Adult Literacy
This page has been kept for reference.
It will no longer be updated by ICVET.
Reviewed and Updated: December 2007
The Australian Council for Adult Literacy aligns ‘literacy’ to the ability to ‘participate as a citizen in a democracy, understanding and fulfilling one’s role, being able to assess one’s needs, having one’s say and responding to the views and actions of others by engaging in the range of literacy/ communication practices required in the public domain.’ The term ‘literacy’ is also thought to encompass ‘numeracy’.
‘Traditionally, the notion of ‘literacy’ was associated with the acquisition of a fixed level of reading and writing performance. An individual could be ‘literate’ or ‘illiterate’ depending on whether or not this critical level had been reached. In the last two decades we have moved to a much more fluid notion, where ‘literacy’ has become an ever developing process, closely linked to changing social and cultural practices’ (Jay 2004:1). The term has now generally been replaced with ‘literacies’ or ‘mulitliteracies’ in response to ‘evidence that competence in reading and writing print materials did not automatically transfer to competence in other communication practices.’ (Snyder et al, 2004:11)
To communicate effectively today it is necessary to ‘make meaning not only with words, but also with digitised fragments of video, sound, photographs, graphics and animation to support communication across conventional linguistic and geo-political borders’ (Snyder et al, 2004:8). This creates enormous challenges for adult literacy educators who are usually grounded in traditional views of print. However our focus must be on the literacy practices that adult learners now require for life-long learning.
Websites
Australian Council for Adult Literacy
ACAL is the national support body for adult literacy practitioners in Australia. The ACAL Executive is comprised of volunteer State/Territory Council representatives and Office Bearers. The website (and linked eTools) provides information on adult literacy, professional development, an electronic version of the journal Literacy Link and contact details.
ACAL Literacy Link journal
Quarterly journal of the Australian Council for Adult Literacy – also available in hard copy free of charge.
ALNARC - Adult Literacy and Numeracy Australian Research Consortium
The Adult Literacy and Numeracy Australian Research Consortium represents a national collaboration between five university-based research centres, based on a collaborative research management model designed to respond to state-based needs.
Major features of consortium activity have been the development of a ‘visible culture’ of research in Australian adult literacy and numeracy – including research conversations, increased documentation of research projects, sponsoring practitioner researchers to investigate their own practice, and collaboration with state literacy and numeracy councils to foster debate about the links between research policy and provision.
Literacy Net
This site contains key information about Australian adult literacy activity and links to a range of additional programmes, professional development, resource, and research sites.
Publications
COPE, B & Kalantzis, M (Eds) 2000, Mulitliteracies: literacy learning and the design of social futures, Macmillan Publishers Australia, South Yarra
Multiliteracies considers the future of literacy teaching in the context of the rapidly changing English language. The book raises questions about what appropriate literacy teaching might look like in an ever increasing global village where local diversity is increasingly important.
JAY, R 2004, Rethinking models of literacy provision for the 21st century in The Knowledge Tree Edition 5 [online].
In this article, based on Robyn’s Flexible Learning Leader research year, she focuses on a multiliteracies model of literacy provision and describes how new technologies can be used to enhance the development of these 'literacies' and re-engage marginalised learners. She describes innovative learning projects that develop skills, starting from the learner's particular interests and needs and identifies success factors for effective delivery of these flexible learning experiences, and suggests that for VET to do so, we may need to rethink current funding and program models.
SNYDER, I Jones, A & Lo Bianco, J 2004, Using information and communication technologies in adult literacy education: New practices, new challenges - NCVER summary sheet, ANTA, Melbourne
This research summary proposes that new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), especially the internet, are changing literacy practices at an unprecedented rate. The authors pose a series of questions for literacy educators:
- What is the relationship between literacy practice and the use of ICT in adult literacy education?
- What new literacies are required for effective use of ICT in adult literacy education?
- What changes to teaching/learning practice might be adopted when ICT are used in adult literacy programs?
- What are the professional development needs of literacy educators when planning to use ICT for teaching and learning?
Full report now available.
TAYLOR, T & Ward, I (Eds) 1998, Literacy Theory in the age of the internet, Columbia University Press, New York
This series of papers considers what it means to be literate in the ‘information age’ and provides practical advice on how to tap the potential of computers and the internet.
COPE, B & Kalantzis, M 2001, Putting ‘Multiliteracies’ to the Test, Australian Literacy Education Association
This paper provides some actual Australian examples of Multiliteracies pedagogy in action. The primary article is followed by a useful overview of the Multiliteracies pedagogy and a discussion on ‘meaning making’ and the concept of ‘design’ as central components of the multiliteracies approach.
O’ROURKE, M 2002, Engaging students through ICTs: a multiliteracies approach
In this short paper Maureen O’Rourke discusses how Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) can be utilised to both engage students and better prepare them to face the challenges they will meet in the world of work, social citizenship and family life.