Special Interest Groups

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Culturally & Linguistically Diverse Students

The group will aim to better understand the experiences of students who are culturally and linguistically diverse in enabling programs, and their perceptions of how supports, or lack of, might impact their engagement and success in the programs.

The group will explore how the cultural and linguistic diversity of the student cohort might affect enabling practitioners’ experiences and interactions with students, and their design of course content and approach to teaching.

Traditionally, students who speak home languages beside English have been framed as NESB, EAL/D or ESL, however in other contexts students are referred to as bi-/multilingual (ACTA 2022). A shift in how these students are positioned in the Australian HE context could be an important consideration in the exploration of student voice and agency. The group will discuss how framing students as NESB, amongst other Anglophone dominant terminology, might detract attention from the rich cultural and linguistic perspectives these students contribute to the teaching and learning environment.

Facilitator/s

  • Tamra Ulpen

    Tamra Ulpen is a Senior Lecturer at UniSA College. She has been a TESOL instructor for nearly 20 years in Japan and in Australia. Since joining UniSA College in 2011, she has focused on supporting students’ development of academic language and literacies and advancing understandings, policy, and process developments of Academic Integrity. She is interested in exploring the intersection of Generative AI (GenAi) and its implications for learning and curriculum/assessment design. In her PhD study, Tamra plans to investigate how GenAi tools could be harnessed to enhance self-regulated learning practices among students who are linguistically diverse.

  • Snjezana Bilic

    Dr Snjezana Bilic is a lecturer at the University of South Australia. Snjezana is a lead academic in UniSA College Refugee Student Support group and she is committed to the provision of support for culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) and students of refugee backgrounds (SfRBs) and their educators at the UniSA College. Snjezana’s current research focus explores teachers of SfRBs understanding of the ‘cultural dimensions of the lives of students with refugee experience’ and how this engagement and understanding can be used to further produce positive outcomes for SfRBs.

  • Heidi Hetz

    Dr Heidi Hetz is a lecturer in the enabling pathway programs at UniSA College at the University of South Australia (UniSA) where she has been teaching sociology, academic writing, and literacy since 2015. Through her teaching and research, Heidi seeks to address barriers to the meaningful participation of people of refugee background in higher education and in society. A current research project explores best practice approaches for teaching and supporting students from refugee backgrounds in higher education.