Latest Projects

Reading
Climate

Consent
in Literature

Teacher-
Researchers

Speculative
Futures

Teachers-
Researchers

The Teacher-Researchers project built on previous research by members of the project team which investigated teachers’ responses to the mandate to teach Australian literature introduced in the Australian Curriculum: English in 2008.

Past project

The Teacher-Researchers supported five secondary English teachers in Victoria to undertake a week-long literary research project drawing on the resources of the University of Melbourne Archives and the expertise of the project team to investigate texts and sources relevant to their teaching of Australian literature. A partnership with The Stella Prize was central to this project and the texts investigated by teacher participants were Stella Prize long-listed.

Findings from this project and other studies indicate the need to support teachers to develop new knowledge about the breadth and variety of Australian texts as well as providing teachers with support to engage deeply with Australian literature to support their pedagogy.

The five teachers who participated came from a diverse range of schools in Victoria and their projects included the following ideas, themes 
and texts:

Feminism and Multicultural Identity in

Laurinda

Intertextuality and Intersectionality

The Hate Race

Empathy and Creative Writing in

Like a House on Fire

Australian Identity
Via

Foreign Soil

Difference and polyvocality in

Only The Animals

"Teachers were supported to use their research project and their experience in the archive as a starting point for ongoing advocacy and engagement with Australian literature in and beyond their schools."

Researchers on the Project

"Sarah E. Truman is an Associate Professor at University of Melbourne whose research focuses on English literary education, cultural studies, and the arts. From 2022-2025, Dr. Truman is an ARC DECRA Fellow conducting a project on speculative fiction as an interdisciplinary method for thinking about the world and mode of literary engagement in diverse pedagogical settings. Dr. Truman is co-director of the Literary Education Lab; co-Director of WalkingLab, and one half of Oblique Curiosities. Dr Truman’s most recent book is Feminist Speculations and the Practice of Research-Creation (2022)."

Sarah E. Truman

University of Melbourne

"Larissa McLean Davies is Professor of Teacher Education at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne. Larissa McLean Davies leads large-scale Teacher Education research which mobilises partnerships with Government agencies, Education Departments, and not-for-profit organisations. She is the co-convenor of the Literary Education Lab (with Dr Sarah E. Truman), where she leads research which draws together the digital and environmental humanities, literary studies and education around core issues related to teacher professional learning in the context of justice and sustainability imperatives. Her co-authored book Literary Knowing and the Making of English Teachers will be published by Routledge in 2022."

Larissa McLean Davies

University of Melbourne

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Other Projects

Reading
Climate

Consent
in Literature

Speculative
Futures

Digital Literary
Literacies

Literary Knowledge in the Making of English Teachers

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Latest Live Event

June 13th, 2023
Public Keynote by Professor Kathryn Yusoff

June 14th, 2023
All-Day Symposium with:
Dr. Sandra Muse Isaacs
Professor Kathryn Yusoff
and Reading Climate Team

More Information Here

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Arts Front
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