Professional Learning Summit: Representation Matters (19 March 2022)

SLANSW Professional Learning Summit

Representation Matters: Embracing Diversity and Inclusion

SLANSW Zoom Room 

This first SLANSW professional learning summit for 2022 provides participants with the opportunity to engage in a number of workshops, closely linked to the keynote presentation themes of understanding the need to provide students with access to diverse and inclusive resources, how to develop diverse and inclusive programs, services, and collections to improve student literacy outcomes. Participants will reflect on their learning and practice in the topic area through discussion with academics, colleagues, and expert practitioners.

Details of the full conference program are available here.

Featured speakers include

Dr Kay Oddone

Dr Kay Oddone has over 20 years of experience in the fields of education and information management and has taught at all levels from Prep through to Post Grad. She has experience as a Classroom Teacher, Assistant Principal, Teacher Librarian and Learning Designer. Currently she holds the position of Lecturer in the MEd: Teacher Librarianship at Charles Sturt University. You can find Kay on Twitter as @KayOddone, and read more about her work on her online portfolio at www.linkinglearning.com.au

Will Kostakis

Will Kostakis is a passionate advocate for young readers and writers. He released his first novel, Loathing Lola, when he was just nineteen. There's a typo on the first page. It's equally a source of pride and shame. His second novel, The First Third, won the 2014 Gold Inky Award. It was also shortlisted for the Children’s Book Council of Australia Book of the Year and Australian Prime Minister’s Literary awards, among others. The Sidekicks was his third novel for young adults, and his American debut. It went on to win the IBBY Australia Ena Noel Award. Most recently, Will has applied his trademark style to the fantasy genre, with Monuments and its sequel, Rebel Gods. Will was awarded the 2020 Maurice Saxby Award by the School Library Association of New South Wales for service to children’s and young adult literature.

Workshop presenters include

Helen Caple and Ping Tian

Helen Caple is Associate Professor in Journalism at the University of New South Wales, Australia. Her research interests centre on visual representation and diversity, news photography, text-image relations and discursive news values analysis. Helen has published in the area of diversity in children’s picture books, photojournalism and social semiotics. Her latest monograph with Routledge is Photojournalism Disrupted: The View from Australia (2019).

Ping Tian is an Honorary Associate in Linguistics at the University of Sydney, Australia. Her research centres on the application of linguistics and semiotic theory and analytical framework in various contexts. Ping has taught and published in the areas of children’s picture books, multimodality, discourse analysis, media studies and business communication (organizational studies).

Pooja Mathur

Mrs Pooja Mathur is a teacher librarian at the King’s School Senior Library. She is the coordinator of their Reading Club and an active member of the school’s Wellbeing Committee. Additionally, Pooja is the Secretary of School Library Association of New South Wales (SLANSW), and a member of the International Boys’ School Coalition (IBSC) Action Research Team for 2022-23, researching “Shattering Stereotypes: Helping Boys Cultivate Healthy Masculinity.” 

Leonie Rutherford and Katya Johanson

Katya Johanson is Professor of Audience Research at Deakin University. She researches the ways that the work of creative industries impacts on people’s lives. This includes the impact of transnational productions on audiences’ cultural and political beliefs, the impact of publishing on teenagers’ reading behaviour, and the impact of arts production on local economies and community wellbeing. She is an editor of the forthcoming Routledge Companion to Audience Research and the Performing Arts, and The Audience Experience (Intellect 2013). Her work is published in the International Journal of Cultural Policy, Poetics and Cultural Trends. Katya often works with Federal, state and local government arts and cultural policy agencies to develop strategies that increase inclusivity and diversity amongst creative producers and audiences.

Leonie Rutherford (PhD, Australian National University) is Associate Professor in the School of Communication and Creative Arts at Deakin University where she leads the Teenagers Reading and Digital Practices research program. In addition to textual criticism in print and media, her work is intensively engaged with interdisciplinary investigation of youth cultural participation, with a special focus on media (including print and book culture), digital literacies, media policy, and audiences. Her current research project – ‘Discovering a “Good Read”: Pathways to Reading for Australian Teens’ — partners with stakeholders in the library and book industry sector, investigates the ways in which traditional and new cultural intermediaries and the digital ecology in which books are embedded enable young people’s participation in reading cultures.

Liz Derouet

Currently working as Liaison Librarian: Education for the University of Southern Queensland, Liz has worked as a teacher, teacher librarian and Young People’s Librarian in a large public library and a lecturer in teacher librarianship. She was awarded the QSLA Teacher-Librarian of the Year Award in 2019 and in the same year presented her IBSC action research project Diverse Stories: A Pathway to Developing Adventurous Year 8 Readers in Montreal, Canada. Liz has written and taught children’s literature courses for undergraduate and postgraduate university study and was a judge for the CBCA Book of the Year awards in 2007 and 2008. Liz is a reviewer for Magpies magazine and occasionally blogs at https://lizderouet.wordpress.com/.

Angela Kerr

Angela Kerr is the Henry Parkes Equity Centre Librarian and Project Officer supporting equity programs in NSW DoE schools. With experience in Western Sydney schools as a qualified class K-6 teacher, EAL/D Consultant, Head Teacher Literacy National Partnerships, EAL/D, French LOTE and Reading Recovery teacher, she enjoys curating resources and providing quality resources and advice for DoE staff. As a lifelong learner, Angela is committed to keeping abreast of innovation and reform in education to access the most cutting-edge resources for schools. As a daughter of refugees and migrants she is an advocate for informed and compassionate treatment of newly arrived people to countries around the world.

Rebecca  Toltz

Rebecca Toltz is the teacher librarian at Bourke St Public School. 

Please note SLANSW's Cancellation and Refund Policy for Professional Learning Events when registering for this conference

Elective Professional Development

As NESA changes continue to unfold, this Professional Learning Summit is an Elective Professional Development opportunity. The following suggested standards apply to the content being presented in the keynotes and workshops:

1.1.2 Use teaching strategies based on knowledge of students' physical, social and intellectual development and characteristics to improve student learning.

1.3.2 Design and implement teaching strategies that are responsive to the learning strengths and needs of students from diverse linguistic, cultural, religious and socio-economic backgrounds.

1.5.2 Develop teaching activities that incorporate differentiated strategies to meet the specific learning needs of students across the full range of abilities.

2.5.2 Apply knowledge and understanding of effective teaching strategies to support students’ literacy and numeracy achievement.

6.2.2 Participate in learning to update knowledge and practice targeted to professional needs and school and/or system priorities.

7.4.2 Participate in professional and community networks and forums to broaden knowledge and improve practice.