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But I’m Not an English Teacher!: Disciplinary Literacy in Australian Science Classrooms

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Global Developments in Literacy Research for Science Education

Abstract

In Australia, increasing calls to strengthen the teaching of science in schools, stimulated by a need for higher levels of scientific understanding in the general community and also concerns about falling educational standards, have led to a concerted push to raise scientific literacy. Given the multicultural nature of Australia, government and educators have acknowledged the critical role of identifying and describing the language and literacy demands in all disciplines and supporting learners and teachers to meet them. In science, a range of support material and teacher resources, mostly drawing on systemic functional linguistics, have been developed alongside revisions to national and state-based curricula. In addition, all preservice teacher education programs are required to address literacy as well as the needs of students learning in and through English as an additional language or dialect (EALD) as national priority areas. However, research into the complex language and literacy challenges faced by low literacy and EALD learners suggests that many mainstream secondary school teachers feel inadequately prepared to meet their needs. Thus, some universities are also developing more targeted language and literacy programs for preservice student teachers (PSTs). One example of a language and literacy tutoring program involving science PSTs at a secondary school is described, showing how the student teachers came to understand their key roles not just a disciplinary experts, but as providers of language and literacy development to students both before and after their mentoring placement.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    English an Additional Language/Dialect (EALD) education in NSW is provided in primary and secondary schools and in intensive English language centers to support the English language development of students whose first language is not English. In these schools, EALD programs are delivered in a variety of ways to meet the different needs of EALD students at different stages of learning English, focusing on students learning English in the context of the curriculum they are studying so that they acquire the English language skills relevant to the subject area. Students may receive support from a specialist EALD teacher working with a class teacher or they may be in a separate parallel group for some classes.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Education, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

    Chris Davison & Sue Ollerhead

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  1. Chris Davison
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  2. Sue Ollerhead
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Correspondence to Chris Davison .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Curtin University, Perth, Western Autralia, Australia

    Kok-Sing Tang

  2. Linnaeus University, Växjö, Sweden

    Kristina Danielsson

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Davison, C., Ollerhead, S. (2018). But I’m Not an English Teacher!: Disciplinary Literacy in Australian Science Classrooms. In: Tang, KS., Danielsson, K. (eds) Global Developments in Literacy Research for Science Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69197-8_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69197-8_3

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