Abstract
University writing centres often use texts to help students produce academic genres appropriate to a range of disciplinary contexts. These can include sample essay questions and exemplars, student reports, published academic and non-academic literature, and reading lists. This chapter presents two case studies illustrating cultural issues related to co-curricular text choice and how reflective practice changed the authors’ pedagogies. All university teachers, including those who work in the co-curricular space, can potentially cause harm to students, and perpetuate racist or other disrespectful views through our choice of texts. For this reason, we should include texts that do not explicitly or inadvertently reinforce stereotypes or promote deficit discourses. This will ensure our classrooms are safe spaces for both students and teachers. An even higher aim is to choose texts that seek to decolonise the co-curriculum, dismantle entrenched privilege and allow less dominant world views to be heard and valued.
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Notes
- 1.
Andrew Harvey, Catherine Burnheim and Matthew Brett, (Eds.) Student Equity in Australian Higher Education: Twenty-Five Years of A Fair Chance For All. Singapore: Springer, 2016.
- 2.
Universities Australia and Indigenous Higher Education Advisory Council. Best Practice Framework for Indigenous Cultural Competency in Australian Universities. Universities Australia: Canberra, ACT, 2011. https://www.universitiesaustralia.edu.au/uni-participation-quality/Indigenous-Higher-Education/Indigenous-Cultural-Competency-Framework/Indigenous-Cultural-Competency-Framework#.VbS5eGAdJFI. Accessed 3 November 2020.
- 3.
Svenja Bedenlier, Yasar Kondakci and Olaf Zawacki-Richter. “Two Decades of Research into the Internationalization of Higher Education: Major Themes in the Journal of Studies in International Education (1997–2016)”. Journal of Studies in International Education, 22.2, 2018, 108–135.
- 4.
Christopher Klinger and Neil Murray. “Tensions in Higher Education: Widening Participation, Student Diversity and the Challenge of Academic Language/Literacy”. Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning, 14.1, 2012, 27–44.
- 5.
Simon Evans, Ariana Henderson and Sally Ashton-Hay. “Defining the Dynamic Role of Australian Academic Skills Advisors”. Higher Education Research & Development, 22 May 2019.
- 6.
Kate Chanock, Craig Horton, Mark Reedman and Bret Stephenson. “Collaborating to Embed Academic Literacies and Personal Support in First Year Discipline Subjects”. Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice, 9.3, 2012, 1–13.
- 7.
David McInnis and Bronwyn James. “Critical Discourse Analysis in Academic Writing Pedagogy: More Reflexive Considerations”. Quaderns de Filologia. Estudis Lingüístics XI, 2006, 160.
- 8.
While the NCCC’s approach to cultural competence includes a recognition of the diversity of human identities, knowledges and experiences, it sits within the Deputy Vice Chancellor Indigenous Strategy and Services portfolio.
- 9.
Juanita Sherwood and Gabrielle Russell-Mundine. “How We Do Business: Setting the Agenda for Cultural Competence at the University of Sydney.” In Indigenous Pathways and Transitions into Higher Education: Policies and Practices, edited by Jack Frawley, Steve Larkin and James Smith, 133–150, Singapore: Springer, 2017. 133.
- 10.
The Learning Centre was disestablished in May 2021 and replaced with a new model for providing learning support for students.
- 11.
Arlene Harvey, Gabrielle Russell and Eliot Hoving. “Modelling Interdisciplinary Collaboration to Build Cultural Competence”. Journal of Academic Language and Learning, 10.1, 2016, A101–17. As we noted in this publication: “Although we utilise different academic languages to talk about our theories there is significant commonality in the concepts around culture and language. The work in both our areas tends to be founded on a social constructivist epistemology that emphasises the relationship between knowledge, communication and social structures; views language as operating within contexts of culture; adopts critical stances toward knowledge; and is concerned with power, identity and ideology.” See also Alex Kostogriz. “Teaching Literacy in Multicultural Classrooms: Towards a Pedagogy of ‘Thirdspace’”. The Annual Conference of the Australian Association for Research in Education. Brisbane: December 2002. https://www.aare.edu.au/data/publications/2002/kos02346.pdfhttp://www.aare.edu.au/publications-database.php/3529/teaching-literacy-in-multicultural-classrooms-towards-a-pedagogy-of-thirdspace. Accessed 2 November 2020.
- 12.
Arlene Harvey and Gabrielle Russell. “Decolonising the Curriculum: Using Graduate Qualities to Embed Indigenous Knowledges at the Academic Cultural Interface”. Teaching in Higher Education, 23, 2018, 1–20.
- 13.
Gabrielle Russell-Mundine and Graeme Mundine. “Daring to Speak the Truth: Deconstructing and Re-constructing Reconciliation.” Te Mauri – Pimatisiwin Journal of Indigenous Wellbeing, 1.1, August 2016, 83–96. 86. According to the organisation Reconciliation Australia (https://www.reconciliation.org.au), the aim of reconciliation is to “[promote] and [facilitate] reconciliation by building relationships, respect and trust between the wider Australian community and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples”.
- 14.
Russell-Mundine and Mundine, 84.
- 15.
Lesley Le Grange. “Decolonising the University Curriculum”. South African Journal of Higher Education, 30.2, 2016. 9.
- 16.
For the seminal texts, see: James R. Martin, English Text: System and Structure. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1992. M.A.K. Halliday and Ruqaiya Hasan, Language, Context and Text: Aspects of Language in a Social-Semiotic Perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989. The foundations for Systemic-Functional Linguistics are outlined in M.A.K. Halliday and Christian M.I.M. Matthiessen, Halliday’s Introduction to Functional Grammar. Routledge: Abingdon, UK, 2014.
- 17.
Mary Lea and Brian Street. “The ‘Academic Literacies’ Model: Theory and Applications”. Theory into Practice, 45.4, 2006, 368.
- 18.
Caroline Coffin and Jim Donohue. “Academic Literacies and Systemic Functional Linguistics: How Do They Relate”. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 11, 2012, 64–75.
- 19.
Lea and Street, 228.
- 20.
Peter Mickan. “Text-Based Research and Teaching from a Social Semiotic Perspective: Transformative Research and Pedagogy”, In Text-Based Research and Teaching, edited by Peter Mickan and Elise Lopez. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. 25.
- 21.
Mickan, 30. See also James R. Martin, “Close Reading: Functional Linguistics as a Tool for Critical Discourse Analysis”. In Researching Language in Schools and Communities: Functional Linguistic Perspectives, edited by Len Unsworth. London: Cassell, 2000. 275–302. As noted by Mickan, “In our language use we are finely attuned to the appropriateness of texts to topic or to what is going on at a particular time, to the participants, and to the choice of discourse—spoken or written, formal or informal”, 19. See also Ruqaiya Hasan, “Towards a Paradigmatic Description of Context: Systems, Metafunctions, and Semantics”. Functional Linguistics, 1, 2014. 1–54.
- 22.
McInnis and James, 160.
- 23.
McInnis and James, 163.
- 24.
Mickan, 26.
- 25.
Robin Di Angelo. What does it Mean to be White? Develo** White Racial Literacy. New York: Peter Lang, 2012.
- 26.
Cultural competence extends to all cultural identities and explicitly aims to remove harm caused by racist, sexist, classist, ableist (physical or mental), homophobic and ageist views.
- 27.
Gabrielle Russell-Mundine. “Reflexivity in Indigenous Research: Reframing and Decolonising Research?” Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 19.7, 2012, 2–3.
- 28.
Robyn Williams, 1999, 213, cited in Maryann Bin-Sallik. “Cultural Safety: Let’s Name it!” The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 32, 2003, 21–28. 21. Cultural safety is defined as: “an environment that is spiritually, socially and emotionally safe, as well as physically safe for people; where there is no assault challenge or denial of their identity, of who they are and what they need. It is about shared respect, shared meaning, shared knowledge and experience of learning together”.
- 29.
Maryann Bin-Sallik. Guidelines for Cultural Safety, the Treaty of Waitangi, and Maori Health in Nursing and Midwifery Education and Practice. Wellington: Nursing Council of New Zealand, 2002. 9.
Boughey, Chrissie and McKenna, Sioux. “Academic Literacy and the Decontextualised Learner.” Critical Studies in Teaching and Learning, 4.2, 2016, 1–9.
- 30.
Judith Rochecouste, Rhonda Oliver and Debra Bennell. “Is there Cultural Safety in Australian Universities?” International Journal of Higher Education, 3.2, 2014, 153–166.
- 31.
Martin Nakata. “Difficult Dialogues in the South: Questions about Practice in Special issue. South-South Dialogues: Global Approaches to Decolonial Pedagogies.” The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 47.1, 2017, 1–7. 4.
- 32.
Sandra Richardson, Tracey Williams, Annette Finlay and Marrilyn Farrell. “Senior Nurses’ Perceptions of Cultural Safety in an Acute Clinical Practice Area.” Nursing Praxis in New Zealand, 25.3, 2009, 27–36.
- 33.
Nick Polaschek, 1998, 453, cited in Rochecouste, 153.
- 34.
Juanita Sherwood. “Who is Not Co** with Colonization? Laying out the Map for Decolonization.” Australasian Psychiatry, 17.1 (Supplement), 2009, S24–S27.
- 35.
William Fogarty, Melissa Lovell, Juleigh Langenberg and Mary-Jane Heron. Deficit Discourse and Strengths-based Approaches: Changing the Narrative of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health and Wellbeing. Carlton South: The Lowitja Institute, 2018. 2. Discourse can be defined as ‘systems of thoughts composed of ideas, attitudes, courses of actions, beliefs and practices that shape reality by systemically constructing the subjects and the worlds of which they speak’. Sean Kerins, 2012, 26, cited in Fogarty et al., 2.
- 36.
Cressida Fforde et al. 2013, cited in Fogarty et al., 2.
- 37.
Nakata, 5.
- 38.
George J. Sefa Dei. “Decolonizing the University: The Challenges and Possibilities of Inclusive Education.” The Journal of the Society for Socialist Studies, 11.1, 2016, 23–6. 28.
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Harvey, A., Russell, G. (2022). Teaching Academic Literacy in the Co-curriculum: Creating Culturally Safe Spaces. In: Beyer, C. (eds) Decolonising the Literature Curriculum. Teaching the New English. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-91289-5_10
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