Call for presentations

The Australian Council for Adult Literacy is calling for papers and presentations for Dynamic Dialogues, Vibrant Literacies: Reflect, Connect, Grow over the two conference days, 7 and 8 September 2023.

This year ACAL celebrates 45 years of active promotion of literacy and numeracy provision, teaching practices, research and engagement in consultations related to the development of adult literacy policy. The conference title provides a framework to reflect and focus on these collective concerns through six conference strands:

Strand 1 – Pedagogy and practice; reflections on ways these have had to adapt and shape in response to national and state/territory priorities.

Strand 2 – Teacher identity; how influences inherent in the blurring boundaries and various ways of naming the field impact the work of practitioners (e.g. adult literacy, foundation skills and LLNDE).

Strand 3 – The digital world; its significance in improving opportunities and expanding the reach of provision for adult literacy education.

Strand 4 – Place based learning; monitoring, assessment, and resource development in formal and non-formal learning spaces, including workplace settings.

Strand 5 – What works; implications for literacy and/or numeracy program design and development.

Strand 6 – Research updates; conceptual, methodological, and theoretical contributions.

Presentation modes

ACAL 2023 offers four presentation modes and encourages participation and submissions from teaching practitioners, policy makers, managers, and researchers.

The Conference Committee may request changes to duration and presentation mode to suit program requirements.

1. Practical workshops (60 minutes)

Workshop sessions will invite participants to engage in active learning that will enhance their professional development. They will provide take-away skills and knowledge for growing capacity and the ability to respond to diverse practice contexts. Workshops may address teaching and learning challenges, introduce new curriculum or approaches, or profile successful programs. Workshops may be delivered by teams, however people having substantive responsibilities during the workshop should be listed as presenters.

2. Panel Presentations (60 minutes)

Panels will be selected based on topics that are likely to promote debate and have significant influence on future initiatives. The Chair of each panel should submit full details of the presentation including title of the panel; name(s) and affiliation(s) of the Chair and panel participants as well as a 200-word abstract. Each Chair is expected to be available throughout the Panel to introduce the topic, monitor time and convene post-panel discussion.

3. Practice Tasters (30 minutes)

Tasters may take the form of poster presentations, exhibits, models, and artefacts, or 30-minute presentations of ‘tried and tested’ approaches. Submissions should explain the background to the approach, the education, learning and training challenge it intends to address and relevant work that has informed the development of the approach. Practice Tasters could include materials development, community engagement activities, policy initiatives or research methodologies. Practice Tasters may be delivered by teams – people having substantive responsibilities during the session should be listed as presenters.

4. Individual Papers (30 minutes, including time for discussion)

Individual papers may be co-authored, and in this case all contributing authors should be listed for presentation details. Papers will be reviewed and selected on the basis of relevance to the 2023 Conference themes, degree of originality, potential to add to existing scholarship, clarity of conceptual, methodological and theoretical contributions and reference to appropriate sources, including scholarly and/or policy references.

Read me first

Before proceeding, please note these simple matters.

• Read the details of ‘Strands’ and ‘Modes of presentation’ as these will be used as a basis of selection.
• The Conference Committee reserves the right to accept or reject any proposal.
• The Thursday morning program is shared across two venues and the Conference Committee will allocate presentations based on program needs.
• A discount is offered to the first presenter only. Other discounts may apply to other presenters.
• Each venue provides the following AV and you should plan your presentation accordingly – lectern, microphone, projector and screen, whiteboard and flip chart.
• You will need to provide your own laptop to connect to the projector.
• Submission abstracts and presenter bios may be edited for publication. This will be communicated with presenter 1 prior to publication.