Full Conference program

Marc Brierty taught at Victoria University for 10 years, La Trobe University for 12 years and for the past 6 years, he has been teaching EAL to Migrants and Refugees at Melbourne Polytechnic. Marc has also taught English to adults in the UK, Japan, Saudi Arabia and China.

Kerrie Tomkins, MBA, B Edn (Honours), Dip Teaching, Dip Sustainability. Experience working in education for over twenty years, with the last five years focused on adult learning. Under taken research into constructivist learning theory and developed a learning model using the theory to assist adult learners to build their own framework. Currently the centre Coordinator for Leopold Community and Learning Centre, prior to this appointment was a Regional Education Officer working with business, local government and community organisations in sustainability education for the Victorian State Government.

Vanessa Iles an experienced LLN practitioner and manager of the Hotline. She coordinates a national database of LLN providers and a team of experienced teachers who field enquiries from individuals, organisations and industry. Vanessa also currently manages several national projects improving the Hotline's engagement with industry and providing an improved service to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and organisations.
Jill Finch is a Project Officer with the Reading Writing Hotline. Jill has been a LLN Head Teacher in TAFE for 25 years and is a past President of NSWALNC. She has coordinated and delivered a number of WELL projects and teacher training programs including the Grad Dip Adult LLN Practice. Jill works with the Hotline to deliver their strategic improvement projects.

Maria Albion, a Timorese national, is the foundation principal of SenaiNT. She has had a successful long term career in the Northern Territory Department of Education in several locations as a teacher, senior teacher, curriculum officer, assistant principal and executive contract principal. Maria fled to Darwin by boat from East Timor as a young girl in 1975 to escape the hostilities occurring in her home country.
Joao da Costa is a former student at SenaiNT who is now studying education at Charles Darwin University. He will co-present on the difference the program has made to his life.

Alison Reedy is Team Leader, Higher Education and Training in the Office of Learning and Teaching at Charles Darwin University. Alison’s professional background started in the area of banking and finance before she moved into the field of education 25 years ago. She has worked across the school, community education, vocational and higher education sectors. She has a particular interest in English language and literacy education, Indigenous education, and online learning and learning design. Alison was the ACAL NT Representative from 2010 to 2015 and is currently enrolled in PhD studies on the topic ‘Indigenous Learners Online: Indigenous Perspectives on Online Learning in Higher Education’.
Amanda Janssen is Theme Leader for the Academic Language and Learning Success Program (ALLSP) at Charles Darwin University. This team works with students and staff to improve and develop academic skills and assessment. In addition she coordinates the PASS program, which is a peer led study program to assist students to improve their marks. Amanda is also part of the steering group for the ‘External and International Student Orientation’ as well as a key member of the working group to develop university wide resources to promote academic integrity. Her research interests broadly include assessment design, Social Semiotics and mapping genre and skills requirements. She is currently part of the executive team for the Association for Academic Language and Learning (AALL).
Dr Penny Wurm is an ecologist based at Charles Darwin University with research interests in the ecology and management of monsoonal wetlands and invasive plant species, and a teaching practice in environmental science. In January 2016, Penny completed a three year appointment as Associate Head of School - Learning & Teaching, School of Environment at CDU. She formerly served as Higher Education Project Leader for the Tropical Savannas CRC, and has also taught in the VET sector. Penny has won a Vice-Chancellors Award for Excellence in Learning & Teaching (2015) for the Eastern Indonesian Field Intensive; an Endeavour Executive Award – DEEWR (2011) for a ten week funded placement at Satya Wacana Christian University, Salatiga, Central Java, Indonesia; a National Carrick Institute Citation (2006) for an engaging, flexible postgraduate program, focusing on tropical Australia and building skills and understandings for regional Professionals in authentic learning contexts; and a national Australian Society for Computers in Tertiary Education (ascilite) Award for ‘Exemplary use of electronic technologies in teaching and learning in higher education’.

Berni Aquilina is a Head Teacher of Foundation Skills at TAFE NSW West region. She moved to Mudgee nine years ago from Nelson, New Zealand, where she was a tutor with Adult Learning Support (a community-based literacy organisation) and a study skills teacher at NMIT. For a short time she was also a trainer for Literacy Aotearoa. Prior to that, Berni had a 20 year pearling career that took her across northern Australia and through the Pacific, where she developed and delivered pearl technician training courses for local people in the Cook Islands, Marshall Islands and Kiribati.

Vicki Hartman, is a Foundation Skills Mentor at Tauondi Aboriginal College and has been involved in adult literacy and numeracy since 2009, from a trainer in the Certificate I in Introduction to Vocational Education to her current role as Foundation Skills Mentor. Vicki's role includes coordinating LLN tutor support for individual and whole course groups based on individual and whole course group requirements. Vicki currently sits as Secretary on the Australian Council for Adult Literacy (ACAL), since 2015. She is also Vice-President on the South Australian Council for Adult Literacy (SACAL). Vicki has been involved with SACAL since 2010.

Brendan Kavanagh is a passionate advocate for adult learners and for languages. He has taught English in China and for the past 6 years has been working with remote communities as a Language, Literacy and Numeracy Trainer in the Top End and Central Australia. Brendan is currently studying a Master of Applied Linguistics and is responsible for the development of many digital resources used at CARHDS. Brendan is a fluent Mandarin speaker who is able to successfully integrate Aboriginal languages with learning resources.

Pamela Osmond has worked in the field of Adult Basic Education since the 1970s. She has taught in a range of contexts and occupied a number of management and curriculum support roles in TAFE NSW. She is the author of a wide range of teaching / learning resources, including 'So You Want to Teach an Adult to Read…?' and 'Literacy Face to Face'. Pamela’s present roles are as teacher educator at OTEN, TAFE NSW and as project officer at the Reading Writing Hotline. She is at present researching the history of Adult Basic Education in NSW.

Ben van Gelderen is a Lecturer in Education; Co-ordinator of the Growing Our Own project. This innovative program involves the delivery of the Bachelor of Education in five remote Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory. Ben has worked as a Lawyer, English teacher, Chaplain, Teacher/Linguist, EAL/D consultant and Curriculum Advisor. His Master of Education project was collaborative and transdisciplinary research with the Gäwa community to help provide digital resources for the intergenerational transmission of language and cultural knowledge and his PhD study is a multidisciplinary history of Gäwa Christian School.

Angela Nolan has eight years’ experience in indigenous vocational education and training, with considerable experience in contextualising assessment tools and addressing the Language Literacy and numeracy needs of an indigenous cohort. As the Training Manager for the ALPA RTO she manages the retail user choice contract for one hundred and thirty students. Angela developed the ready for work program for CDP and is currently implementing an Indigenous leadership program. In 2016 Angela completed a Diploma of Vocational Education and Training/Design and Development and in 2014 a Graduate Diploma of Adult LLN practice.
Tracey Fitzgibbon’s passion for nutrition began during her career with Coles as a Department manager for the Delicatessen, Fruit and Vegetable Department and Grocery Department.
After her career with Coles, Tracey decided to complete a Bachelor’s Degree in Nutrition and Dietetics and began her career with ALPA. During this time she also completed a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment which developed her training skills. Her responsibilities as a Senior Nutritionist involve nutrition and food safety training with staff and managers, promoting healthy options and improving access and affordability of nutritious food.

Chris Tully has worked in the Adult Education field for 26 years across a range of areas. Recently she has worked in the Literacy and Numeracy support area, providing numeracy support to a variety of VET programs. She also has extensive experience in delivery numeracy to adults including in classes with a high number of EAL students, indigenous students, people returning to study and in workplaces. She has been involved in the accreditation and re-accreditation of various curriculum and training packages including the CGEA.

Cheryl Wiltshire works at the Department of Training and Workforce Development in WA in the professional learning section. She has been part of the team supporting the accreditation and implementation of CAVSS and USIQ for 17 years and prior to that worked in TAFE and jobseeker training.

Ser Loy Chan is a Singapore qualified trainer, assessor and curriculum developer of national CET (VET) programsand held adjunct positions between 2013 and 2014 as an Adult Educator and Research Associate at the Institute for Adult Learning, a part of the national training authority in Singapore. Ser Loy graduated from CDU in 2016 with a Master of Education (International) culminating in a research thesis examining how attitude learning is incorporated into training within the national qualification frameworks of Australia and Singapore. Currently pursuing a PhD in Education and Training at CDU to further research into how attitudes can be meaningfully incorporated into training within national qualifications frameworks. The co-author (not presenting) is Associate Professor Greg Shaw, School of Education, CDU – co-author. Greg has long experience working in a range of educational contexts. He began his career as a secondary agriculture science teacher, and has worked in primary, vocational education, community development, Higher Education and as a consultant in education.

Louise Wignall has contributed to strategic projects focused on the importance of Foundation Skills in VET over the last 25 years. Through recent work under the National Foundation Skills Strategy project she has worked with Anita Roberts to develop a Foundation Skills Professional Standards Framework.

Dr Stefan Popenici is currently working at Charles Darwin University and is an Honorary Fellow of the Melbourne-CSHE at the University of Melbourne. He is also Associate Director of the Imaginative Education Research Group at Simon Fraser University, Canada. Stefan is an academic with extensive work experience in teaching and learning, research, governance and academic development with universities in Europe, North America, South East Asia, New Zealand and Australia. He is investigating digital futures and the role of imagination, creativity and innovation in education.

Jenny Macaffer is the CEO of Adult Learning Australia, a not for profit national peak body for adult and community education (ACE). She advocates for equitable access to lifelong learning, particularly in communities of disadvantage. Jenny has a long history of working in community development, promoting human rights and social justice.
Ros Bauer has extensive experience in adult education as a language literacy numeracy practitioner. She was the winner of the 2013 Australian Training Awards Excellence in Adult LLN Practice and a recipient of an Executive Fellowship through the Australian Endeavour Awards; which included a professional learning experience in Scandinavia. She is part of the NT LLN Network Group and is the educational consultant to the Warlpiri Youth Development Aboriginal Corporation.

Robyn Ober has been researching Aboriginal English and language shifts in formal contexts and written extensively on Both Ways philosophy. Dr Michele Willsher and Janine Oldfield highlight the importance of recognising and responding in a culturally responsive way to the demands of writing for Higher Education. Dr Adelle Sefton-Rowston explores how Aboriginal English is represented by Indigenous authors in literature. Dr Birut Zemits (panel chair) teaches in enabling, undergraduate to post-doctoral levels, providing a broad overview of language demands for students in the university. Education students, Melanie Mullins and Therese Parry, share direct experiences of moving between languages and cultural perspectives in their studies.

Elaine Bell is a Lecturer in Nursing at Flinders University. Prior to which she was the Nursing and Midwifery Education Director at the Women and Children’s Health Network. Jan Thompson is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Flinders University where she has been working for the past 25 years. She has been the Coordinator of the Undergraduate Nursing Programs for the past 8 years. Elaine and Jan are interested in transition to university for undergraduate nursing students with a particular lens on numeracy skills and how to scaffold these throughout the three year program.

Adelle Sefton-Rowston lectures in Common Units at Charles Darwin University. She completed her PhD in Literary Studies at Deakin University in 2013 and was winner of last year’s NT Literary Awards essay prize. She has published critical essays in international journals and writes poetry and short stories. She is an active member of two major literary committees and vice president of the NT Writers Centre Board.

John Garrick LLB (Hon 1, UTS), M.Soc Stud (Sydney), Ph.D (UTS), is currently Senior Lecturer in Business Law at Charles Darwin University. He is a Supreme Court attorney in Australia and, until 2007, was in private legal practice with a major Sydney law firm specialising in international comparative law and Chinese commercial law reform. He is author and co-editor of a wide range of scholarly publications including several well-known Routledge books on workplace learning and power and international commercial law. He has worked extensively in both legal practice and academia in Hong Kong, the Middle-East, North America and Australia.

Dr Bronwyn Rossingh has been leading and managing projects in Indigenous communities regarding youth justice and leadership, improving education pathways, enterprise development and financial literacy for many years. She is the Managing Director of Accountability Notions and also works with CDU. Bronwyn is a Fellow of the CPA and is an Editor of the Evaluation Journal of Australasia. Yalmay Yunupingu is a Yolngu Rirratjingu woman from Yirrkala. Yalmay has been teaching for over 40 years and is the Senior Linguist at the Yirrkala School. Yalmay has received numerous education awards including ‘Teacher of Excellence (Remote Community)’. She is a strong advocate of the bilingual ‘Two Way Learning’ philosophy and is passionate about Yolngu people achieving their dreams.

Rachael Uebergang and Sandra Dann are Directors of the NT Working Women's Centre and the Working Women's Centre SA respectively. These Centres work primarily with non union women experiencing workplace issues but jointly work on delivering awareness and training to workplaces and their managers of domestic and family violence in their national DFV Work Aware program. Rachael and Sandra are accredited to deliver White Ribbon Workplace Programs and have experience consulting with organisations who are seeking or who have gained White Ribbon accreditation.

The EAL teaching team at Chisholm Institute have been working closely with their students to develop engaging activities through technology that not only strengthens the delivery in daily classes, but prepares the students to enter the new world when they go on with their education. Each of the team members bring more than 20 years’ experience in teaching EAL and also draw on their current capability of working with different delivery models and funding streams. Kathrin Colgan, on behalf of the team, welcomes you to share the techknowledgey at the workshop.

David Do led the development of the TEC's Adult Literacy and Numeracy Implementation Strategy 2015-19 which set future directions for this government priority area. Son of a Vietnamese refugee and Chinese migrant, he's a proud Kiwi born in Auckland. He happily lives in Wellington now after being New Zealand Union of Students' Associations Co-President 2010-2011. Lindee Conway has almost 30 years’ experience in Foundation Studies as a teacher, program coordinator and team leader in the community and VET sectors. Her interest in how assessment works successfully for learners and teachers is reflected in her fellowship. She wants to make formal literacy and numeracy assessment manageable for educators and meaningful for adult learners.

Deborah Durnan and Wendy Fernando work for the Literacy for Life Foundation, the national Aboriginal organisation which leads the Yes, I Can! campaign in Australia. Deborah is the national campaign coordinator, Wendy is the community campaign coordinator in Walgett. Bob Boughton teaches adult education at the University of New England, and has been the campaign evaluator since 2011.

Michelle Circelli is Team Leader Research with the National Centre for Vocational Education Research, where she manages and undertakes research projects funded under the National VET Research Program. Michelle has a particular interest in foundation skills and recently managed and was a mentor for the Foundation Skills Literature Review project, a joint initiative with the University of Technology Sydney and ACAL. This project was aimed at building the practitioner research capabilities of the foundation skills workforce. Michelle was the 2013 Fulbright Professional Scholar in Vocational Education and Training spending time in the United States undertaking research into measuring success of adult literacy and numeracy programs with the Californian Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office and the federal Office of Career, Technical and Adult Education.

Serena Seah has been teaching at Swinburne (Tafe) for the past 10 years to new migrants, within the AMEP and SEE programs. In 2010 she was awarded the Swinburne Teaching Award for her work in helping migrant students achieve their goals of employment through engagement with the community, volunteer tutors, mentors and Employment Forums. Her other passion is in her Volunteer Tutor Co-ordinator role where she trains and supports 100+ volunteer tutors across the 3 campuses in the General Education Department. She was on the Knox Multicultural Advisory Committee and also sat on the Board of Migrant Information

Lesley Harvey is an Education Manager for TAFESA based in metropolitan Adelaide and managing a team of lecturers in the remote APY Lands in the far north of South Australia. She has been in this role for 16 years travelling regularly to the APY Lands to facilitate the delivery of LLN training. Delivery of training is to Indigenous adult students for whom English is a second or third language and who have low levels of schooling. Lesley is passionate about improving the life skills and opportunities for Anangu students and has been able to forge lasting relationships with many community members in the time she has been travelling to the APY Lands.

Mary Grace Agbas is a holder of Ph.D. in Education major in Applied Linguistics and an associate professor in the General Education Department. She is currently the Director/Coordinator of the Pamulaan Center for Indigenous Peoples’ Education, University of Southeastern Philippines, Mintal campus, Davao City. She graduated Bachelor of Arts in English, major in Literature at the Mindanao State University, Marawi City and Master of Education in Language Teaching, major in English at the University of Southeastern Philippines. She teaches English subjects both in Pamulaan Center and Graduate School of the College of Education.

Gladys Florangel Ortiz is an Associate Professor in the College of Governance and Business of the University of Southeastern Philippines. She is the Head of the Graduate Programs in Development Administration and in Environmental Resource Management.
She is a licensed social worker, and in fact placed second overall in the national licensure examination. Her graduate degree is in development administration. She earned graduate units in sociology and anthropology. Her research interests include social protection, disaster risk reduction, development administration and indigenous knowledge.

Marilyn Kell is a Research Fellow at the Northern Institute, Charles Darwin University, Australia. She has extensive background as an educator and, as an academic, has experience with students from diverse language and cultural backgrounds. Her research interests include literacy pedagogy and assessment, the international student experience and work integrated learning. In 2013 she and Peter Kell published, Literacy and Language in East Asia; Shifting meanings, values and approaches. She is currently investigating the post-school educational aspirations of children from the NT African communities.

Isikeli Naqaya has been serving as a Learning Support Facilitator (LSF) for the Australia Pacific Technical College (APTC) for 5 years. He first joined APTC as an LLN Tutor before the role was reviewed and upgraded to Learning Support Facilitator. He works in partnership with vocational trainers in providing integrated learning support to students specifically in the areas of literacy and numeracy, employability skills, computer skills and return to study assistance. He graduated from the Fiji College of Advanced Education with a Diploma of Education majoring in English/Social Science and taught in high schools around Fiji. His interest in supporting learners with LLN difficulties inspired him to pursue his studies in Bachelor of Special Education at Griffith University in Brisbane. After successfully completing his studies at Griffith University, he joined the Fiji National University as a Tutor in English as a Second Language (TESL). The opportunity in working for APTC fulfilled his career goal of supporting Pacific Island learners with their foundation skills. His skills were further expanded when he completed his Certificate IV in TAE and the TAELLN501B unit in supporting the development of adult language literacy and numeracy skills.
Mrs Lina Visinia-I’amafana joined the Australia-Pacific Technical College in 2014 after more than ten years of teaching in high school and six years as a lecturer at the local National University of Samoa. She is the Learning Support and Work Skills facilitator at APTC Her roles require her to work collaboratively with the vocational trainers in ensuring the learners transition successfully in their learning when they enter APTC and in returning to their respective workplaces. In addition, she is greatly involved in developing LLN profiles of all learners to enable trainers to grasp the levels of LLN skills the learners bring with them in the classroom environment. Lina is a graduate of the University of the South Pacific with a Bachelor of Arts degree double majoring in Language/Literature and Education. She worked with the Commonwealth of Learning while at the NUS in developing learning materials in Basic Trades literacy. Lina recently completed a course in International Trainers and Assessor with Tafe Queensland and she dreams in training the Samoa TVET trainers not only in delivery and assessment skills but with a great emphasis on foundation skills.

Lorraine Sushames has extensive experience in the Australian Vocational Education and Training sector where she has held a broad variety of teaching, project management and evaluation roles. Her adult literacy specialist expertise has contributed significantly to her work in design, development and delivery of effective capacity development initiatives conducted in urban, regional and remote Indigenous communities in Australia, and internationally in part of nation building projects in Timor Leste. Her research interests and regular contributions to national and international conferences reflect these diverse development contexts, focussing on the role that English language and literacy plays in independence, empowerment and economic advancement.
As a social planner/researcher and community development practitioner Allison Stewart has worked inter-culturally throughout her career, applying her engagement and strategic leadership skills in sectors such as primary health care, housing and infrastructure; community-based public works, water supply and sanitation, refugee settlement and humanitarian aid, Indigenous employment, education and training and, participatory and applied research. Experience within government, non-government, public beneficence, indigenous corporations and academia has enabled life-wide learning and a range of generic skills, knowledge and a quality of spirit which Allison currently applies to her work with the Whole of Community Engagement program as Strategic Priority Projects (SPP) Manager at Charles Darwin University.
Through her career with the ABS, Fiona Shalley has been committed to enhancing the validity and utility of statistics for and about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. She moved to the NT in 2010 to play a small part in the operations of the 2011 Census, taking on responsibility for counting the populations living in Arnhem Land, Mount Isa/Gulf, Cape York and Torres Strait Islands. The diversity of people, language and country, the complexity of data collection design and activities, and the power of revealing statistical stories has kept her brain and heart alive. Her last role in the ABS was as the Director for the National Centre for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Statistics.

Kate Randell MA App Ling, has worked in English language, Aboriginal education, and literacy classes for twenty years. She has worked at TAFE, RTOs and universities in Australia and overseas. She has a strong interest in evidence-based teaching strategies, and skill acquisition in early literacy development.

Cathy Bow is a linguist with research experience in both descriptive and applied linguistics. She currently works as project manager for the Living Archive of Aboriginal Languages at Charles Darwin University, and is completing her PhD (jointly between CDU and ANU) in digital technologies and Aboriginal languages.

Ricar Pascoela co-ordinates the Working Women's Centre in Timor-Leste, overseeing 3 staff. Ricar has worked in various NGOs in Timor-Leste and has management experience in this sector. She understands the needs of women in one of the world's poorest countries. Ricar has presented at a number of conferences and meetings in Australia and has completed the Anna Stewart Trade Union Training for Women program in Adelaide.
Sandra  Dann is currently the Director of the Working Women’s Centre in SA, active voicing women's rights and also a member of the Australia East Timor Friendship Association.