On the evening of 28th of February 2011, Affinity hosted Prof Rosemary Johnston, the Head of Education at UTS and Founding Director of the Australian Centre for Child and Youth: Culture and Well-being.
This centre is an innovative interdisciplinary 21st century institution that integrates technology, research, teaching, and practice in all fields pertaining to the culture and well-being of children and youth.The topic she addressed was, ‘Deep Literacy as an Imperative in the 21st Global Culture’ looking at how there is a need for a ‘deeper aspect of literacy – Deep Literacy - that goes beyond the skills of reading and writing, speaking and listening…. something that generates moral and ethical imaginations and responses to the ongoing challenge of differing cultural realities’.
This topic itself was very interesting one and it appealed to the educators in the audience. Prof Johnston gave examples of literacy and overall education from her research, which she conducted in the remote parts of Australia, which are predominantly inhabited by the indigenous community. The stories and experiences she shared with us were touching and a real eye opener for the challenges the members of the remote community experience.
Discussions on the critical role that education plays to make an informed individual who could find their place in social activism who stands up for social justice was a highlight of the talk. This was very important considering the multicultural framework of society was at times under question. President Mehmet Saral gave a vote thanks at the conclusion of the talk, praising Prof Johnston for all her hard work over the past 18 years in the field of broad based education. He presented her with a cultural Turkish plate as token of our appreciation. Affinity would like to thank Prof Rosemary Johnston for enlightening us with her perspectives on education and alerting us around the issues of literacy learning.
