The crisis-prompted online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the vulnerability of adult migrant learners acquiring basic literacy skills in an additional language. A persistent assimilationist and monolingual approach in migrant language programs even in a multicultural and monolingual context in Australia (Schalley, Guillemin & Eisenchlas, 2015) contribute to these systemic and structural vulnerabilities. This presentation will focus on Educational Journey Maps (EJM) as a qualitative research tool that helps contextualise the educational experiences of low literate adult learners in their home or transit countries to remote learning during recurrent and extended school closures during the pandemic in Australia. Drawing from a doctoral research project that examines epistemic injustice in the educational history of adult learners with minimal prior schooling, the presentation will outline the process and preliminary findings of interviews based on the participants' visual representations of the key inhibitors and enablers in their educational experiences. In privileging the narratives (Annamma, 2017) that low literate adult learners choose to disclose and discuss through their EJMs, it is hoped that the study can challenge stereotypes and dominant narratives which contribute to epistemic oppression (Fricker, 2007). The study also seeks to support teachers, tutors, and volunteers working in additional language learning and development, and broaden our understanding of the identity and agency of low literate adult learners in language learning and development of literacy skills.
Annamma, S. A. (2017). Disrupting cartographies of inequity: Education journey mapping as a qualitative methodology. In D. Morrison, S. A. Annamma, & D. D. Jackson (Eds.), Critical Race Spatial Analysis: Mapping to Understand and Address Educational Inequity. Stylus Publishing, LLC.
Fricker, M. (2007). Epistemic injustice power and the ethics of knowing. Oxford University Press.
Schalley, A., Guillemin, D., & Eisenchlas, S. (2015). Multilingualism and assimilationism in Australia's literacy-related educational policies. International Journal of Multilingualism, 12(2), 162–177.
