field, do we know where we are going, why we are going there and with whom?

This session presented early findings of a project that is attempting to develop a conceptual framework for further education in Victoria, a map or guide to help us navigate the highways and byways of our complex, ever-changing world.

Delia Bradshaw is currently a nomadic adult educator moving here and there between teaching, researching, editing and writing. She is most drawn to women's education, multicultural education, community education and adult basic education, especially when blended together. Her belief in the regenerative power of symbols, particularly language, is an undiminished as ever
 
 

PROFESSOR SEAN COURTNEY

"Participation and Adult Learning: the Big Picture"
 

No summary available.
 

PRE-AAACE CONFERENCE WORKSHOP

"Reflections On Adult Learning And Research : Insights From Language And Literacy Practice"

This one day 'pre-AAACE conference' workshop was open to all adult educators and literacy practitioners and of interest to all those educators involved in providing adult literacy and language for learners in community, vocational and workplace settings. The day opened with a keynote address by AUDREY GRANT entitled, 'Life stories, literacy practices and social change: a multi-storied approach to research'.

Diverse texts and contexts, practices and positions are shaping adult literacy teaching and research today. As these form our potential research data, so the usual practitioner and researcher tasks of observing and documenting, analysing and interpreting, explaining and evaluating are becoming far more demanding and challenging. There are many decisions to be made. What is to be our range of focus and which dimensions will we take into account? Amidst conflicting multiple perspectives, how do we develop our own stance and position ourselves for analysing the diversities and complexities that surround us? These big questions warrant our reflection: yet in practice, we are answering them, implicitly and already, by the ways we teach and do research.

In this keynote session Audrey will raise some of these issues (especially as they apply interview-based research in literacy and lifelong learning) and propose a multi-storied approach to analysis.

Dr AUDREY GRANT is a Senior lecturer in the Graduate School of Education, La Trobe University, where she convenes and teaches in the graduate and postgraduate programs in adult literacy and literacy education. She has directed national professional development training initiatives in adult literacy and in higher education (such as CATALPA), participatory research studies and materials development projects with teacher educators, practitioners and literacy students, and published widely in adult literacy research, beginning with Literacy for adults (CAE, 1980). Audrey was the first person to be commissioned by the Australian Commonwealth Government to conduct a research study in adult literacy, resulting in Opportunity to do Brilliantly: TAFE and the Challenge of Adult Literacy Provision in Australia, (3rd edition, AGPS, 1987). Her other publications include Life Stories: Adult students take on literacy (co-authored with Helen Gribble), and most recently chapters in P. Willis and B. Neville (eds) Qualitative research practice in adult education, (David Lovell, 1996); Denny Taylor (ed) Many families, many literacies (Heinemann, 1997), and Melbourne Studies in Education, 38,1,1997.

In addition, various workshops were offered on research strategies, exploration into teacher research and reports on current research projects.         Adeline introduces Doug Purcell one of the Node Researchers during 1997

 JOHN McINTYRE

"Can ACE be a Pathway to Further Education for Women?"
 

No summary available.
 

PATRICIA WARD

"The Professionalisation of Adult Literacy Teachers in Australia: Who's Holding the Reins?" and "The Professionalisation Of Adult Literacy Teachers In Australia: Issues For Research And Teacher Education"

The first seminar looked at recent changes to adult literacy teachers' working lives and professional identity as part of an ongoing process of professionalisation. They examined case studies of changes in adult literacy provision in Australia to ground ourselves in 'real contexts' and frameworks from other fields of education and from sociology to bring fresh perspectives to the current situation of Australian adult literacy teachers. In particular, the seminar focused on the key players in the processes of professionalisation (government, providers, professional associations, unions, teachers) to ask how the changes have been brought about and who has been involved in the decisions. That is, in the ongoing, so-called 'professionalisation' of adult literacy teachers, just who is holding the reins?

In the second seminar Patricia reported on a doctoral project examining the professionalisation of adult literacy teachers in Australia in the 'Dawkinsian' era of education reform between 1987-1996. The project has been interdisciplinary in nature, drawing on theoretical and conceptual approaches from sociology, critical theory, political economy and history, as well as from other fields of education beyond language, literacy and numeracy. Patricia's decision to adopt an interdisciplinary approach has raised many questions about definitions, methodological choices, analysis and presentation of data, and the writing process, which will be discussed. The seminar concluded with a brief overview of some issues and questions about the relationship between research, teacher education and teacher professionalisation.

Patricia Ward has worked in language and literacy research since 1988, at the University of Queensland and for the last seven years in Sydney on various national and state-wide projects under the auspices of TAFE NSW and the Adult Literacy Information Office, the NSW Ministry of Education, the NSW Node of Language Australia's Adult Literacy Research Network and the University of Technology, Sydney. She was Vice President of the NSW Adult Literacy and Numeracy Council and was on the Executive of the Australian Council for Adult Literacy. Patricia is currently a full-time PhD student in the School of Adult Education at UTS and is exploring the processes of professionalisation affecting adult literacy teaching in Australia from 1987 to 1996

 

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ACAL National Conference 1998

The South Australian Council for Adult Literacy (SACAL) invites you to put yourself "on the line" for the SACAL/ACAL National Conference in 1998. Offer a conference paper or presentation related to your practice but pegged to the theme of Literacy on the line. For many people, 'on the line' foregrounds ideas of technology, and this conference will use technology as a vehicle for communicating preconference events across Australia and internationally, as well as providing remote communities with access to conference activities. The theme is wider than this though.

Possibilities for presentations at the conference include the following:

• Literacy in the HEADLINES: the public interest in adult literacy; issues of accountability, funding and public policy; public expectations of literacy.
• Literacy at the FRONTLINE: teachers putting their practice on the line; exploring new possibilities for adult learners; conceptualising new partnerships; literacy in the lives of people under threat from economic and political disadvantage.
• Literacy on the PRODUCTION LINE: literacy for workers; literacy and National Training Packages; literacy and vocational training.
• Literacy ONLINE: relationships between literacy learning, teaching and technology; who needs access and who has it?; how do we use technology and what do we use it for?; technology and its influence on learning partnerships.

 

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Literacy on the Line will bring together practitioners, industry partners, administrators, learners and policy makers to share insights about the needs and demands of learning in the 'information age'. There are many orientations conference participants may choose to explore. The conference organisers simply ask that you consider the theme of the conference in developing your submissions.

Revised papers for external publication will be due 15 October 1998 (refereed)

In the first instance short abstracts of presentations should be emailed, faxed or posted to:

Staff

Vale Adeline Black

To the community of literacy educators in her home state of South Australia and indeed Australia, the recent death of Adeline Black, Co-Director of the Adult Literacy Research Node (SA) has represented a great loss.

Adeline’s commitment to the betterment of teaching and learning practice in literacy education was foremost in her long career as an educator. On completion of a Master of Science Degree from Florida State University where she majored in Reading Education, Adeline began her professional life as a teacher in Dekalb County Schools, Georgia, the United States of America, as a special education teacher. From there Adeline taught in a number of schools in America’s south utilising her expertise in reading education. This talent prompted Adeline’s move into university teaching. She took up a position at the Atlanta University as a reading education specialist in 1969.

Adeline moved to Australia in 1971 and continued her teaching career in one of Adelaide’s disadvantaged schools. However Adeline was unable to share her considerable experience and knowledge in early literacy development with just one school - within a year she was encouraged to take up a position at the then Western Teacher’s College, now part of the University of South Australia. Until March 1997 Adeline held a position at the University of South Australia as an educator of teachers. She lectured in early and middle childhood education from 1972-1985, and then as a language and literacy educator, 1986-1997. Beside this work as teacher-educator Adeline was an active member of both English teaching and literacy professional organisations.

At the time of her death Adeline was active as a member of the executive planning committee for the 1998 National ACAL Conference, although illness had forced her to step down from the position as South Australia’s ACAL representative.

Those of us fortunate enough to have known Adeline as a teacher, colleague and friend (and we are many) know how well she blurred these distinctions, making friends of students and teaching colleagues in her inimitable manner. Adeline will be remembered as an exceptionally wise and humane educator. As someone who valued literacy as communicative practice, Adeline provided valuable literacy learning experiences in so many forums and for so many people.

Adeline is survived by her children Sean and Shayna, Sean’s partner and Adeline’s grand-daughter Aisha Rose.

An Advisory Committee consisting of a wide range of providers and practitioners, has been established to enhance the professional entity of the adult literacy field and to identify ways in which they can initiate and support the ALRN(SA)'s activities.

The role of the Advisory Committee is to:

• contribute information and expertise across the VET sector
• disseminate information through their networks
• contribute to Node activities in direct ways
• inform the Node of directions, policies and trends in their respective fields.

The benefits for practitioners and policy makers include :-

• access to seminars and workshops for staff
• opportunities to be involved in research projects, collaborative educational ventures and professional development
• access to materials and resources from national research projects
• support to write grant applications and to conduct and publish research.
• access to small grants to conduct research on adult literacy, language and numeracy
• opportunities to communicate about adult literacy, language and numeracy learning across sectors
• opportunities to develop a culture of critical inquiry on literacy, language and numeracy teaching

Joint research activities will evolve as practitioners and managers meet as part of the program of events developed by the Node.

The Committee meets twice a year, although some members may also be involved in subcommittee work. Members will be invited to attend for a three year period. Additional members may be coopted during this time.