An educator, researcher and a lifelong learner of Literature and Language, I have been working as an academic literacy academic in the education sector in Australia for the past 25 years. An advocate of the Capability framework (Amatya Sen), in which agency is to be recognised in the capabilities to achieve, I believe in all students’ capabilities to bring or access knowledge from their intellectual sources which need to be brought to bear in their education to build their disciplinary knowledge. In my doctoral research I took a transdisciplinary approach to analyse non-Western international students' capability to access non-Western knowledge for the sustainability of the planet, a global priority demanding an educational response. Fluent in a few languages, I express myself in Hindi, Urdu and English, the three languages that have shaped my literacy: my childhood memories, my fantasies of youth and my academic self.
A multifaceted approach to evaluating the peer mentoring program at the University of Western Syd... more A multifaceted approach to evaluating the peer mentoring program at the University of Western Sydney (UWS) enables the Learning Skills Unit staff involved in this program both to sustain an appropriate training program and enhance their skills base. The approach taken to coordinating this program follows the action research cycle: observation leads to refl ection, which informs planning, and then action. There are substantial pedagogical implications for Learning Skills staff working on this program as the teaching practices employed during mentor training inform and enhance their work with students in other teaching contexts. Regular meetings between the coordinators, trainers and School academics, along with debriefi ng sessions with mentors, provide insights which are applied to inform an evolving and dynamic program and create a web of interconnectedness which not only promotes cross fertilisation of ideas but also leads to exciting collaborative projects.
A multifaceted approach to evaluating the peer mentoring program at the University of Western Syd... more A multifaceted approach to evaluating the peer mentoring program at the University of Western Sydney (UWS) enables the Learning Skills Unit staff involved in this program both to sustain an appropriate training program and enhance their skills base. The approach taken to coordinating this program follows the action research cycle: observation leads to refl ection, which informs planning, and then action. There are substantial pedagogical implications for Learning Skills staff working on this program as the teaching practices employed during mentor training inform and enhance their work with students in other teaching contexts. Regular meetings between the coordinators, trainers and School academics, along with debriefi ng sessions with mentors, provide insights which are applied to inform an evolving and dynamic program and create a web of interconnectedness which not only promotes cross fertilisation of ideas but also leads to exciting collaborative projects.
What is the connection between Shakespeare and sustainability? To explain we would like to presen... more What is the connection between Shakespeare and sustainability? To explain we would like to present a case study of an educational institute where, just like Shakespeare, sustainability as a content and a medium of teaching and learning, is educating students about the relationship between members within society, the environment and economics, the commonly accepted three elements of sustainability (triple bottom line). At the University of Western Sydney, Australia, it can be seen that sustainability is related to and can be relevant to many aspects of university education. For example, it is included in an academic literacy development course, a core engineering first semester subject and an entire Environmental Health course. These three examples demonstrate how sustainability can be integrated into subjects and courses in many different disciplines. The concepts and ideas generated by the controversies surrounding sustainability lend themselves to critical thinking, something that...
This chapter posits that the aim of true internationalisation of higher education should be to de... more This chapter posits that the aim of true internationalisation of higher education should be to develop a cosmopolitan attitude in local and international students by affording them a positive experience of globalisation. To achieve this objective, opportunities for engaging non-Western and World Englishes Speaking (WES) international students to share their intellectual capital and knowledge-producing abilities should be incorporated in the teaching and learning practices of higher education. A critique of literature detailing how WES students are perceived in Western higher education is presented. Insufficient focus has been placed on their agency as their capabilities as cosmopolitan citizens of the modern-day world have been ignored. Presenting findings from research undertaken at a metropolitan university in Australia which shows international students and academics demonstrating their cosmopolitanism as a commitment to the ethos of internationalisation of higher education, this...
This paper reports on findings of evaluative research into student perceptions of a structured ac... more This paper reports on findings of evaluative research into student perceptions of a structured academic development workshop, which was specifically designed to induct and orient international students into the academic expectations of their program of study at a university in Australia. With most Australian universities engaged in the business of internationalisation of higher education, there is some debate about the adequacy of practices adopted by these institutions to familiarise their non English-speaking background (NESB) international students with the Australian academic culture. While the practices of some Western universities are sometimes said to be inadequate, there also appears some consternation about international students' lack of motivation to learn and their inability to master Western academic conventions. Against this backdrop, the paper outlines the impetus for collaboration between the university's Learning Skills Unit and faculty staff in designing an...
International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education
At a new age metropolitan university, which caters to one of the most diverse commencing student ... more At a new age metropolitan university, which caters to one of the most diverse commencing student populations in Australia, sustainability is the content theme of a literacy-based preparatory program: UniStep. Sustainability is a significant issue because of the serious environmental and social impacts of global warming and climate change. This has been acknowledged by governments around the world and has been predicted by many renowned scientists. In this paper, we focus on the effect of using sustainability as the topic for teaching academic literacy, in particular its influence on student thinking, learning, and lifestyles. We draw on findings from a case study of 103 students who participated in the program. Online surveys and telephone interviews provided quantitative and qualitative data. The analysis of findings indicates that over half the students engaged with the topic of sustainability, such that it affected aspects of their thinking, learning, and/or behaviour. This paper...
A multifaceted approach to evaluating the peer mentoring program at the University of Western Syd... more A multifaceted approach to evaluating the peer mentoring program at the University of Western Sydney (UWS) enables the Learning Skills Unit staff involved in this program both to sustain an appropriate training program and enhance their skills base. The approach taken to coordinating this program follows the action research cycle: observation leads to refl ection, which informs planning, and then action. There are substantial pedagogical implications for Learning Skills staff working on this program as the teaching practices employed during mentor training inform and enhance their work with students in other teaching contexts. Regular meetings between the coordinators, trainers and School academics, along with debriefi ng sessions with mentors, provide insights which are applied to inform an evolving and dynamic program and create a web of interconnectedness which not only promotes cross fertilisation of ideas but also leads to exciting collaborative projects.
A multifaceted approach to evaluating the peer mentoring program at the University of Western Syd... more A multifaceted approach to evaluating the peer mentoring program at the University of Western Sydney (UWS) enables the Learning Skills Unit staff involved in this program both to sustain an appropriate training program and enhance their skills base. The approach taken to coordinating this program follows the action research cycle: observation leads to refl ection, which informs planning, and then action. There are substantial pedagogical implications for Learning Skills staff working on this program as the teaching practices employed during mentor training inform and enhance their work with students in other teaching contexts. Regular meetings between the coordinators, trainers and School academics, along with debriefi ng sessions with mentors, provide insights which are applied to inform an evolving and dynamic program and create a web of interconnectedness which not only promotes cross fertilisation of ideas but also leads to exciting collaborative projects.
What is the connection between Shakespeare and sustainability? To explain we would like to presen... more What is the connection between Shakespeare and sustainability? To explain we would like to present a case study of an educational institute where, just like Shakespeare, sustainability as a content and a medium of teaching and learning, is educating students about the relationship between members within society, the environment and economics, the commonly accepted three elements of sustainability (triple bottom line). At the University of Western Sydney, Australia, it can be seen that sustainability is related to and can be relevant to many aspects of university education. For example, it is included in an academic literacy development course, a core engineering first semester subject and an entire Environmental Health course. These three examples demonstrate how sustainability can be integrated into subjects and courses in many different disciplines. The concepts and ideas generated by the controversies surrounding sustainability lend themselves to critical thinking, something that...
This chapter posits that the aim of true internationalisation of higher education should be to de... more This chapter posits that the aim of true internationalisation of higher education should be to develop a cosmopolitan attitude in local and international students by affording them a positive experience of globalisation. To achieve this objective, opportunities for engaging non-Western and World Englishes Speaking (WES) international students to share their intellectual capital and knowledge-producing abilities should be incorporated in the teaching and learning practices of higher education. A critique of literature detailing how WES students are perceived in Western higher education is presented. Insufficient focus has been placed on their agency as their capabilities as cosmopolitan citizens of the modern-day world have been ignored. Presenting findings from research undertaken at a metropolitan university in Australia which shows international students and academics demonstrating their cosmopolitanism as a commitment to the ethos of internationalisation of higher education, this...
This paper reports on findings of evaluative research into student perceptions of a structured ac... more This paper reports on findings of evaluative research into student perceptions of a structured academic development workshop, which was specifically designed to induct and orient international students into the academic expectations of their program of study at a university in Australia. With most Australian universities engaged in the business of internationalisation of higher education, there is some debate about the adequacy of practices adopted by these institutions to familiarise their non English-speaking background (NESB) international students with the Australian academic culture. While the practices of some Western universities are sometimes said to be inadequate, there also appears some consternation about international students' lack of motivation to learn and their inability to master Western academic conventions. Against this backdrop, the paper outlines the impetus for collaboration between the university's Learning Skills Unit and faculty staff in designing an...
International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education
At a new age metropolitan university, which caters to one of the most diverse commencing student ... more At a new age metropolitan university, which caters to one of the most diverse commencing student populations in Australia, sustainability is the content theme of a literacy-based preparatory program: UniStep. Sustainability is a significant issue because of the serious environmental and social impacts of global warming and climate change. This has been acknowledged by governments around the world and has been predicted by many renowned scientists. In this paper, we focus on the effect of using sustainability as the topic for teaching academic literacy, in particular its influence on student thinking, learning, and lifestyles. We draw on findings from a case study of 103 students who participated in the program. Online surveys and telephone interviews provided quantitative and qualitative data. The analysis of findings indicates that over half the students engaged with the topic of sustainability, such that it affected aspects of their thinking, learning, and/or behaviour. This paper...
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