Offering a new perspective on adult English language education, this book provides theoretical and practical insights into how digital literacies can be included in the learning programmes for newly arrived adults from migrant and refugee backgrounds.
Enhancing Digital Literacies with Adult English Language Learners takes readers inside Langfield, an adult community-based English language centre that supports the settlement and learning of this vulnerable group. Drawing on a six-month ethnographic study of Langfield’s work, the book explores the approach to teaching digital literacies and presents a range of perspectives, including those of the adult learners, the teachers, and the organisation’s CEO. The chapters present a holistic view of teaching digital literacies in the adult English language context by exploring: adult learners’ digital literacy practices in everyday life and their learning at Langfield; teachers' beliefs and practices about digital literacies; and the support offered to them through institutional resources, leadership, and professional learning. The book identifies exemplary practices, as well as areas for further development in Langfield’s work and offers a range of implications for practice, policy, and research.
Written in a detailed but accessible manner, this book contributes important insights into the strengths and needs of this unique and complex education sector. Addressing an area of uncertainty for many researchers, practitioners, leaders, and policy makers working within community-based learning contexts in Australia and internationally, this book will be an essential resource.
Author(s): Ekaterina Tour, Edwin Creely, Peter Waterhouse
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 200
City: London
Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
List of figures
Foreword
Acknowledgements
List of abbreviations
Chapter 1: Living and learning in digital Australia
Digital Australia and newcomers
On the margins of digital society
Government-funded EAL programmes
Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP)
Adult Community Education (ACE)
AMEP challenges
Digital literacies in the adult EAL settings
Focus of this book
Conclusion
Notes
Chapter 2: Developing theoretical perspectives on institutional practices
Socio-material theory
Digital literacies
Strengths-based practices
Leadership for change
Conclusion
Chapter 3: Researching Langfield: Institutional ethnography
Considering research design for adult EAL settings
Institutional ethnography
Victorian context, Langfield, and participants
Victorian context
Langfield and research participants
Langfield’s governance and funding
Learning spaces and access to technology
Langfield’s mission
A feminist perspective about Langfield
Data generation
Participant observation, field notes, and video recording
Individual interviews
Artefacts
Focus groups
Thematic data analysis
Conclusion
Note
Chapter 4: The digital lives of Langfield’s learners
Learners’ digital literacy practices
Everyday digital literacy practices
Learning with technologies at Langfield
Learners’ challenges
Learners’ strengths and resources
Awareness of oneself as learner
Familiarity with mobile devices
Home language
Personal networks
Teachers
Thinking about curriculum and pedagogy
Conclusion
Chapter 5: Teaching and learning digital literacies at Langfield
Perspectives on digital literacies: Surviving and thriving
The Techno-Tuesday programme
Integratedness
Comprehensiveness
Collegiality
The role of digital literacies at Langfield
Focus one: Basic digital technology language and skills
Focus two: digital literacies
Teaching from learners’ strengths
Individualised learning
Purposeful peer-learning
Deliberate application of strengths
Development of strengths through building on prior experiences
Teachers’ perspectives on strengths
Exploring possibilities for digital literacies
Conclusion
Notes
Chapter 6: Escaping the black hole through professional learning
Teachers’ experiences of professional learning
In-house professional learning
External professional learning
A team of three: Peer-learning
Teachers’ preferences about professional learning
Content: Digital literacies, learners’ needs, and pedagogy
Approach: Organisation-wide/in-house, expert-delivered, ongoing
Deliberations about professional learning
Conclusion
Chapter 7: Enabling leadership for effective practice
Distributed and connected understandings of leadership
Envisioning change through teachers’ strengths
Collaboration as the core leadership value
Situated difficulties of enacting change
Supporting change through strategic provisioning
Considering transformational leadership
Conclusion
Chapter 8: Left to their own devices: Implications for change
Re-thinking curriculum and pedagogy
Centralisation of digital literacies in the EAL curriculum
Consideration of the curriculum in the milieu of digital change
An organisation-wide approach to digital literacies
Development of suitable pedagogies for digital literacies
Enhancing professional learning
Three conceptual areas of focus in professional learning
Pedagogies for digital literacies
New forms of professional learning
Developing democratic leadership practices
Contextual knowledge, situated understandings, and an organisational vision
Democratic leadership practices
Challenging policy positions
Digital literacies framework
Relevant teaching resources
Sector-wide professional learning about digital literacies
Considering methodological and ethical issues in research
Future research directions
Ethics of researcher-participant relationships
Engendering trust between researchers and organisation
Postscript: The pandemic, lockdowns, and beyond
Concluding thoughts
References
Index
