Literacy in its broadest definition: The Australian South Sea Islander literacy research project.

Introduction

How one defines literacy has a significant effect on the way literacy experiences are designed to take place in school. This article explores definitions of literacy held by the key stakeholders in the literacy education of one group of students and, further to this, goes on to argue that the need for teachers to know about these definitions is central in providing for the diverse literacy needs of students. In pursuing this argument, reference will be made to a research project conducted in a state school in Queensland.

The project investigated one community's definitions of literacy and explored ways of building bridges between the school and that community. The school population is made up of a diversity of minority groups, and one such group, the Australian South Sea Islander (ASSI) students, was the focus of the research.

Australian South Sea Islanders

South Sea Islanders in Central Queensland are a black ethnic minority, descended from immigrants from the islands of the Pacific who arrived in the region after 1867 ... South Sea Islanders are in a unique position in Australia as a black migrant community reaching back five or six generations. Descended from those who were brought to Queensland to work in the pastoral industry and tropical agriculture, they have been considered by some to be the descendants of slaves, a view which is still favoured among themselves.

(Gistitin, 1995: p. 1)

Over the last twenty years, a number of detailed histories of Australian South Sea Islanders in Queensland have been written (Corris, 1973; Huth, 1976; Moore, 1985; Gistitin, 1995), all providing insightful reading. Following community political agitation over many years, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) document, The Call for Recognition (HREOC, 1992), was tabled in Federal Parliament in May 1993, calling on the Federal Government to recognise Australian South Sea Islanders as one of the most disadvantaged minority groups in Australia. This formal recognition took place in 1994. The Call for Recognition states that:

All the stakeholders in the formal education of South Sea Islander children need to be responsive to the communities' values and beliefs, and provide educational services in a consultative, equitable and culturally relevant manner.

(HROEC, 1992: p. 48)

The specific needs of Australian South Sea Islander learners lack any detailed research base or theorising in the education literature. For some time this group has been thought of as having similar educational needs to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people but it is clear from this simple introduction that such a view is misguided. The only research available beyond school retention figures is a study conducted by Bliss (1992) which examined the education of ASSI students in schools by taking a sample of schools and identifying ASSI students in remedial programs. This study found that ASSI students were over-represented in remedial classrooms, a finding which `provided an important benchmark when discussing the education of ASSI students' (Mullins, Cox et al., 1995: p. 13). The HREOC (1992) report also acknowledged that the educational needs of the ASSI community are under-addressed in the literature.

Recently, Lo Bianco (1996) in the policy document, Australian Literacies, made the first statement which differentiates the literacy needs of ASSI students from those of indigenous groups.

Australian South Sea Islanders represent a category of Australians who share many of the characteristics of indigenous peoples but also of immigrant, or forcibly recruited populations, and for whom literacy in English is an enduring issue interwoven with identity, home language and wider social aspiration.

(Lo Bianco, 1996: p. 52)

Definitions of literacy

Much has been written about just what the term `literacy' constitutes (Barton, 1994; Cazden, 1988; Gee, 1992; 1996; Luke, 1994; Street, 1993) since Cook-Gumperz's (1986) definition.

Literacy is not just the simple ability to read and write: but by possessing and performing these skills we exercise socially approved and approvable talents; in other words literacy is a socially constructed phenomenon.

(Cook-Gumperz, 1986: p. 1)

The move away from viewing literacy as simply reading and writing to seeing it as constructing meaning in social contexts is now a well-documented example of educational theorising.

What then is involved in these newer definitions of literacy? Comber summarises thinking over the last decade when she says:

We can no longer take it for granted that literacy has a common meaning. Increasingly educators are writing of `literacies' to point out that there is no one state that can be achieved and described as literacy, that in fact literacy is defined by cultures, context, tasks, history -- it is a social construct.

(Comber, 1992)

Thus literacy is no longer perceived as a static set of skills which children master solely within the school context; being literate enables students to interact in socially approved ways. Where the dilemma occurs for ASSI students is whose socially approved ways -- the school or the community? The following research examines this dilemma.

Studies in literacy practices in communities

The initial impetus for the study came from the researchers' familiarity with the ASSI community coupled with an implicit belief that differences existed between the school and community purposes for literacy use. Furthermore, recent research findings have emphasised `the need for close contact and sharing between an informed teaching service in local school situations and the home cultures and environments of the children that they serve' (Reid, 1998: p. 246).

Examining other studies that look at literacy practices in communities provides some insight into how other researchers have distinguished and theorised about these differences. The study conducted by Heath (1982) suggests that for the children of Trackton and Roadville there was a mismatch between literacy practices of those at home and at school. This mismatch was due in part to the differences in the way in which each community addressed language to children at home. Further, the types of questions asked during school time were different from those asked at home for the students of Trackton. Trackton parents did not ask known answer questions; they asked questions that required an analogy as an answer. The work of Heath (1982) provided a broad conceptual backdrop for the current study. Furthermore, Heath (1982) reports that scores in the language arts subjects of the children from Trackton were consistently low, except for those students who had begun at adapt to and adopt some of the literacy behaviours that they had to learn at school (1994: p. 90).

Michaels' study of `sharing time' (1986) took place in a Year 1 classroom where half the students were African American and half non-African American. Michaels identifies sharing time as a gatekeeping encounter in the classroom and found that the two different groups of students have very different ways of sharing information. This study suggests that teachers may benefit from learning more about the discourse and interactional structures from students' diverse homes and communities.

A study by Breen, Louden, Barratt-Pugh, Rivalland, Rohl, Rhydwen, Lloyd and Carr (1994) primarily sought to provide a descriptive account of literacy practices which would enable an exploration of similarities and differences in these practices across communities.

The Breen et al. (1994) study involved a number of data sources, including interviews conducted with family members; the observation of family literacy activities over several months; and an account of family literacy practices collected by a school-aged member of each family. The researchers in the study of ASSI students used the Breen et al. (1994) study as a basis for their own work, focussing on interviews with family/community members of students at the school.

Methodology

The project team recognised that a secondary purpose of this study could be to explore opportunities for the establishment of communication networks between the school and the school's local community which could, in turn, optimise learning outcomes for these students. This secondary purpose remained a priority throughout the data collection.(1) As the ASSI community is closeknit and relies on formal introductions and informal connections to ascertain acceptance levels for those from outside the community, data collection procedures needed to be genuine. The research team engaged a research assistant who had been a teacher at the school and who was well known to the community across generations, ensuring this person was accepted by both the school teachers and the community members.

The central aim of the current study was to explore how the key stakeholders in the education of ASSI children talked about and defined literacy. The key stakeholders were identified as the state educational jurisdiction (via curriculum documents), the school (via school-based curriculum documents), the teachers (via semistructured interviews) and the community members (via interviews, group meetings and community meetings).

The first two data sources involved a simple document analysis. The key English documents used by the school system when framing the students' experiences of literacy were examined to identify the theoretical base and the recommended teaching methods. A similar process was followed for both the relevant regional and school-based curriculum documents.

Teacher interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed by the researchers and project officer. Interviews with the community members were run as organised meetings where notes were taken by the project officer. Developed as the community felt more comfortable talking in groups, these meetings became a feature of the data collection with these particular stakeholders.

Table 1 presents a summary of the data sources, the nature of the data and a summary of each group's literacy definitions. These summaries will be discussed in more detail below.

Table 1: Overview of findings

                                          Summary of literacy
Stakeholders   Data source                definitions

System         Queensland Language        Documents identify
               Education Framework        literacy as a socially
               (Qld Dept of Education,    constructed phenomenon.
               1989);                     The framework addresses
               English in Years 1-10      the need for schools to
               Syllabus Documents         be aware of the role of
               (Qld Dept of Education,    culture in language
               1991);                     learning.
               Regional strategy plan.

School         School development plan;   The school documents
               school English program.    focus on the
                                          development of the four
                                          macro-skills of
                                          language: talking,
                                          listening, reading,
                                          writing.

Teachers       Interviews with teachers   Teachers describe the
               from the middle primary    need for ASSI students
               years with ASSI students   to be competent in
               in their classes.          (what might be
                                          summarised as) new
                                          literacies, including
                                          technological and
                                          visual literacy, and
                                          numeracy.

ASSI           Interviews, group          The community
community      discussion, community      identifies being
               meetings                   literate to include
                                          reading and writing
                                          within a broader form
                                          of cultural literacy.
                                          This literacy includes
                                          knowing when and how to
                                          use standard and
                                          non-standard forms of
                                          language.
                                          There is a strong link
                                          with literate ability,
                                          as defined by the
                                          community, and the life
                                          chances of its
                                          students.

Clearly the most comprehensive views are those of the system documents, the teachers and the community members. It is where planning for the teaching of literacy takes place -- the school-based curriculum documents -- that the definitions are less broad.

Key issues in the literacy definitions

Within the broad framework of the systemic definitions of literacy it was decided that a more detailed examination was needed of the two key stakeholders in the study: the teachers and the community.

The community's definition of literacy

One community member defined literacy as: `Literacy is communication, talking amongst one another. Listening and talking play a major part in literacy'. Research suggests that knowledge of the functions of literacy, for example, to initiate and maintain social relationships, is learnt within the home and social group and precedes knowledge of other forms of literacy (Taylor, 1983). This community seemed to be aware of the social construction of literacy.

Furthermore, the community offered clear instructions to teachers of ASSI children about their children's literacy needs, as shown in the comments of one member.

Our children need hands on experience, they need to read to know the meaning of things, they need to see it in operation, see it modelled, have some practice with lots of examples. Language used to indicate inappropriate behaviour should be in the imperative mood. Teachers should not `waste words' -- they should be precise and to the point.

The speaker appears to have thought long and hard about ways of interacting with these children, even to the point of making recommendations about the syntactic form of the language directed to them.

Another community member reported his perception that ASSI students are disadvantaged in the classroom interactions.

Dark kids are overlooked when a response to the teacher is required in class. The kids are disadvantaged in class. They need more practice at responding so they'll get better and then praised for their efforts. This is a form of literacy.

Earlier research by Philips (1972) with native American students on the Warm Springs Indian reservation demonstrates that students are more willing to speak where classroom participation structures have features similar to those of community participation structures. This finding is again reflected in Heath (1982) and Micheals (1986), and may suggest that further research within this community could result in greater understanding of ASSI community's participation structures. The comment above from a community member reflects an understanding of the central role of patterns of interaction in classroom success and that the rules of classroom interaction are, in fact, another form of literacy, a view supported by more recent studies that focus on school literacy practices (Freebody, Ludwig & Gunn, 1995; Baker, 1996; Ludwig & Herschell, 1998).

Community members also demonstrated a strong sense of the links between language and culture. They began by stating emphatically that in their view `literacy is paramount to personal relationships', and followed this by statements about differences in dialect. From the following statement it was clear that they understood when and where to use non-standard and standard dialects and that this understanding was an important aspect of literate knowledge for their children.

Sometimes to use `broken English' is more effective but on formal occasions Australian South Sea Islanders use spoken Standard Australian English. It is preferred for children to keep their home language and learn Standard Australian English.

The ASSI community had wide social aspirations for its children and knew what the nature of their educational experience should be, especially in terms of literacy education. In a final plea for the system to address the specific needs of these students, one woman made a personal observation about the importance of the school and the community having a shared view of these needs. She stated that greater emphasis on literacy was necessary

... to improve our children's chances of jobs, better professions, greater range of professional jobs and careers. In the islands the people are being educated to the level of doctors and dentists and teachers. I have noticed that this isn't happening here for South Sea Island people in our education system.

Teachers' definitions

It was found that the types of comments teachers made in their interviews indicated genuine engagement with issues of literacy as a socially constructed phenomenon. That teachers recognised that there are different types of literacy is revealed in the following quote.

There are a variety of different languages: computer, social, to be tax literate, literate in specialist fields. You can be environmentally literate. Visual literacy is important and there are skills for visual literacy.

Teachers also commented that these literacies are hierarchical in importance and that transferability of literacy skills is possible.

A variety of literacies are required, however some are more important. There can also be transference of literacy skills which is assisted by: experience, hands on guided practice, reading instructions, watching a video for focussed learning episode, and listening.

Still another teacher recognised that the school context is a problematic stage for the playing out of literacies `but the culture of school limits the variety of literacies, also they are value laden'. Another teacher stressed the importance of culture for literacy learners with diverse needs.

The scope of culture necessarily determines the language and the medium for delivery. There are slight differences between `lingo' and standard English, which is more difficult/different to understand, identify and respect/ acknowledge. They can actually function, but not be accurate within the other language system.

This issue of classroom use of non-standard dialect or `lingo', as used here, is well researched in the United States, where Labov (1972) identified Black English Vernacular (BEV), a term which has since become common in minority education there. What research has taken place in Australia has usually focussed on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages (Eades, 1993). Some recently completed research (Cox, Webb & McFarlane, 1997) suggests that the non-standard dialect use of the ASSI students is different in terms of discourse structure, vocabulary, syntax, phonology and pragmatics.

Corson (1993) believes that educational institutions such as schools commonly value one kind of language use more than other kinds. This form of language use comes from only one group (and a dominant one at that) within society so that the other language users feel left out and struggle to understand the school-preferred method of using language. To value non-standard varieties is not something many people find easy: for teachers, it may be contrary to a professional lifetime of tacit prejudice. (Corson, 1993: p. 112).

Conclusion and suggestions for a pedagogical model

A number of conclusions can be drawn from this article, the most obvious being that the Australian South Sea Islander community's educational needs are diverse and extremely under-researched. The number of Australian South Sea Islanders in schools has never been estimated but the Call for Recognition (1992) reports that:

While estimates vary it is likely that today there are between 15,000 and 20,000 descendants of the original Pacific Islanders, 10,000 to 12,000 of whom identify as Australian South Sea Islanders.

The development of a pedagogical model which recommends school literacy practices which offer ASSI students the opportunities thought to be missing in schools is a still a long way off. There needs to be more intense research into the educational needs of this group of students, and this research must be undertaken in all the areas that have established communities of ASSI people.(2)

What augurs well for the students in this study is that the teachers and community know that mastery of literacy in its broadest definition is essential for the students' life chances. While each group uses a different label for non-standard dialect -- some teachers call it `lingo' while the community label it `broken English' -- both groups identify the use of non-standard dialect by the students in school as being important in their literacy development. The community openly state that they want their children to keep both languages and that both languages are essential in the cultural processes in the community. Teachers know that Standard Australian English is necessary for educational success.

Learning is more than a simple transfer of knowledge from the teacher to the student -- it involves learning being mediated by complex interactive processes (Michaels, 1986). The ASSI community members expressed a knowledge of this complexity when they commented on classroom interaction, and advocated for teachers to be aware of this cultural complexity. Teachers, on the other hand, did not comment on issues of classroom interaction as being either culturally bound or central to the teaching/learning process. Such a lack of acknowledgement by the teachers, the school and the system, it is believed, could be the strongest hindrance to the meeting of the diverse educational needs of this group.

By raising awareness among teachers and school systems of a number of these pedagogical implications the education community may be better prepared to meet the needs of these students. The simple recognition that ASSI are a distinct non-indigenous population with educational needs different from, but at times similar to, those of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people would be an important beginning.

Teachers need to also understand the social practices of literacy learning. As Luke and Freebody (1997) point out:

... sociological models (of reading) emphasise the cultural resources, discourses and practices children acquire in community language socialisation. These resources are not natural or idiosyncratic, but they are built through cultural and subcultural `ways of taking' (Heath, 1982) from the community environment ...

(p. 208)

This notion of `ways of taking' supports the arguments put forward in this article and, it seems, could be the approach that will enable the findings to be useful for other minority communities. By looking more closely at Heath's (1982: p. 49) `ways of taking' it can be seen that:

Each community's ways of taking from the printed word and using this knowledge are interdependent with the ways children learn to talk in their social interaction with their caregivers.

Heath (1982) refers to the work of Barthes in which she states that `ways of taking' are peculiar to the culture in which children grow up. If students from ASSI communities have `ways of taking' which differ from those that the systems, schools and teachers are teaching, then the system must know how to identify these different means and be able to cater for this diversity.

The authors would like to thank the members of the Australia South Sea Islander community who made time to take part in the data collection. Further, they acknowledge that the participation of Mary Rose Ramsden was central to the success of the project.

(1) There have been a number of projects conducted by the team within the same ASSI community and this secondary purpose has remained part of these further projects. See: Cox et al., 1997, and Mullins et al., 1997.

(2) There are communities of ASSI people in Sydney, the north coast of NSW, Brisbane and Central, North and Far North Queensland.

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Robyn Cox is a lecturer in Language Education at the University of Brunei Darussalam. Prior to this, she was at Central Queensland University where she was also involved in teacher education in language. Robyn has a strong belief in the important role that new graduates in the teaching of literacy have to play when they take up their teaching positions in schools. In the light of this, Robyn's work in Brunei is providing new challenges as each day passes.

Address: Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah Institute of Education, University of Brunei Darussalam, Tungku Link, Brunei Darussalam. Email: [e-mail]

Grant Webb has been actively involved in planning and conducting literacy inservice, professional development and teacher networking in all sectors and systems of education in Queensland over the last ten years. Currently, his research interests centre around the diverse needs of students in Queensland schools and the issues of boys and literacy and school-based literacy and how the two interrelate.

Address: Department of Education Queensland, PO Box 760, Mackay, Qld 4740.