Contents

Features
Adult literacy- towards a new paradigm
by Rob McCormack
Rob McCormack explains how the modern role of literacy is to help people become functioning adults by connecting them to their society and their culture.

Two-dimensional work: changing literacies in aged care and call centres
by Crina Virgona and Peter Waterhouse
Fluid work conditions demand new literacies as casual workers seek to create 'permanence' in their work lives.

An exercise in clear rhinking: critical literacy and the discourses of Centrelink
by Tery Moms
The various forms and brochures brought out by Centrelink reinforce an already dominant power structure. Terry Morris examines the language of a system where the one word you rarely see in print is 'unemployed'.

ACE outcomes: the struggle for adult education
by Helen Macrae, Allie Clemans and Robyn Hartley
Calling for better recognition of ACE and an understanding of the efforts that go into the service, the writers offer some strong recommendations for the future.

Regulars
Practical Matters
Students with psychiatric disabilities can be just as challenged as the teacher in a classroom situation. Here is some useful information on identifying and dealing with the more common problems.
Open Forum
For Jacinta Agostinelli, the adult literacy field is a 'community of trust' where people isolated by low literacy build links with other learners and agencies. And at the Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE, Ann Haynes and Elaine Cannard look back on two years of teaching VCAL.
Policy Update
Louise Wignall explains how the new VET strategy will take language, literacy and numeracy beyond education and training and into employment, social networking and regional development.
Foreign Correspondence
It could have been a disaster for literacy work in Ontario, but it wasn't. Guy Ewing tells the story.
Beside the Whiteboard
As more and more students from faraway homelands arrive in literacy classes, teachers need all the background information they can get. Alan Williams talks about the Adult Migrant English Program Research Centre's fact sheets.