Writing as whiting: Tracing pedagogies for digital composition in a settler colonial archive
Submitted by:
Lucinda J McKnight
Abstract:
This presentation sets out to unsettle L1 literacy education in Australia by proposing that “English” as the nation’s L1 is instead LC, the language of the colonisers. The routine use of the term “L1” in Australia, for English, reinscribes colonial fictions and ignores First Nations’ languages; in the fallout from the Voice referendum it is vital to pursue truth-telling initiatives and trouble what is dishonest in everyday, apparently common sense and racist ways in the discourses of literacy education. This is especially important given subject English’s role in shaping future citizens of a just and democratic society. These perspectives emerge from an Australian Research Council funded project on Teaching Digital Writing, which has involved archival analysis of materials for teaching writing from the 1960s onwards. The presentation offers a narrative of engagement with 1) First Nations (Araluen, 2018; Harkin, 2020) and feminist (Moore et al, 2016) theoretical resources for archival study; 2) Australia’s national textbook archive, and 3) the challenges in praxis for an Anglo-Celtic, settler colonial researcher and English teacher educator in this space. It offers questions, insights and creative possibilities for others, both locally and internationally, seeking to decolonise curriculum and professional dialogue.
References
Araluen Corr, E. (2018). Silence and resistance: Aboriginal women working within and against the archive. Continuum, 32(4), 487-502. doi: 10.1080/10304312.2018.1480459
Harkin, N. (2020). Weaving the Colonial Archive: A Basket to Lighten the Load. Journal of Australian Studies, 44(2), 154-166. doi: 10.1080/14443058.2020.1754276
Moore, N., Salter, A., Stanley, L., & Tamboukou, M. (2016). In other archives and beyond. In N. Moore, A. Salter, L. Stanley & M. Tamboukou (Eds.), The archive project: Archival reseach in the social sciences (pp. 1-30). Abingdon UK: Taylor and Francis.