Enhancing Digital Literacies with Adult English Language Learners: Theoretical and Practical Insights

201 Pages·2022·13.507 MB·

by  Ekaterina Tour, Edwin Creely, Peter Waterhouse

ENHANCING DIGITAL LITERACIES
WITH ADULT ENGLISH LANGUAGE
LEARNERS
Offering a new perspective on adult English language education, this book pro-
vides 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 sup-
ports 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.
Ekaterina Tour is a lecturer in the Faculty of Education at Monash University.
Her research focuses on the digital literacies of children and adults from refugee
and migrant backgrounds. It investigates the ways in which these groups use
digital technologies in English as an Additional Language (EAL) for life, learn-
ing, and employment. Her research projects in EAL contexts have examined
innovative teaching and learning with technologies, in-service and pre-service
teachers’ experiences with digital literacies, teaching online during the Covid-19
pandemic, and technology use in culturally and linguistically diverse communi-
ties as they settle in Australia.
Edwin Creely is a lecturer in the Faculty of Education at Monash University.
His research focuses on creativity, poetry, literacy, digital pedagogies and lit-
eracies, and technology in learning. He has extensive experience as an educator
in schools, and has worked in community-based education for decades. Edwin
is especially interested in innovation and creative practices and bringing new
models and perspectives to educational research. He has published in a range of
journals and is a regular contributor to research and practice in literacy, creativity,
and technology.
Peter Waterhouse is a lecturer in the Faculty of Education at Monash University.
His research and practice have explored literacy skills and needs, particularly
adult literacy learning, across a wide range of contexts; from community settings
to diverse workplaces and institutions. He is interested in how the culture and
relationships within organisations shape the learning of those who live and work
within them. He believes critical and creative literacies are essential to sustain-
ing democracy and a decent life and hence provision of opportunities to develop
these skills is fundamental to the ongoing quest for social justice.
ENHANCING DIGITAL
LITERACIES WITH
ADULT ENGLISH
LANGUAGE LEARNERS
Theoretical and Practical Insights
Ekaterina Tour, Edwin Creely and
Peter Waterhouse
Cover image: © Getty Images
First published 2022
by Routledge
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© 2022 Ekaterina Tour, Edwin Creely and Peter Waterhouse
The right of Ekaterina Tour, Edwin Creely and Peter Waterhouse to be
identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections
77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
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from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without
intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-0-367-67760-2 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-67758-9 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-13268-4 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003132684
Typeset in Bembo
by SPi Technologies India Pvt Ltd (Straive)
CONTENTS
List of figures vii
Foreword viii
Acknowledgements xi
List of abbreviations xii
1 Living and learning in digital Australia 1
Digital Australia and newcomers 3
On the margins of digital society 5
Government-funded EAL programmes 7
Focus of this book 15
Conclusion 16
Notes 17
2 Developing theoretical perspectives on institutional practices 18
Socio-material theory 19
Digital literacies 20
Strengths-based practices 25
Leadership for change 29
Conclusion 35
3 Researching Langfield: Institutional ethnography 37
Considering research design for adult EAL settings 38
Institutional ethnography 39
Victorian context, Langfield, and participants 44
Data generation 55
Thematic data analysis 58
Conclusion 58
Note 59
vi Contents
4 The digital lives of Langfield’s learners 60
Learners’ digital literacy practices 62
Learners’ challenges 66
Learners’ strengths and resources 69
Thinking about curriculum and pedagogy 79
Conclusion 82
5 Teaching and learning digital literacies at Langfield 83
Perspectives on digital literacies: Surviving and thriving 84
The Techno-Tuesday programme 87
The role of digital literacies at Langfield 95
Teaching from learners’ strengths 103
Teachers’ perspectives on strengths 108
Exploring possibilities for digital literacies 109
Conclusion 112
Notes 113
6 Escaping the black hole through professional learning 114
Teachers’ experiences of professional learning 115
Teachers’ preferences about professional learning 123
Deliberations about professional learning 131
Conclusion 135
7 Enabling leadership for effective practice 137
Distributed and connected understandings of leadership 139
Envisioning change through teachers’ strengths 141
Collaboration as the core leadership value 143
Situated difficulties of enacting change 144
Supporting change through strategic provisioning 147
Considering transformational leadership 149
Conclusion 152
8 Left to their own devices: Implications for change 153
Re-thinking curriculum and pedagogy 154
Enhancing professional learning 158
Developing democratic leadership practices 162
Challenging policy positions 164
Considering methodological and ethical issues in research 167
Postscript: the pandemic, lockdowns, and beyond 169
Concluding thoughts 171
References 172
Index 185
FIGURES
2.1 The concept of Sociomaterial Theory (SMT) 19
2.2 Four qualities of effective leadership 30
2.3 Scale of leadership approaches 33
3.1 Reciprocity in research design 38
3.2 The emphases in institutional ethnography 42
3.3 Conceptual framework 44
3.4 Inner urban area surrounding Langfield 45
3.5 Social housing estate in the area 47
3.6 Langfield’s classroom 1 50
3.7 Langfield’s classroom 2 51
3.8 Langfield’s computer room 52
3.9 Classroom door with welcoming messages in different languages 54
5.1 Design of Techno-Tuesday 89
5.2 A shared digital literacy folder 93
5.3 Susan assisting an individual learner with an iPad 94
5.4 Reading digital books 99
5.5 Group discussion in a computer room 105
6.1 The participants’ collaborative collage 124
6.2 Towards a model of professional learning about digital literacies 132
7.1 A framework for leadership towards digital literacies 150
FOREWORD
When we first came to Langfield to do what seemed to be a typical research
project with some ethnographic orientations, we believed that this would be the
usual exercise in collecting some data and then leaving. It has not proven to be
this type of research at all. We were invited to stay longer than we planned and
offered more opportunities to observe and talk to different people at Langfield.
We came to know the teachers, the CEO, and the learners and began to realise
that this was evolving into a full ethnographic study requiring both time and per-
sonal connection. We recognised that this is a special place in which adults from
migrant and refugee backgrounds not only have a chance to learn English but
are nurtured and develop other critical skills that are essential for their settlement
and potential employment in Australia. We saw the importance of the work at
Langfield, and we wanted to know more about what they offered and what they
needed. This book reflects the length and depth of our research and professional
relationships with everyone at Langfield. It also embodies the learning journey
that we had with them in 2019, one that continues.
This book is emphatically about digital literacies and their pivotal importance
in an increasingly digitised world. But to understand digital literacies and how
they work for people, it is first necessary to understand the context for their
application and use. Our context in this book is Langfield – a community-based
adult EAL provider. We wanted to know how the learners used technologies
and what digital literacies operated in their lives, including within their English
language learning at Langfield. We also wanted to know about the teachers as
professionals grappling with a changing digital world and seeking to further their
practice. We understood that change must be led and managed in the challeng-
ing circumstances of community-based education providers, so connecting with
leadership was also imperative.
Foreword ix
We are three academics who work in the Faculty of Education at Monash
University. This book, and research which it reports, is an outcome of a fruitful
collaboration between the three of us, in simpatico with all the wonderful staff
and learners at Langfield, whose voices are heard throughout this volume. While
the book represents our unified voice as researchers, we had our individual moti-
vations and inspirations driving our research and writing of this book.
For Ekaterina, the idea of a book about digital technologies in English lan-
guage learning stemmed from her personal and professional experiences. As an
English language teacher in her home country, Belarus, she was always interested
in the use of digital technologies in language classrooms and even attempted to
teach some aspects of digital literacies in the early 2000s. However, as this idea
was new to her at that time, she often felt uncertain about her approach. This
interest was further reinforced by Ekaterina’s migration experience. She moved
to Australia in 2004 and establishing a new life here often involved digital tech-
nologies. Using technologies in another language and in a new socio-cultural
context for different purposes was challenging and, at times, very frustrating.
This experience made Ekaterina think again about language learners’ digital
skills as well as teachers’ approaches to digital technologies in language class-
rooms. As Ekaterina pursued her PhD under the supervision of a prominent
scholar in the field of digital literacies, Professor Ilana Snyder, and started her
academic career at Monash University, these personal and professional concerns
continued to grow. They inspired generative conversations and discussions with
two like-minded colleagues, Edwin and Peter. These led to the research project
reported in this book.
Edwin came to this ethnographic research at Langfield and the writing of this
book with a highly diverse teaching background in English, EAL, and literacy
learning across primary and secondary education, and a long-time interest in the
role of technologies in learning and the phenomenology of technology in human
experience. His PhD focused on the experiences of PhD students and explored
their use of digital technologies in their research and writing, so digital pedago-
gies and literacies are a core research interest. Edwin also has spent decades as a
passionate voluntary teacher in adult learning contexts, working in community
learning hubs and houses, and in community theatre. This experience of working
with adults across many contexts and seeing their creativity and desire to learn
has inspired his interest in the work of Langfield and the ways that adults from
migrant and refugee backgrounds can learn and grow in a supportive commu-
nity. Also, having a passion for ethnographic research, the work with Langfield
has been a culmination of a range of interests and an expression of Edwin’s desire
to do research that has impact; research that affects things that matter. The issue
of equitable and just learning opportunities, such as those offered by Langfield, is
a core ethical concern for Edwin’s research and practice.
Over four decades ago, as a fledgling teacher, Peter fluttered into a newly
established pioneering Adult Community Education (ACE) Centre. As a student