scispace - formally typeset
Search or ask a question
Author

Jennifer Alford

Bio: Jennifer Alford is an academic researcher from Queensland University of Technology. The author has contributed to research in topics: Critical literacy & Curriculum. The author has an hindex of 10, co-authored 34 publications receiving 235 citations.

Papers
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a high school teacher uses a claymation project, producing a movie by stop-motion filming of clay figures, with a class of low-level English literacy learners.
Abstract: In addressing literacy in high school education, it is important to foreground the particular issues faced by growing numbers of English Language Learners (ELLs). In our increasingly culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms, this is a matter for all literacy teachers, as well as ELL specialists. In Australia, teachers of ELLs are experimenting with Multiliteracies pedagogy which provides rich opportunities to explore language learning experiences and outcomes that stretch beyond exercises in reproduction in written and oral modes only. This paper documents the practice of a high school teacher who uses a claymation project, producing a movie by stop-motion filming of clay figures, with a class of low-level English literacy learners. Drawing on observations of three particular students, the paper outlines a number of possibilities of this approach for English language learners. These include increased individual agency; enhanced engagement through collaboration; and the opportunity to explore various elements of multimodal text design. Free author podcast

39 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors investigated the intercultural learning of 10 Australian pre-service teachers participating in a short-term mobility program in Malaysia and found that participation in this structured mobility experience promoted critical professional self-awareness regarding cultural diversity; built trust and intercultural understanding through intensive interaction with Malaysian peers; and developed participants as more culturally responsive teachers.

20 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper explored the shaping of Australian and Malaysian pre-service teachers' possible selves in a short-term mobility program, where participants considered their future possible selves as teachers with a deeper understanding of diverse learners' needs and how they might address these needs in their own classrooms.
Abstract: This article explores the shaping of Australian and Malaysian pre-service teachers’ possible selves in a short-term mobility programme. With the theory of possible selves, individuals imagine who they will become based on their past and current selves. The focus of the research was on pre-service teachers’ possible selves as global and culturally responsive teachers. The experiential learning through participation in the programme allowed participants to consider their future possible selves as teachers with a deeper understanding of diverse learners’ needs and how they might strive to address these needs in their own classrooms. The scaffolding of reflections in the programme encouraged the pre-service teachers to take on multiple perspectives, to step outside their comfort zones and in many ways to see the world from different eyes. The research found that through experiential learning in the short-term mobility programme both the Australian and Malaysian pre-service teachers gained in positioning their cultural selves currently and as future teachers, suggesting that there is merit in utilising the theory of possible selves in future research in the area of shaping teacher identity.

19 citations

01 Dec 2014
TL;DR: The authors explored how four English teachers position their English language learners for critical literacy within senior high school curriculum in Queensland, Australia, using Fairclough's critical discourse analysis method, and analyzed 16 interviews with the teachers as part of a larger, critical instrumental case study in two state high schools during 2010.
Abstract: This paper explores how four English teachers position their English language learners for critical literacy within senior high school curriculum in Queensland, Australia. Such learners are often positioned, even by their teachers, within a broader “deficit discourse” that claims they are inherently lacking the requisite knowledge and skills to engage with intransigent school curricula. As such, English language learners’ identity formation is often constrained by deficit views that can ultimately see limited kinds of literacy teaching offered to them. Using Fairclough’s (2003) critical discourse analysis method, analysis of 16 interviews with the teachers was conducted as part of a larger, critical instrumental case study in two state high schools during 2010. Five competing discourses were identified: deficit as lack; deficit as need; learner “difference” as a resource; conceptual capacity for critical literacy; and linguistic, cultural and conceptual difficulty with critical literacy. While a deficit view is present, counter-hegemonic discourses also exist in their talk. The combination of discourses challenges monolithic deficit views of English language learners, and opens up generative discursive territory to position English language learners in ways other than “problematic”. This has important implications for how teachers view and teach English language learners and their capacity for critical literacy work in senior high school classrooms.

18 citations


Cited by
More filters
01 Aug 2001
TL;DR: The study of distributed systems which bring to life the vision of ubiquitous computing systems, also known as ambient intelligence, is concentrated on in this work.
Abstract: With digital equipment becoming increasingly networked, either on wired or wireless networks, for personal and professional use alike, distributed software systems have become a crucial element in information and communications technologies. The study of these systems forms the core of the ARLES' work, which is specifically concerned with defining new system software architectures, based on the use of emerging networking technologies. In this context, we concentrate on the study of distributed systems which bring to life the vision of ubiquitous computing systems, also known as ambient intelligence.

2,774 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In the past decade, a large body of multidisciplinary research has begun to undermine the authority of this narrow interpretation of literacy by situating literacy in larger social practices as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Many people in "literate" societies, when asked to define literacy, almost always do so in terms of reading and writing abilities This narrow interpretation of literacy, an offspring of reductionist psychology, has reigned supreme in many academic and educational contexts for decades, greatly shaping literacy theories and classroom practices Within the past ten years, however, a large body of multidisciplinary research has begun to undermine the authority of this perspective by situating literacy in larger social practices

1,589 citations

01 Jan 2016
TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe negotiating identities education for empowerment in a diverse society, but end up in malicious downloads, where instead of reading a good book with a cup of coffee in the afternoon, instead they are facing with some infectious virus inside their computer.
Abstract: Thank you very much for downloading negotiating identities education for empowerment in a diverse society. As you may know, people have look numerous times for their favorite books like this negotiating identities education for empowerment in a diverse society, but end up in malicious downloads. Rather than reading a good book with a cup of coffee in the afternoon, instead they are facing with some infectious virus inside their computer.

315 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined 35 articles published between 1999 and 2003 that present lessons or units to support critical literacy at the upper primary or secondary levels, and organized the classroom practices into six broad categories based on student activities or tasks.
Abstract: Critical literacy is usually described as a theory with implications for practice, rather than as a distinctive instructional methodology. Critical literacy proponents warn against a too narrowly conceived curricular approach and advocate innovative local solutions. In order to provide exemplars for local adaptation, the author examines 35 articles published between 1999 and 2003 that present lessons or units to support critical literacy at the upper primary or secondary levels. His review organizes the classroom practices into six broad categories based on student activities or tasks: 1Reading supplementary texts 2Reading multiple texts 3Reading from a resistant perspective 4Producing countertexts 5Conducting student-choice research projects 6Taking social action

258 citations