- When: Tuesday 14th May 2024 @ 1:00pm AEST
- Duration: 1 hr
- Cost: FREE for ALA members | $65 non-members
About the session
As adult educators, it is important that we recognise our learners as whole, embodied beings who navigate a landscape of multiple oppressions, but also one that is full of beauty. As feminist and critical educators, we view the classroom and other spaces where students learn as realms that can extend their agency to become critical thinkers who question the status quo. In this way, learners can develop deep insights about personal, social, and political relations.
In this presentation, we will use empirical research to show how storytelling, poetic representation of learners’ stories, and sharing stories can raise awareness about systems of oppression. Through meaning-making, this process can lead to deep personal, social, and political transformation.
Associate Professor Trace Ollis – Deakin University
Tracey (Trace) Ollis is an Associate Professor of Adult, Vocational and Applied Learning at Deakin University’s School of Education. She has made significant contributions to the field of adult learning education, both in Australia and internationally. Her research is focused on understanding the epistemological, ontological, and ethical aspects of practice and how it impacts adult learners. She has used diverse methodologies such as case studies and poetic inquiry, to understand how adult learners experience transformation and what motivates and engages them.
Her research aims to improve our understanding of adult learners and how their context, such as Adult Education workplace settings or more informal Adult & Community Education (ACE) and community activist environments, influence their learning. Trace is the Editor-In-Chief of the Australian Journal of Adult Learning, which is Australia’s leading journal on adult learning.
Professor Vicky Duckworth – Edgehill University UK
Vicky’s research and teaching span over two decades, during which time she has garnered a national and international reputation for her work in Adult Education and Literacy. With considerable expertise in these fields, Vicky is deeply committed to challenging inequality through critical and emancipatory educational approaches. Her focus includes widening participation, fostering inclusion, promoting community action, and engaging in research with a strong social justice agenda.
Drawing on a critical perspective, Vicky applies Bourdieu’s theoretical framework, along with various feminist, sociological, educational, and critical literacy pedagogical approaches, including the New Literacy Studies. Her research aims to contribute to the discourse on the impact of violence and trauma on learning, exploring possibilities for resistance and transformation, and examining its intersections with class, gender, ethnicity, health, and literacy.