Web version ACAL

August 2015

In this issue

1. President’s Report

Professional development

2. ACAL Conference 'Resilience, Risk, Preservation:  the evolving world of adult literacies'

3. Animal crackers

4. Did you miss the numeracy webinars on July 22 and Aug 5?

5. 2016 ACAL - ACTA Conference 'DIVERSITY: exchanging ways of being' • Call for papers

Roles with ACAL

6. RaPAL Stories project

7. Making a difference with ACAL

Ideas and papers

8. Roles and responsibilities in education part B: reform of the Federation White Paper issues paper 4

9. Social exclusion monitor bulletin June 2015

10. Assessment exploration - purpose, relevance and the future

11. Outside the cap(ital)

12. Funding Grants for Women in the Education Sector

1. President’s Report

Over the past few weeks ACAL has co-hosted three numeracy webinars with Tasmania’s 26Ten, presented by Dave Tout. These webinars have been very well received and demonstrate a real demand for more adult numeracy practical hands on training across Australia. At the moment ACAL is busy assessing Scholarship and Project Officer applications and are keen to get the ACAL Cadetship and ACAL-RaPAL projects rolling out effectively.

Do you think the top five policy priorities for ACAL in 2015-16 should be any of these suggestions?

  1. Adult literacy and numeracy workforce development;

  2. Numeracy training for adult LLN practitioners;

  3. Family literacy support in disadvantaged areas;

  4. Targeted research funding;

  5. State and federal cooperation to ensure cohesive policy, funding and delivery of services in community, education, training and workplace settings; or

  6. Other …..

Send your priorities to info@acal.edu.au I look forward to seeing you at ACAL Conference in the Adelaide Zoo to discuss these further.

Start packing your bag and practise roaring like a bold and resilient adult literacy and numeracy tiger (person)!

Jenni Anderson

President

Professional development

2. ACAL Conference 'Resilience, Risk, Preservation:  the evolving world of adult literacies'

Registrations are still being accepted for the 2015 conference.

Discover the keynote speakers and full session details.

Join Wang Wang and Funi - the South Hemisphere’s only breeding pair of Giant Pandas - and your colleagues from across Australia.

Register now

3. Animal crackers

Didn't think much about my panda and harmonium joke? What about this? 'So much for the head lions, now for the gnus' . See you in the zoo.

4. Did you miss the numeracy webinars on July 22 and Aug 5?

See a video recording of the August 5 webinar.

Documents and links referred to during the webinar

5. 2016 ACAL - ACTA Conference 'DIVERSITY: exchanging ways of being'

Call for papers

We seek relevant, current, informative and captivating sessions on teaching, research and policy issues that relate to adult literacy, numeracy and TESOL in VET, ACE, workplaces and higher education or teaching English language, literacy and numeracy to students of other languages or dialects in primary and secondary schools. We strongly encourage researchers, practitioners, researchers, curriculum developers and policy makers to consider submitting an abstract.

More

Roles with ACAL

6. RaPAL Stories project

ACAL and the UK Research and Practice in Adult Literacy (RaPAL) are collaborating in a project to give voice to adult literacy and numeracy learners. We are seeking adult learners' stories - in narrative, visual, video or multimodal texts, around the theme of 'resilience'. We seek the support of practitioners to take up this project in semester 2.

How you can be involved

7. Making a difference with ACAL

The ACAL AGM will be held during the 2015 conference and members will be asked to elect people to the following positions.

In addition each of the affiliated state associations can nominate a representative to be part of the governing body. To stand for election or nominate a person for one of the four roles you must be a financial member of ACAL.

A formal notice of meeting will be sent to ACAL members shortly.

Ideas and papers

8. Roles and responsibilities in education part B: reform of the Federation White Paper issues paper 4

Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (Australia)

This issues paper examines the current arrangements put in place by governments to support our educational attainment and particularly in post-school, in vocational education and training (VET) and higher education - as Part B of a two-part paper.

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9. Social exclusion monitor bulletin June 2015

Brotherhood of St Laurence and Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research

Too many Australians experience social exclusion: about five per cent (825,000) of Australians aged over 15 are deeply excluded. Closer analysis shows that the sources of exclusion vary by age and by gender.

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10. Assessment exploration - purpose, relevance and the future

Jo Earp, Teacher Magazine

A panel of international education experts recently explored the purpose of assessment, its relevance for teachers and students, and what assessment systems will look like in the near future.

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11. Outside the cap(ital)

The Queensland Council for Adult Literacy (QCAL) and the Queensland Association for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (QATESOL) hosted a successful mini-conference on 15-16 August at St Patrick’s College in Townsville. The venue reflects the commitment by QCAL to provide professional development to adult literacy and numeracy teachers who live outside of Brisbane. The event attracted 90 participants. The conference evaluation indicated that there is an interest in attending  such a professional development activity.

12. Funding Grants for Women in the Education Sector

Women & Leadership Australia is a national initiative committed to supporting the increased presence of women in business and community leadership roles.

In 2015 Women & Leadership Australia is administering a national initiative to support the development of female leaders across all sectors.

The initiative will provide women in the education sector with grants for leadership development. More specifically, grant applications are open to women employed in the education sector at two levels.

  1. Senior Management and Executive level Women Leaders can apply for $12,000 Individual Grants to undertake the Advanced Leadership Program.

  2. Women Managers can apply for $4,500 Individual Grants to undertake the Accelerated Leadership Performance Program.

Contact Ian Johnson at the office of the National Industry Scholarship Program, Australian School of Applied Management on 03 9270 9000 or via ijohnson@asam.edu.au

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