There has been an increase in cultural diversity among school-age populations in many countries, especially low socio-economic communities. This encompasses variations in spoken languages, ethnicity, religious beliefs, and other aspects.
In Australian classrooms, it is common to have students from various family backgrounds with different languages and life experiences. The definition of literacy is being transformed due to the advent of new technologies and communication mediums, enabling unique methods of expressing meaning. Nonetheless, there is a growing tendency to define literacy according to standardized test criteria.
The paper was presented at the International Federation of Teachers of English (IFTE) Conference held at the University of Auckland from April 18-21. The conference addressed the influence of rising visitors from Asia Pacific, Africa, and the Middle East on evolving literacies, populations, and locations. It emphasized that in 2006-07, over 10% of permanent migrants originated from China while more than 200,000 individuals have migrated from Africa and the Middle East since 1995.
According to the 2006 Australian Census, Australia has a variety of spoken languages including English, Italian, Greek, Cantonese, Arabic, Mandarin, and Vietnamese. This linguistic diversity is evident in the schools I attend, especially in Adelaide’s western and northern suburbs. These areas are well-known for their affordable housing options and attract a diverse mix of families who have either been living there for a long time or have recently moved to South Australia.
It is widely acknowledged internationally that the socioeconomic constraints faced by schools and families have an impact on educational outcomes (Lipman, 2004; Thrupp & Lupton, 2006). As a literacy educator, my focus is on how certain teachers use the linguistic and cultural assets in their local communities to create curriculums that are culturally responsive (Lee, 2008; McNaughton, 2011; Hall & Thomson, 2010), as well as critical pedagogies (Janks, 2010) that help children build complex repertoires of meaning.
The need for inclusive pedagogy and a supportive literacy curriculum is urgent because of continuous changes in population, teacher workforce, communication technologies, and practices. Additionally, there is an increasing focus on standardized literacy assessment for students’ reading and math abilities. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) currently evaluates participating countries based on the academic accomplishments of 15-year-old students in subjects like reading and math.
The education industry worldwide and the role of teachers have been influenced by global comparisons and standardized assessments of literacy in compulsory schooling (Codd, 2005; Lingard, 2010; Locke, 2004). In Australia, the educational sectors face various challenges such as the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN), the MySchool website, and the adoption of the Australian Curriculum.
The paradox lies in wanting to establish and control a rapidly changing environment, which is marked by mobility, diversity, and constantly evolving communication systems (Comber, in press a; Lingard, 2010). The focus on competitive measurable standards as a means to ensure Australia’s success in the global knowledge economy can be justified by the neo-liberal reasoning given the financial crisis. However, the implications of this approach require ongoing examination.
To discuss the risks and possibilities of this environment, I will first give a brief overview of my theoretical approach. My analysis is influenced by the concepts presented in the New Literacy Studies (Barton & Hamilton, 1998; Barton, Hamilton, & Ivanic, 2000; Street, 1984, 1993, 2003), the multiliteracies framework suggested by the New London Group (1996), and extensive research on critical literacy (Comber, 2001; Freire, 1972a, 1972b; Janks, 2010; Luke, 2000).
Both approaches assume the following:
- That places and texts are constructed and they could be made differently in the interests of different groups of people;
- That the ways in which people and places are represented are open to question;
- That communication, social and spatial relationships involve power relations.
My perspective on inquiry in schools and classrooms is influenced by both feminist scholarship and Michel Foucault’s belief that we have more freedom than we realize (Griffith & Smith, 2005; Smith, 2005; Foucault, 1988). The New Literacy Studies have made advancements since Brian Street’s original research in the 1970s, where he observed how literacy was adopted in everyday life, particularly within unschooled communities. For instance, Street discovered that a mountain village in Iran had developed their own methods of record-keeping for their business transactions. This line of research has expanded with the work of scholars such as Barton & Hamilton (1998), Prinsloo & Brier (1996), Pahl & Rowsell (2005), and Rowsell & Pahl (2007).
According to these researchers, literate practices are shaped by social and cultural contexts, serving the needs of specific individuals in specific environments. Street made a distinction between two models of literacy: “autonomous” and “ideological”. He emphasized that literate practices are always influenced by social dynamics and power relationships. Viewing literacy from an autonomous perspective, as a set of skills with expected advantages, fails to recognize the diverse ways in which people engage in reading and writing for specific social, religious, and economic intentions.
Some twenty years after Street and Heath’s ethnographies, a gathering of prominent literacy scholars in the mid-1990s honored Courtney Cazden’s significant impact on the field. Throughout their discussions, they incorporated insights from linguistics, educational research, indigenous epistemologies, critical literacy, and other areas. The goal was to craft a fresh framework for literacy education that acknowledged the influence of global media communication and digital technologies, diverse multilingual and multicultural student populations, and the capacity for young individuals to not only consume but also create texts in different modalities.
The framework called multiliteracies, developed by the New London Group in 1996 and further expanded upon by Cope & Kalantzis in 2000, has had a significant impact on international research, teaching, and teacher education in the field of literacy. This influence can be seen in the work of subsequent literacy researchers, teachers, and teacher educators such as Carrington & Robinson (2009), Lam (2006), Mills (2011), and Walsh (2010). In my own research and teaching, I have been influenced by these traditions as well as various approaches to critical literacy that emphasize the non-neutral nature of texts, the constitutive role of discourse, and the power dynamics inherent in literate practices.
Assembling specific ways with words and other forms of communication has the potential to reposition individuals in relation to work, learning, and everyday life. According to South African educator and applied linguist, Hilary Janks (2010), literacy alone is not necessarily empowering. Janks emphasizes the importance for students in highly multilingual environments to access and attain proficiency in academic language. Additionally, students should learn how to analyze dominant discourses and utilize the diversity of their language and life experiences as valuable resources for learning. Janks also advocates for the utilization of multiple semiotic systems to create their own multimodal texts, thereby generating new meanings.
Therefore, it is important for students to have the skills to use effective forms of communication while also being able to critique them and create new modes and formats. Janks’ synthesis model can be applied to the current policy landscape, which is dominated by extensive standardization that prioritizes measurable literacy based on an independent interpretation of literacy.
When studying literacy education in impoverished communities, I am mindful of my interactions with teachers, students, and parents, and the importance of challenging negative perceptions rather than perpetuating them (Comber & Nixon, 1999; Comber & Kamler, 2004). Whenever possible, I strive to conduct research alongside educators and students, and when appropriate, I include parents. My approach has been influenced by proponents of teacher research (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2009) and partnerships with teachers to generate knowledge (Comber & Kamler, 2009).
The majority of the educators I work with are women primary and middle-school teachers. They often feel like they have little influence in theory, policy, or research. To address this, I have been influenced by feminist researcher Smith (2005) and her development of a sociology for the people. She advocates for conducting inquiries with people to understand how things are put together and how their work is coordinated.
The focus of my project has been to combat negative portrayals of underprivileged youth, their families, and their teachers (Comber & Kamler, 2004). Instead, I have aimed to take advantage of Foucault’s idea of “spaces of freedom” (Gore, 1993) to showcase the positive impact of literacy teaching methods in so-called disadvantaged schools. However, it is still important to examine the unforeseen consequences of policies and reforms in low socio-economic communities, as managerial and audit cultures increasingly infiltrate various aspects of institutional and daily life.
According to Foucault (1980), everything is dangerous, and he also identified how modern forms of power are used to control populations. This concept troubled progressive educators in the 1980s and caused them to think differently about literacy (Comber, in press b). For instance, Carmen Luke (1989) argued that the use of institutional literacy could make students and teachers easily identifiable and objects of knowledge through their own written trace and by the observations made by their supervisors and surveillance experts during visits (Luke 1989, p. 26).
Schools serve as a means of constant monitoring, assessment, and documentation of the population. Additionally, while the promotion of literacy as a financial necessity and a pathway to a better life is emphasized by human capital ideologies, global studies indicate that basic English literacy alone is not enough for working-class and ethnically diverse youth to attain higher education or secure employment. Citation: English Teaching: Practice and Critique, Vol. 8, B. Comber
The Australian federal government is placing more emphasis on evaluating individuals using traditional print literacies, as measured by NAPLAN, to maintain public accountability. Educators worldwide have criticized this approach and raised concerns regarding the detrimental effects of high-stakes testing. These concerns encompass a reduced curriculum, restricted teacher autonomy, and potential adverse consequences on students’ education and self-confidence.
In a continuous ARC project, the investigation is focused on how mandated literacy assessments are restructuring the work of teachers in different primary and secondary schools (Comber & Cormack, 2011; Kostogriz & Doecke, 2011). Primary school teachers have already shared that they have limited time for subjects like Visual Arts or Studies of Society and Environment due to the need to prepare students for NAPLAN’s tested reading and writing skills.
The speaker says that this person is responsible for helping schools create a useful database. The purpose of the database is to allow teachers to access and examine data on each student in their class, which will help support a well-rounded approach to education. Additionally, this individual’s duties include helping schools set up the system and offering assistance with analyzing the data. Ultimately, it is up to the speaker and others to decide the most effective way to make use of this information.
He is helping us determine the schedule for data collection, including identifying who it is collected from and how it informs our improvement plan. The sector’s goal is to electronically document information about every child and has a designated “data-guy” to provide support. This method helps prevent children from being missed when they need extra help (Kerin & Comber, 2008). However, data is always vulnerable to various influences regardless of its collection, reporting, or storage methods.
One school leadership team shared with us the extensive effort required to withdraw students from NAPLAN. This includes cases like students who have recently arrived and do not speak English. The process may entail home visits and phone calls. Principals might also need to seek assistance from bilingual support officers to facilitate challenging discussions with parents, clarifying the reasons for their child’s exclusion from this assessment.
Partner investigators in Canada include Dorothy Smith from the University of Victoria and Alison Griffith from York University. They are involved in English Teaching: Practice and Critique. The topic relates to the changing literacies, populations, and places, particularly focusing on the experience of students who do not meet the NAPLAN benchmark. One participant describes how some students who put a lot of effort into their studies faced disappointment when they received their test results.
ESLT: Yeah, in comparison.
UPT: They just go sort of … there’s a little black dot sitting underneath the line.
ESLT: I said, “Don’t worry about it, that’s not what it’s about.”
One concern is that these tests could misjudge students’ abilities and overlook other learning data. As the upper-primary teacher so poignantly puts it, the results indicate where students stand compared to their peers. The danger is that students may feel discouraged by these results, which visually portray them as below standard, and come to believe that this reflects their true abilities.
In terms of students who do not speak or write standard Australian English, teachers must be cautious to ensure that their future educational paths are not determined by singular tests that only reveal certain aspects of their understanding and abilities, rather than the dynamics of their learning. Furthermore, apart from the potential disadvantages for individual students, there is also a risk for schools to lose their reputation when they report poor results on the MySchool website. As the marketization of schooling has escalated (Ball, 2009), this becomes significant, especially when parents have the option to select another school.
School principals must evaluate the risks involved when certain students take the test and determine the appropriate level of effort and resources that should go towards improving students’ measurable performance on these restricted tests compared to providing them with more comprehensive learning opportunities. Despite the increased focus on testing in education and adjustments made to school schedules and activities to accommodate the testing cycle, some educators still prioritize giving students authentic experiences with empowering literacies.
As a supporter of public education, I believe it is crucial to document the diverse and challenging work that takes place in schools located in high poverty areas with diverse cultures (see also Paugh, Carey, King-Jackson & Russell, 2007). In the following paragraphs, I will provide examples of curriculum and teaching methods that encourage students to explore their identities while also developing new ways to communicate.
Incorporating Janks’s synthesis model of critical literacy, I highlight various research projects that demonstrate how teachers engage students’ varied linguistic, cultural, and semiotic resources to foster academic literacies and advanced design work. This approach also creates opportunities for challenging prevailing discourses. It is important to note that, as Janks emphasizes, the dimensions of critical literacy in practice are interconnected and overlapping, which is evident in the following examples.
The text highlights the importance of teachers working on multiple aspects simultaneously while teaching English. It focuses on the challenges faced by teachers at a multicultural school in Adelaide to prepare students for NAPLAN tests. The teachers at this school started by utilizing the students’ diverse experiences of moving to Australia or starting school as the main resource.
Teachers supported students in using their personal memories of specific times and places as inspiration for their narrative writing. Particularly, students who were refugees and had migrated to Australia were encouraged to draw upon their unique experiences when crafting their stories. To facilitate this process, the teacher utilized children’s literature (such as works by Baker, Brian, Russell, and Wheatley) and incorporated concepts of time, place, and belonging through Indigenous studies. Additionally, the teacher employed map reading activities to help students understand their journey and how they ended up living in their current home and attending their current school.
Using memories, interviews with parents, and family artifacts, the young individuals initiated the process of piecing together their life experiences thus far. The act of writing autobiographies served as a means to construct narratives about their lives. The collection of autobiographical works by the class offers insights into the intricate and evolving connection that these young people have with different geographic locations, prompting inquiries about identities and social classes. In this context, I will specifically mention Raphael’s autobiography (refer to Appendix 1), in which he recounts his upbringing as a farmer living on the border between Uganda and Sudan during his early childhood.
Both of Raphael’s parents were highly educated in their homeland, with his father also being a teacher. Upon arriving in South Australia, his family qualified for a school card due to their low household income. Additionally, they held refugee status. Raphael’s autobiography is extensive and comprehensive. While it is evident that English is his second language, he adeptly incorporates his rich background and experiences from specific moments and locations to craft this narrative.
The narrator begins with a brief mention of his own birth before diving into the tale of his family’s migration. He starts by describing their initial life in one location and then the dramatic move to a completely different place. This includes the farewell party, the plane journey via Madagascar and Sydney, and finally arriving in Adelaide. Throughout his narration, he also remembers his experiences in another place where the games were different and children could play dangerous games hidden from view due to the relationship between the village and the jungle.
Raphael finds great joy in describing the game of chase played in the trees, the various fruits and vegetables, and the mischievous baboon who stole them. However, it is unclear how much of his story is based on actual experiences. This example of literacy teaching involves the entire class writing about their own lives, and demonstrates how a teacher, influenced by place-based teaching methods and ideas about belonging, can help students develop a sense of identity that is connected to their surroundings and evolves over time.
According to Raphael, the writing depicts a classroom that embraces a dynamic approach to culture, identity, and place. Tokenistic static responses to cultures, geared towards satisfying curiosity about the unknown, are not the focus. Raphael’s description highlights a life experienced in multiple locations. This classroom does not adhere to a typical early childhood experience involving family, housing, and parental employment.
The teacher in this classroom recognizes that the young people have diverse backgrounds and have lived in various locations. By encouraging them to write about their experiences and moves, she gives them the opportunity to explore how place and memory can be used in writing and representation. When the students come together to create a class book with their individually written pieces, the classroom becomes a space that celebrates diversity.
– “Changing literacies, changing populations, changing places” by B. Comber in English Teaching: Practice and Critique, Volume 11.
The demand for extended narrative in NAPLAN has taught Raphael and his peers to use their understanding of people, time, and place to create autobiographies. As a result, they have learned to provide detailed descriptions of different settings and choose captivating anecdotes that capture the atmosphere of a situation. This process has also fostered a positive attitude towards writing longer texts. Additionally, accessing approved school genres is done while still valuing students’ diverse cultural and language skills.
Furthermore, in Adelaide’s western suburbs, the region known as “The Parks” is presently recognized as Westwood and serves as the location for Australia’s largest urban renewal project4. The process involves gradually demolishing the semi-detached houses built after World War 2 and replacing them with new homes specifically designed for first-time buyers. Consequently, many families who initially chose to reside in the area due to its affordable rental prices may now struggle with affording it. In addition to these broader developments, authorities also decided to shut down two nearby primary schools and merge them with a third school into a single, larger institution initially referred to as a “superschool”.
A new large school was built without consulting the teachers and students at the site where it was being constructed. Before the internal construction started, the staff had a chance to review the plans. During this time, one of the teachers shared the architects’ plans and designs with her students, who had previously been involved in various place-based and design projects at the school.
Together, they found out that there would no longer be a designated or flexible area for drama and performance, which was highly important to the teacher and her ESL class as it helped build their confidence in public speaking and acting in English. This type of reading is unique in various ways. Firstly, it is not often that these children have the chance to read such documents. Only a few of them come from households that can afford new homes or renovations. As a result, understanding plans and spatial literacy, which are necessary to comprehend these documents, are unlikely to be skills they possess from their home experiences.
Furthermore, this is not solely an academic task aiming to enhance students’ literacy and numeracy (although it could potentially yield such educational benefits). These approved texts regulate what structures will be constructed, the dimensions of the spaces, and how they will be utilized. The consequences of these decisions will not only affect the current group of students and their instructors but also future generations. Consequently, upon deducing from the text that there will be no area dedicated to drama, the teacher takes on the role of representing and defending the students’ interests and verifies this with the present principal.
During the project manager’s visits, the children inquire about the progress and updates. After confirming their understanding, they collectively decide to address their concerns by writing a letter to the newly appointed principal of the merged school. Initially, there is hesitance to make changes to the plans due to the advanced stage of the project. However, with persistence from both the teacher and students, they propose a solution by suggesting alterations to storage areas and teachers’ planning spaces.
The main ideas discussed here revolve around urban renewal and how education is incorporated into that framework. Urban planners, architects, designers, and senior education officials hold the predominant views in this matter. They do not see a need to consult with children and only offer teachers a minimal chance to review the plans. However, one teacher who invested time and effort to engage with her students effectively empowered them to have a voice.
Diversity is crucial in student projects, as we have seen how it enhances the representation of themselves and their peers when they take charge of the camera. Both student film-makers and photographers utilize their linguistic and cultural diversity, as well as their ability to appropriate and adapt popular culture, to effectively convey intricate meanings by making use of multiple modes (Jewitt & Kress, 2003). Being born into a generation surrounded by media, children readily embrace chances to experiment and have fun with various forms of media and digital devices.
In this text, I will discuss a group of primary school students who recently came from Sudan. I will focus on two texts to demonstrate their achievements. With the guidance of their ESL teacher, the students worked on Hilary Janks’ workbook activities about identity. Through this, they learned that they can have multiple positions and identities at the same time. One activity they participated in involved exploring moments when they felt Australian and moments when they felt Sudanese. In a Powerpoint presentation, one student used photographs to visually represent his experiences. He showed himself wearing different clothes and choosing different backgrounds.
In the “I feel Australian” photo, he wore a sport-brand, embroidered beanie and a denim shirt, with a brick school building as a backdrop and facing left. Meanwhile, in the portrayal of “I feel Sudanese”, he wore his Ugandan shirt, had an African material backdrop, didn’t wear a hat and faced right. The accompanying text for each image described feeling Australian when speaking English, attending school, watching TV and playing football with Australian friends, as well as enjoying Australian food such as pizza and sausages.
When I speak in my language, attend African festivals, wear my Ugandan shirt, eat kissera, beans, fassoulia, dakhneea, and chapati with my family, visit the little shop on Henley Beach Road and the market, phone Uganda and converse with my family, teach people about Africa, travel the world, and examine the map of Sudan to recount my story… Each identity I possess is shaped by these factors: language selection, clothing preference, food consumption, company kept, destinations visited, and roles undertaken in various circumstances.
The provided representations offer a limited perspective, but they allow young people to explore and share the complexities of their evolving and diverse identities with their school peers. At this particular school, the ESL teacher collaborated with newly arrived children to produce films that showcased their expertise. The article “Changing literacies, changing populations, changing places” by B. Comber features one of these films called “Sudan.”
The film, created by students and teachers in just eleven minutes, begins with a sequence of questions presented in white italics script on a black screen: What is the biggest country in Africa? Which African country boasts a multitude of languages? Where can you find speakers of Dinka, Nuer, Ma’di, Kuku, Bari, and Arabic? Which African nation have countless refugees fled due to war and the threat to their lives? Eventually, the word “SUDAN” emerges on the screen. As these questions unfold, the background is filled with the sounds of African drumming, which we later discover are being played by the students themselves.
The film is too long and complex to summarize here, but it continues by featuring the Sudanese drummers and children from Sudan who are now studying in Adelaide. They dance to African music and display various artifacts brought by their families, such as embroidery from their mothers, family photographs, and images found on the Internet. As the film progresses, it becomes evident that it is a documentary. School children who are not from Sudan interact with a female student from Sudan, asking her questions.
This sequence has a confrontational tone, as the non-Sudanese children demonstrate their lack of knowledge about Sudan. The Sudanese students are portrayed as filmmakers, specialists, and investigators. The film proceeds to present various students, teachers, and the school principal answering the same query: What is your understanding of Sudan? This shift is significant because it is usually refugees who are expected to learn about Australia. In this case, however, the tables are turned. The first four minutes of the film depict the Sudanese children filming within the school premises and repeatedly posing this question to both staff and students.
The following shift involves Sudanese students sharing their journeys from Sudan to various parts of Africa using a map. The voice-over narration is provided by African music and Sudanese children, who have different levels of proficiency in English. They narrate selected photographs of Sudan and the Sudanese children attending school in urban Adelaide. Some students share stories they remember hearing in Sudan. In a scene resembling the introductions in the delightful World of Disney, all the Sudanese students at school that day introduce themselves by stating their names – Ruth, Samuel, Francis, Mohammed, Aisha, Kuet, and others.
The Sudanese student film-makers are featured in the film, including images of Sudanese student dancers accompanied by African music. The film includes sub-titles translating Sudanese sayings and a line from the background song. In Janks’ view, this collaboration with the Sudanese students serves as a prime example of how diversity can be utilized as a valuable asset for critical literacy. Despite their varying ages and English-speaking abilities, the Sudanese students unite to create an educational documentary that critiques the lack of understanding about Sudan amongst their fellow students.
Film-making was carried out by a diverse group of New South Wales secondary school students during a summer school hosted by a university. The participants, aged between 13 and 16, were selected from priority schools located in and around Sydney, which serve students from low socioeconomic backgrounds. The purpose of the summer school, titled “Make it reel,” was to provide these students with an opportunity to acquire film-making skills.
The project aimed to provide additional learning opportunities for academically struggling students, who may not have had the chance to visit a university campus or consider themselves as potential university students. The objectives were to enhance students’ English literacy skills through film-making and to help them envision themselves as university students. Recruitment was conducted through schools and attracted a diverse group of students with different linguistic and cultural backgrounds, as well as varying educational records and aspirations (refer to Comber, Make it reel in Sellar et al. 2010 for the complete case study). Students were given funds for travel to the summer school and a small allowance to compensate for potential earnings they might have had from part-time work during that period.
