Celebrating our 50 years
Nothing illustrates more of the change in the last 50 years than how we communicate. Fifty years ago we were sending people letters. Do you remember those? You needed to buy a stamp and an envelope to put them in.
We later had devilish devices called fax machines. Ugh. Then we went to emails. Did you have a digital dial up modem? Did it sound like this?
So we’ve been rummaging through cardboard boxes, doing digital deep dives and some wide ranging Advanced Google searches and unearthed some wonderful history.
We’ll add more here over the coming months – in our fiftieth year!
An approximation of our storage. Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on Unsplash
ACAL Committees
Hundreds of people have written papers, cajoled bureaucrats, attended meetings, prepared responses to government and handled seemingly endless administrivia.
Arch Nelson
Arch was a person of great influence in adult literacy and instrumental in the foundation of ACAL.
Learn about Arch’s contribution and the Arch Nelson Addresses.
Conferences
Annual conferences are significant events in the lifetime of the Council, providing ideas and inspiration for thousands of people.
Sources
We’ve delved into an array of boxes and files (digital and paper) and memories and extensively, VOCED plus (Free international research database for tertiary education), but there are other resources you might find interesting.
In the beginning
At the 8th ACAL conference (1984) Arch Nelson, instrumental in the creation of ACAL and at the end of his tenure as Chair, was asked to speak on a subject of his own choosing. He chose to reminisce on ACAL’s early days. You can read a transcription of ‘Reminiscent Notes’ starting on page 4 of the Conference papers courtesy of VOCED plus.
Oral history
Conscious of the passage of time it seems a small group got together in 1994 to record some early matters – and it was recorded and retained! Ironically it is at the U.S. Education Resources Information Center a massive, U.S. government-sponsored, internet-based digital library of educational research, literature, and journal articles indexing millions of records from 1966 to the present.
“Towards a History of Adult Literacy in Australia. A Record of the History of Adult Literacy Weekend” (Armidale, New South Wales, Australia, November 12-13, 1994). Materials about and from the “History of Adult Literacy Weekend” that was held at the University of New England in Armidale, Australia in Nov 1994 with Audrey Grant, Arch Nelson, Jean Searle, Trish Branson, Heather Haughton, Patricia Ward, Chris Campbell, Rosie Wickert and Darryl Dymock.
Literacy Link at Informit
Literacy Link was a magazine-style newsletter produced for nearly thirty years and had a paid editor and a designer and was funded by federal money ceasing in 2009. Informit (part of RMIT) is Australia’s leading source of online journals, books, reports and videos focusing on the humanities and social sciences. Their searchable database records Literacy Link only as far back as 1982 which is listed as Issue 12. So clearly there are earlier, unrecorded issues.
Other histories
Mitchell Library – Rosie Wickert’s materials
Rosie Wickert wrote in 2019 of handing her extensive materials to the Mitchell Library.
‘Adult basic education in NSW 1970-2018: official stories and stories from practice’
This thesis by Pam Osmond (ACAL Life Member and Arch Nelson Presenter 2020) traces the development of adult literacy provision in [New South Wales] NSW over its 40 year history, with particular focus on the discursive tensions between policy and practice. A major and overriding theme has been the move away from a philosophy of humanist education and a socio-cultural view of literacy, towards an economically driven, human capital view of literacy.
‘Reading the Fine Print: A history of the Victorian Adult Literacy and Basic 
Education Council (VALBEC) 1978 – 2008′ by Beverley Campbell.
This is an account of thirty years in the life VALBEC and recounts some of the policy and pedagogical struggles of the adult literacy field that have shaped VALBEC’s identity. Reading the Fine Print also explores how VALBEC’s journal, Fine Print, acted as a trend-setter in its choice of articles for publication, and as a mirror by reflecting some of the major themes of adult literacy education in Victoria in the last thirty years.
The author, Beverley Campbell has been involved in education for thirty-five years.