Literacy Education and Indigenous Australians

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xi

   PDF

2. Why a Book About Indigenous Literacy Education in Australia?

   • Helen Harper, Jennifer Rennie

   Pages 1-12

3. Examining the Local: Theory and Practice

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 13-13

      PDF

   2. The Evidence of Literacy Learning Through Contemporary Kunibídji Knowledge Systems

      • Lena Djabibba, Glenn Auld, Joanne O’Mara

      Pages 15-32

   3. Sensory Ways to Indigenous Multimodal Literacies: Hands and Feet Tell the Story

      • Kathy A. Mills, Jane Dooley

      Pages 33-50

   4. Durithunga Boul: A Pattern of Respectful Relationships, Reciprocity and Socially Just Literacy Education in One Urban School

      • John Davis, Annette Woods

      Pages 51-69

   5. Family Story Time in the Ngaanyatjarra Early Years Program

      • Anne Shinkfield, Beryl Jennings

      Pages 71-86

   6. Confessions from a Reading Program: Building Connections, Competence and Confidence

      • Jennifer Rennie

      Pages 87-108

   7. Talking and Writing to Develop Mathematical Meanings in a Remote Indigenous Context

      • Helen Harper, Bronwyn Parkin

      Pages 109-125

   8. Indigenous Doctoral Literacy in the Humanities and Social Sciences

      • Zane M. Diamond, Peter J. Anderson

      Pages 127-145

   9. Preparing Pre-service Teachers to Teach Literacy in Remote Spaces

      • Jennifer Rennie, Peter J. Anderson

      Pages 147-162

4. Examining the Systemic: Theory and Practice

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 163-163

      PDF

   2. A Long Unfinished Struggle: Literacy and Indigenous Cultural and Language Rights

      • Janine Oldfield, Joseph Lo Bianco

      Pages 165-184

   3. Embedding Evidence-Based Practice into a Remote Indigenous Early Learning and Parenting Program: A Systematic Approach

      • Louise Cooke, Averill Piers-Blundell

      Pages 185-201

   4. Early Literacy: Strengthening Outcomes Through Processes of Collaboration and Engagement

      • Janet Scull, Debra Hannagan

      Pages 203-219

   5. ‘Just Teach Our Kids to Read’: Efficacy of Intensive Reading Interventions for Both Younger and Older Low-Progress Readers in Schools Serving Mainly Remote Indigenous Communities

      • Kevin Wheldall, Robyn Wheldall, Alison Madelaine, Meree Reynolds, Sarah Arakelian, Saskia Kohnen

      Pages 221-246

   6. A Case Study of Controversy: The Cape York Aboriginal Australian Academy

      • John McCollow

      Pages 247-270

   7. Good Theory, Good Systems: An Instance of Accelerated Literacy Pedagogy Implementation

      • Bronwyn Parkin

      Pages 271-291

   8. ‘A Strong Belief in the Possibility of a Better Life’: The Pedagogy of Contingency and the Ethic of Solidarity in the Yes, I Can! Aboriginal Adult Literacy Campaign

      • Bob Boughton, Frances Williamson

      Pages 293-312

   9. Afterword: Being Literate in ‘Australian’: The Future Can

      • Peter Freebody

      Pages 313-332

This edited volume brings together diverse perspectives on Australian literacy education for Indigenous peoples, highlighting numerous educational approaches, ideologies and aspirations. 


The Australian Indigenous context presents unique challenges for educators working across the continent in settings ranging from urban to remote, and with various social and language groups. Accordingly, one of the book’s main goals is to foster dialogue between researchers and practitioners working in these contexts, and who have vastly different theoretical and ideological perspectives. It offers a valuable resource for academics and teachers of Indigenous students who are interested in literacy-focused research, and complements scholarship on literacy education in comparable Indigenous settings internationally.

• indigneous education
• bilingual education
• biliteracy
• situated literacies
• intervention and indigenous peoples
• remote education
• regional education
• scaffolding
• early childhood
• primary education
• secondary education
• tertiary education
• language studies
• aboriginal students
• Australia education
• indigenous education
• learning and instruction

• Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

  Jennifer Rennie

• University of New England, Armidale, Australia

  Helen Harper

Dr Jennifer Rennie is a Senior Lecturer in Literacy Education at the Faculty of Education, Monash University. Prior to working in higher education, she worked as a primary and high school teacher. Her chief research interests are Indigenous literacies, students who are marginalised from mainstream schooling, and reading pedagogies for disengaged adolescent readers. She has maintained a long-standing affiliation with the Australian Literacy Educators Association, and was the recipient of the ALEA medal for outstanding service to the association and the profession in 2015. She recently took office as Vice President of ALEA. In addition, she has been Managing Editor of the Australian Journal of Language and Literacy since 2009. 


Dr Helen Harper has worked as a researcher and lecturer in language and literacy education, as a linguist in remote Indigenous communities, and as a teacher of English as an Additional Language. Currently she is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Education, University of New England (UNE), where she teaches English language and literacy education. Helen’s research interests include pedagogies for educationally marginalised students, pedagogies of literacy, and classroom interactions. Before taking up her post at the UNE in 2018, Helen spent more than two decades in the Northern Territory, where she worked as a researcher and educator.

Policies and ethics