Critical Literacy and Equity in Higher Education in Australia

• In Event: Roundtable Session 67
  In Roundtable Session: Higher Education, Diversity, and Equity in Critical Perspective

Abstract

This paper provides an analysis of recent higher education policy in Australia as a frame for discussing the challenge of advancing equity. Of note is the recent imperative to increase the participation of students from low SES backgrounds and of alternative entry courses into universities. Against deficit views of nondominant communities, the paper argues for teaching critical literacy in such courses. Specifically this entails abandoning remedial instruction of literacy and instead, developing approaches that re-mediate the connection between lifeworlds and official knowledge. Such an approach assumes that all students bring repertoires of literate practice as assets for teaching and learning.

Authors

• Sarah Kate Hattam, University of South Australia

• Robert James Hattam, University of South Australia