Peter Botsman Award 2009

Professor Nola Alloway

This award acknowledges Professor Nola Alloway’s significant contribution to English/Literacy Education in Queensland – and nationally – in the areas of:

• Research – such that informs teachers’ understandings and practices of English/Literacy education
• Publications – including both academic texts and Professional Learning Materials relevant to the work of English/Literacy teachers
• Scholarship – including citations of her work, invitations to deliver keynote addresses at major conferences, and invitations to consult with educational authorities, professional organizations, schools and classroom teachers in relation to issues of English/Literacy education.

Professor Alloway has demonstrated both research excellence and research leadership in the area of gender and education – in particular, issues relating to the literacy learning of boys – and is widely acknowledged by the education profession, and by national and state education authorities, as a research leader in the boys and literacy arena.  She has received national and international recognition for the ways in which she has foregrounded issues of masculinity and literacy as key research and theoretical issues for improving literacy outcomes for boys.

Nola’s research makes visible the links between theory and practice as a way of improving teaching and schooling practices, thereby enhancing the quality of educational opportunities available to all members of the community.  As such, it is distinguished by the way in which it is seen to have major implications for education policy and practice – and her research-based work is widely distributed in schools and education contexts.  For example, her pair of books (co-edited with Pam Gilbert) – Boys and Literacy: Professional Development Units (1997) and Boys and Literacy: Teaching Units (1997) were used extensively in Queensland schools and were considered so significant for educational practice that they were purchased by the NSW Government and distributed to every school in that State.  Similarly, her collection of 4 books (co-edited with Brownyn Davies, Pam Gilbert, Rob Gilbert and David King) Meeting the Challenge: Boys and Literacy (1996) was utilised widely in Queensland school sites.  Nola’s more recent work resulted in the publication, and roll-out to 800 schools across Australia, of the Success for Boys suite of Professional Learning Materials for teachers – and included the Boys and Literacy Module (co-authored with Leanne Dalley-Trim).

Professor Alloway has been a prolific writer in the field of Literacy/English education and, subsequently, has an extensive record of publications.  In addition to those works cited previously, her publications include, for example:

Reports

• Accommodating Boys through a Gender Inclusive Approach to Literacy: A Report on a Curriculum Development Projects Program. (1997:  Co-authored with Pam Gilbert)
• Boys, Literacy and Schooling: Expanding the Repertoires of Practice.  (2002:  Co-authored with Peter Freebody, Pam Gilbert and Sandy Muspratt)

Books

• Boys and Literacy Learning: Changing Perspectives. (2002: Co-authored with Pam Gilbert)

Book Chapters

• Literacy and Gender in the Early Childhood Context: Boys on the Side? (2002:  Co-authored with Pam Gilbert)

Refereed Journal Articles  [In both National and International Journals]

• Everything is Dangerous: Boys Learning in Literacy Classrooms. (1997:  Co-authored with Pam Gilbert)
• Boys and Literacy: Lessons from Australia. (1997:  Co-authored with Pam Gilbert)
• Reading Literacy Test Data: Benchmarking Success. (1998:  Co-authored with Pam Gilbert)
• Reconceptualising Early Literacy Achievement: Moving Beyond Critique-Paralysis. (1999)
• Exploring Boys’ Literacy Performance at School: Incorporating and Transcending Gender. (2000)
• Boys Performing English. (2003:  Co-authored with Pam Gilbert, Rob Gilbert and Robyn Henderson)
• Swimming Against the Tide: Boys, Literacies and Schooling – An Australian Story. (2007)

Professor Alloway’s scholarship in the field of Literacy/English education is evidenced in the wide citation of her publications in both international and national journals, including, for example: Reading Research Quarterly and Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy (both published by the International Reading Association), Research in the Teaching of English (published by the National Council of Teachers of English, Urbana US), Journal of Literacy Research (published by the National Reading Conference Inc, Chicago US) and English in Australia (published by the Australian Association for the Teaching of English).

Additionally, Nola is regularly invited to provide keynote addresses that explore issues of Literacy/English education at major international, national and state conferences organised by education authorities and professional organisations – including, for example, the ACT and NSW Departments of Education and Training, the Queensland Catholic Education Office, the International Literacy and Education Research Network, the Australian Literacy Educators’ Association, and the Queensland and Australian Associations for the Teaching of English. 

Nola is also recurrently invited to act as a consultant and advisor, in relation to issues of literacy education, to state and national education authorities.  So, too, she has been invited to work in this capacity with school administrators and teachers, and has done so across both national and state sites and within both state and independent school systems.  As testament to her commitment to working with schools and teachers in Queensland in particular, she has undertaken such engagements in, for example, Rockhampton, Townsville, Ingham, Charters Towers and Brisbane.

Finally, Professor Alloway’s significant contribution to English/Literacy education in Queensland – and Australia – is evidenced by her long-standing position on the Editorial Review Board of the Australian Association for the Teaching of English publication English in Australia.