Grammar’s journey: Teacherly reflections from Linda-Dianne Willis & Beryl Exley

As we come to celebrate the twentieth year of ALEA’s practically orientated journal, we offer teacherly reflections on grammar’s journey, both in terms of content and pedagogical practice. Having both been educated in Queensland across a comparable time period, our teaching careers have been influenced by similar curricula and policy documents. It is perhaps not surprising that our careers have taken similar, even intersecting, paths. Through metalogue (written conversation), our individual and common experiences are revealed which may resonate with the experiences of some readers or, in contrast, serve to explain why readers’ experiences may be somewhat different. Yet, it is hoped that our exchange may generate fertile professional discussions about the affordances and challenges of grammar teaching and learning to successfully negotiate the journey ahead.

A multiliteracies project in the middle school : Parents as coteachers

This paper examines the experiences of one middle years’ English and Studies of Society and Environment (SoSE) teacher who adopted a multiliteracies project-based orientation to a unit on War and Refugees. It details the multiliteracies teaching and learning cycle, which is based on four non-hierarchical, pedagogical orientations: situated practice, overt instruction, critical framing and transformed practice (New London Group, 2000; Kalantzis & Cope, 2005a). Following the work of Kalantzis and Cope (2005a), it draws out the knowledge processes exacted in each of these four phases: experiencing the known and the new; conceptualising by naming and theorising; analysing functionally and critically; and, applying appropriately and creatively. Two parents were invited to enter the study as coteachers with the teacher and researcher. Using Bourdieu’s (1992) construct of capital, the findings report on how the multiliteracies approach enabled them to engage in school-based literacy practices differently than they had done previously in classrooms. An unexpected finding concerns the teacher’s altered view about how his role and status were perceived by the parents.

Towards a literacy of attention

In 1997, business trend analyst Linda Stone proposed the term "continuous partial attention" to characterise the contemporary experience of wanting to be ‘a live node on the network’. She argued that while it can be a positive and functional behaviour, it also has the potential to be disabling, compromising reflective and creative thought. Subsequent studies have explored the ways in which technology has slowly disrupted the idea and experience of a "centred" and "bounded" self. Studies of ‘Gen Y’ show the ease with which young people accommodate this multiplying of the self as they negotiate their partial friendships and networks of interest with family and work. In teaching and learning circles in tertiary education we talk a lot about problems of student ‘disengagement’. In characterising our challenge this way, are we undermining our potential to understand the tendencies of contemporary learners? This paper begins a consideration of how traditional models, frameworks and practices might oppose these partially engaged but continuously connected and interpersonal "dividuals". What questions does this provoke for learning environments towards harnessing yet counterpointing the crisis students might experience; to recognise but also integrate their multiple selves towards what they aim to become through the process of learning?

What do clients learn from counseling?

Thirty-five clients who received counseling participated in this exploratory study by completing a letter to a friend that described in as much detail as possible what they had learned from counseling. The participants’ written responses were analyzed using a content analysis approach. The analysis indicated that the data were best categorized in terms of three broad areas of learnings (Self, Relations with Others, and the Process of Learning and Change). The Self taxonomy was found to consist of six hierarchical levels. The Relations with Others taxonomy consisted of five hierarchical levels, while the Process of Learning and Change taxonomy consisted of five hierarchical levels. The results suggested that these three taxonomies offer a promising and exciting way to view the impact of counseling within a learning framework. If these taxonomies are found to be stable in future research and clients are easily classified using the taxonomies then this approach may have implications for counseling. It may well be that to maximise the learnings counselors could use specific strategies and techniques to enhance their clients’ learning in the three areas.

Marketing unions to young people : recruiting and ‘rusting on’

In light of declining trade union density, specifically amongst young workers, this paper explores how trade unions are servicing and organising young people. Our specific focus is the way in which trade unions market their services to the young. We use, as a lens of analysis, the services marketing literature and the concept of an ‘experience good’ to explore trade union strategies. Based on interviews with a number of Queensland union officials, it is clear unions see the issue of recruitment of young people as significant, and that resources are being targeted on the development of innovative strategies at least in some unions.

Fathers as informants of children’s fears and worries

The recognition of excessive fears and worries in children is important for early intervention. Despite current knowledge about the important contribution fathers make to their children’s emotional, social and cognitive development, more emphasis is often given to the views of mothers in both research and practice. This paper reports on a community study of 220 families. Fathers, mothers and children reported on children’s fears and worries using three different methods. While father and mother ratings were moderately correlated on two of the measures, there was relatively poor parent-child agreement. Implications for the role of fathers in the assessment of childhood fears and worries are discussed.