Literacies Framework – Enabling Young Voices for Civic Action

Transformative Literacies

Infographic designed by Seedhead Design Consultancy

Understand involves practices of making sense of texts about issues, including different perspectives, interactions with others and actions for positive change.

Understanding local, global or intellectual issues across different texts, genres, modes and media.

Understanding different perspective on a local, global or intercultural issue across different texts genres, models and media.

Understanding varied interactions with others that meaningfully communicate on a local, global or intercultural issue across verbal, gestural, written and digital texts.

Understanding ideas, propositions and advocacy enacted in civic actions through different text genres, models and media.

Inquire involves inquiry practices of critically questioning and reflecting on the impacts and implications of texts on issues, including different perspectives, interactions with others and actions for positive change.

Inquiring into local, global or intercultural issues through critically questioning and reflecting on the impacts and implications of texts on different perspectives, interactions with others and actions for positive change.

Inquiring into different perspectives on local, global or intercultural through critically questioning and reflecting on the impacts and implications of different perspectives in texts on these issues.

Inquiring into interactions with others on a local, global or intercultural issue through critically questioning and reflecting on the impacts and implications of texts constructed and shared in these interactions.

Inquiring into actions for positive change for local, global and intercultural issue through critically questioning and reflecting on the impacts and implications of texts for positive change.

Create and Act involves practices of creating and using texts to fulfill specific purposes for issues, including presenting different perspectives, interacting and acting with others for positive change.

Creating texts to act (fulfill specific purposes) for local, global and intercultural issues.

Creating texts in interactions (act) with others on local, global or intercultural issues.

Creating texts to present and enact different perspectives on local, global and intercultural issues.

Creating texts for actions for positive change on local, global and intercultural issues.

Access involves practices of accessing information on issues, including different perspectives, interactions with others and actions for positive change by knowing the codes and protocols to access texts on issues.

Accessing information through attention to codes and protocols of a local, global or intercultural issue across different texts genres, modes and media.

Accessing varied interactions with others that meaningfully communicate on a local, global or intercultural issue across verbal, gestural, written and digital texts.

Accessing different perspectives on a local, global or intercultural issue across different texts genres, modes and media.

Accessing ideas, propositions and advocacy enacted in civic actions through different text genres, modes and media.

A Framework of Transformative Literacies for Active Global Citizenship - Pauline Harris, Louise Phillips, Cynthia Brock, Andrew Peterson, Jenny Ritchie & Eleni Giannakis

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UNICEF’s Executive Director recently wrote an open letter to the world’s children and young people, inviting them as critical citizens and leaders, now and in the future, to help inform how to address pressing global challenges¹. The letter urged that we must listen to children’s concerns about their world and consider their views and ideas for creating solutions. This necessary call recognises children’s and young people’s right to have voice in decisions affecting their lives, to take action themselves, and to have their views taken into account, as affirmed by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child².

But just what are the literacies required for children and young people’s equitable participation in such action, and how do we ensure that all children – including children living in marginalised circumstances – have access to these literacies that enable their participation? Such has been our ongoing quest as we advance the work you see here before you.

The Transformative Literacies for Active Global Citizenship Framework that we have collaboratively developed and present here is based on an exhaustive review of research literature³, which we began in 2019⁴; and has continued to evolve. We have designed this framework for educational spaces to enable children and youth to serve as active citizens for collective wellbeing and sustainable development in their local and global worlds.

This Framework explicitly links to and supports the OECD/PISA’s four dimensions of global competence necessary for active global citizenship⁵:

Examine issues of local, global and cultural significance
Understand and appreciate the perspectives and world views of others
Engage in open, appropriate and effective interactions across cultures
Take action for collective well-being and sustainable development.

These four dimensions are shown in the outer rings of our infographic on this website, as contexts for applying transformative literacies.

In the centre of our infographic, we have identified four inter-connected sets of literacy practices that work in synergy with one another and are all necessary to active global citizenship for collective wellbeing and sustainable development.

Our Transformative Literacies for Active Global Citizenship Framework supports the three Cross-Curriculum Priorities in the Australian Curriculum:

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures, by enabling literacy practices that support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and youth with the ability to see themselves, their identities and cultures reflected in the curriculum; and support all students in engaging with Australian First Nations Peoples’ knowledges, experiences, values and perspectives.
Asia and Australia’s Engagement with Asia, by fostering literacy practices that support children and youth to understand and engage with intercultural understanding, empathy and respect with Asian nations’ various beliefs, cultures, languages, histories, and contemporary challenges and opportunities.
Sustainability, by promoting literacy practices for engaging with knowledge, skills, values and world views necessary for people to act in ways that contribute to a sustainable future – including understanding how environmental, social and economic systems interact; making balanced judgements based on present and future impacts; and taking informed action to create a more environmentally and socially just world.

These Cross-Curriculum Priorities also have been tagged across the Resource Catalogue on this website.

We have adapted the Four Resources Model⁶ in identifying four sets of literacy practices, which we summarise below and highlight some key connections to the Australian Curriculum’s General Capabilities for illustrative purposes – acknowledging that all these literacy practices are germane to all these General Capabilities.

The four literacy practices in the Transformative Literacies for Active Global Citizenship Framework are:

Access, which involves practices of accessing information on interests and issues, including different perspectives, interactions with others and actions for positive change by knowing the codes and protocols to access texts on issues. Access involves, for example, accessing and encoding/decoding reliable, accurate information; information and communication technologies; diverse perspectives about issues of global, local, cultural and ecological significance; following protocols for accessing knowledge and information outside one’s own culture; authentic Indigenous knowledge resources; interactions across cultures; opportunities for global engagement through virtual communication technologies; and opportunities and means for taking action.

In the Australian Curriculum’s General Capabilities, access links to Literacy in terms of fostering proficiencies across speaking, listening, reading/viewing and writing that enable access to information, knowledge and interactions; and Digital Literacy in terms of accessing data, information, ideas, and interactions and collaborations on digital devices, systems and platforms, with care for digital safety and wellbeing.

Understand, which involves practices of making sense of texts about issues, including different perspectives, interactions with others and actions for positive change. Understand, for example, involves understanding global inter-connectedness among people, places, and ecological spaces; understanding connections between a global issue and its diverse local impacts; intercultural understanding, including recognizing, acknowledging, and appreciating different ways of knowing and viewing the world; engaging in reasonable dialogue with multiple and different perspectives; and nurturing dispositions of understanding and concern for self, others and for the world.

In the Australian Curriculum’s General Capabilities, understand includes and links to Ethical Understanding in terms of understanding different ethical perspectives, applying ethical thinking in response to issues, exploring issues and ideas in ethical ways in interactions with others; and to Intercultural Understanding in terms of understanding what happens and what to do when cultures intersect; .understanding one’s own cultural perspectives and practices and those of others; and understanding cultures and cultural diversity to be able to navigate intercultural contexts in which issues and ideas are explored.

Inquire, which involves inquiry practices of critically questioning and reflecting on the impacts and implications of texts on issues, including different perspectives, interactions with others and actions for positive change. This inquiry is endowed with dispositions such as hope and curiosity, and ethics of care and commitment. Inquire, for example, involves analysing, comparing, contrasting and critiquing local and global texts on a common issue such as environmental sustainability; engaging in collaborative dialogue to deeply reflect on local, global and cultural challenges and possible solutions; engaging with texts from various cultural sources and perspectives that alone or together support exploration of multiple perspectives of issues; inquiring into knowledges and ways of knowing outside one’s own cultural frame of reference; and interrogating truth and accuracy in texts.

In the Australian Curriculum’s General Capabilities, inquire links to Numeracy in terms of mathematical literacies that support inquiry; and Critical and Creative Thinking in terms of critical thinking that involves analysing and assessing possibilities related to key issues; evaluating arguments; and using information, evidence and logic to draw reasoned conclusions and solve problems for positive change.

Create and Act, which involves practices of creating and using texts to fulfil specific purposes for raising awareness and advocacy for collective wellbeing and sustainable development, including presenting different perspectives, interacting and acting with others for positive change. Create and Act, for example, includes creating compelling texts as instruments of change; choosing text genres fit for purpose as action or to support action; engaging in well-informed, responsible, collaborative action; taking action in the everyday such as enact kindness and compassion, and acting in environmentally friendly ways; making everyday realities visible through texts; and optimising influential action for collective wellbeing and sustainable development.

In the Australian Curriculum’s General Capabilities, create and act links to Critical and Creative Thinking in terms of effectively generating and applying new ideas, reimagining realities, and seeing and actualising possibilities for making positive change.

Together, these Transformative Literacies support Personal and Social Capability in the Australian Curriculum’s General Capabilities, with respect to effectively engaging with new ways of thinking, knowing, being and doing in a diverse global society.

The Transformative Literacies For Active Global Citizenship Framework also supports the five outcomes of Being, Belonging, Being and Becoming: The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia⁷ in terms of young children as capable active citizens with wisdom and insights about their community worlds and public lives to voice and share:

Children have a strong sense of identity (as, we include, active citizens who access information on issues, seek to understand, and inquire on matters further so that they can create texts to act on an issue)
Children are connected with and contribute to their world (by, we add, accessing information on public interests and issues, seeking to understand, and inquire on matters and creating texts to act on an issue)
Children have a strong sense of wellbeing (and, we add, contribute to the collective wellbeing of others by accessing information on issues, seeking to understand, and inquire on matters and creating texts to act on an issue for positive change)
Children are confident and involved learners (including, we say, their engagement in accessing information, understanding, and inquiring further and creating and acting texts, as active citizens).
Children are effective communicators (in, we include, accessing information, understanding their views and those of others, inquiring, and creating solutions and taking action as active citizens)

We hope you find this information and our website to be useful for you and the work you do with and on behalf of children and young people as we welcome them as active literate citizens to engage for the greater good of community, humanity, and the planet.

ENDNOTES

Fore, H. (2019). An open letter to the world’s children. https://www.unicef.org/child-rights-convention/open-letter-to-worlds-children
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989
Harris, P., Phillips, L., Brock, C.H., Peterson, A., Ritchie, J. & Giannakis, E. (in progress) Developing a framework of transformative literacy practices for active global citizenship. Journal of Literacy Research.
Harris, P., Peterson, A. & Brock, C. (2019) Transforming young children’s literacy education for their democratic participation, pp. 112-127 in M. Apple & S. Riddle (Eds.) Re-Imagining Education for Democracy, Routledge.
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)(2018) Preparing our youth for an inclusive and sustainable world: The OECD PISA global competence framework. https://www.oecd.org/education/Global-competency-for-an-inclusive-world.pdf.
Freebody, P. Luke, A. (2003) Literacy as engaging with new forms of life, in G Bull and M Anstey (eds) Literacy lexicon Sydney: Pearson.
DEEWR (2009). Being, Belonging and Becoming: The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia. Barwon, ACT: Commonwealth of Australia.