Twilight: Rethinking Literacy: Beyond Instruction to Equity
Location
Joondalup Campus
About
The School of Education is delighted to invite you to this Twilight Seminar - Rethinking Literacy: Beyond Instruction to Equity.
This seminar is presented by Associate Professor Helen Adam, Churchill Fellow, President of PETAA, and author of Creating Equitable Literacy Learning Environments: A Transformative Model (Routledge, 2025).
While over 75% of Australian teachers report confidence in teaching reading, persistent achievement gaps remain. This session challenges a critical assumption: if teacher skill isn’t the issue, what is?
Drawing on more than a decade of research across Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom, this seminar introduces Associate Professor Helen Adam’s Model for Equitable Literacy Learning Environments (MELLE) and explores the often-overlooked conditions shaping literacy success:
- Culturally responsive practice
- Equitable access to books and reading time
- Authentic representation of diverse identities in classroom texts
This seminar will explore:
- Why instructional excellence alone cannot close literacy achievement gaps
- How to audit your classroom for equity using the MELLE framework
- Practical, low-barrier strategies to strengthen student engagement and reading identity
- How to advocate for meaningful, system-level change in literacy education
Educators engaging with this work report powerful outcomes:
- 81% implemented new approaches in their practice
- 100% experienced a shift in assumptions about culturally diverse students and families
- 97% increased confidence in using diverse literature
Leave with practical strategies you can implement immediately to create a more equitable, engaging, and effective learning environment for all students.
Cost: $10 includes light refreshments
Registration and light refreshments will be from 4.00pm; the seminar starts at 4.30pm.
Certificate of participation available on request.
This event is FREE for ECU Staff and Students; please contact us for a discount code.
