Culturally and Linguistically Diverse education

Purpose:

This Special Interest Group provides a forum for AARE scholar-practitioners working with culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) populations across a range of educational contexts. The collective is characterised by a shared focus on equity, social justice, and inclusion, and is committed to maintaining and strengthening cultural and linguistic diversity and reciprocity in educational settings. CALD Education SIG members research across a range of disciplinary, epistemological, and methodological domains, and welcome colleagues who wish to contribute to the advancement of CALD-related enquiry, representation, and advocacy. We aim to:

  • provide a focal point for CALD scholar-practitioner communication, collaboration, and advocacy;
  • promote awareness of CALD-related issues in all educational sectors;
  • advance CALD-related research across a wide range of populations;
  • convene CALD-specific symposia for the exploration and pursuit of shared research interests, capacity building, and community engagement.

Research Interests:

  • Multilingual and multi-dialectal education
  • Language maintenance
  • Cultural identities and representations
  • Widening participation in higher education
  • Inclusive schooling practices
  • Globalisation, migration, and educational policy
  • Learners with refugee and asylum seeker experiences

Upcoming Events:

‘Ethics in Fragile Contexts: Collective Explorations’
You are warmly invited to this interactive workshop to be held August 18, from 10.00am to 1.00pm, online and face-to-face at Graduate House, University of Melbourne

This event will provide a forum for exploring the ethical complexities of research in settings where trauma, marginalisation, and precarity are prevalent, such as with refugee and asylum seeker background communities.
 
The forum will include a showcase of five-minute presentations on “ethically important moments” (Guillemin & Gillam, 2004). If you would like to contribute to the showcase, please prepare one PowerPoint slide (with one major point) to accompany your five-minute presentation and send to Rachel.Burke@newcastle.edu.au by Friday August 12th.

You are also very welcome to come along and listen to others’ experiences. This event is being funded by the Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) and will include morning tea and lunch for those attending in person. 

Please register here.

 

Invitation to Research Forum: August 26th (Melbourne and online)

In association with The Refugee Education Special Interest Group (RESIG), the CALD SIG will be co-hosting an event on 26th August that will open a space to discuss the challenges and opportunities with undertaking educational research in fragile contexts. Working with the ideas behind the CERD ethical framework (see here), we will ask questions of:

  • What are our experiences of researching as HDR candidates with forced migrants in fragile contexts?
  • What are our experiences of supervising HDR candidates researching with forced migrants in fragile contexts?
  • What are our observations of working/ researching in fragile contexts?
  • What is our ethics of care to others/ to self in these encounters?
  • What ethical frameworks inform our thinking and practice?
  • How can we bridge the gaps between what Guellemin and Gillam (2004) call ‘procedural ethics’ and ‘ethics in practice’?

We are seeking expressions of interest in taking part in the event: we are looking for people to contribute to a curated ‘showcase’ of observations, thinking and experience with relation to ethics and fragile contexts. We envisage this will involve speaking to one slide (with one major point) for a maximum of 3 minutes. The event will also be open to colleagues who would prefer to listen and learn. 

From this meeting, we hope to discuss and present ideas for two resources to support ethical thinking and practice in the fields of educational research with forced migrants and in other fragile contexts. 

For more information, please contact Sally on contactus@refugee-education.org