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Although the importance of developing students' academic literacies has been well-established, academic oracy has been forgotten. There is a paucity of attention to oracy in higher education, despite the key role played by students' oral communication in academic achievement and graduate employability. This study offers a scoping review of the international scholarly literature that does exist, to explore how oracy has been framed and discussed in higher education, and whether connections have been made with the equity agenda to widen participation to traditionally under-represented groups. Following Arksey and O'Malley's framework for scoping studies, the 31 papers reviewed suggest that oracy is framed in disparate ways, reflecting disconnected understandings of the range, breadth and possibilities for oracy teaching. An oracy as product perspective prevails in the studies, with oracy predominantly explored through monologic, monoglossic activities, assessments, and graduate attributes. The review has highlighted the need to recognise an "oracy for learning" perspective; to establish shared understandings of the features of oracy; and to embed the teaching of oracy practices that support all students, regardless of linguistic and educational background, within their disciplinary learning.

In the context of the equity/widening participation policy landscape in Australia, scholarly exploration of alternative pathways into higher education is becoming increasingly important to inform innovative pedagogies, answer complex questions, and improve outcomes and experiences for students. This article focuses on one alternative pathway, 'enabling' education, which has a 45-year history in Australia but has, for a variety of reasons, remained on the periphery of mainstream discourses about higher education. In this article, we offer a meta-scoping study of a selection of 88 journal articles and research reports focusing on Australian Enabling education. Through an analysis of who is writing, what is written and how it is written, we attempt to unite enabling education scholars in a conversation about our field and suggest ways forward to better connect with broader conversations about higher education in Australia and move enabling programs, practitioners and the students they serve into the centre stage of Australia's equity in higher education agenda.

Although journeys into and through higher education can be challenging for all learners, students from refugee backgrounds (SfRBs) face particular difficulties due to their culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds, and pre-settlement experiences of instability, insecurity, likely trauma and interrupted education. Drawing on a longitudinal, ethnographic exploration of the educational trajectories of a group adult SfRBs living in a regional Australian city, this article questions how 'traditional' understandings of transition -- as linear, ritualised and predictable -- can account for the complex lived experiences of SfRBs trying to access and participate in higher education studies in a resettlement context. Working with the anthropological notion of liminality (Turner 1969; Van Gennep 1960) and the notion of 'stuck places' (Lather 1998), we offer a more nuanced understanding of how 'messy' educational transitions are experienced, and how normative notions of what transition 'should be' act to mask these experiences, leaving SfRBs 'stuck' in the liminal space of becoming a student in higher education.

Enabling education is an enactment of Australia's attempts to address inequity in higher education (HE), offering free, alternative pathways to students who do not enter through the 'traditional' school-university pathway. Each Australian enabling program is different in terms of size, design, curricula and length, meaning that there is significant national variation. This is particularly the case with the entry requirements for enrolment. While many enabling programs are 'open', where no entry requirements are mandated, other programs implement prerequisite mechanisms, sometimes administered by diagnostic testing instruments. The supports and resources to meet the diverse learning needs of enabling students also vary at each institution according to program design. Access to (or a lack of) appropriate support can significantly impact on students' academic progress. Drawing from the findings of two national audits of Australian enabling programs, this article explores the benefits and challenges associated with the diverse provision and operation of enabling programs. With a particular focus on the varying approaches to entry and available supports, this article examines how specific learning needs of enabling students are identified, and what type of supports are available for them to achieve positive outcomes in their study and, hence, move on to undergraduate programs. In this article, we argue that the diverse nature of enabling program design and provision complicates understandings of what constitutes 'academic readiness' for students with implications for the transferability of their enabling qualification.

While there is a growing knowledge base of how students experience their transitions into and through university, little is known about how they experience the temporal dimensions of their higher education (HE) studies, particularly for culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) students. This article draws on Australian longitudinal research that sought to track the experiences of one particularly marginalised group of adult learners -- students from refugee backgrounds -- as they moved into and through university study. While investigating experiences of time was not an explicit goal of this enquiry, our analysis revealed this as a dominant theme. Therefore, drawing on the conceptualisation of 'timescales', this article presents an analysis of the meeting of academic time and the temporalities of students from refugee backgrounds. Using a typology of students' social meanings of time, we found that time was experienced by the students in our study primarily as wasted/ing time; as a goal or achievement; and as compressed time. We identify areas where these perceptions, enactments and feelings about time can create significant challenges for these students, which are exacerbated by their cultural and linguistic differences with those of the host institution. We contend that these challenges are shared by other 'non-traditional' students who balance multiple responsibilities alongside their studies, and we make recommendations for how universities might better respond to their complex needs and lives.

This paper discusses the methodological and logistical complexities that underpin multi-method, multi-sited, multi-phased research with vulnerable communities. The project on which we draw was a 3-year Australian government-funded, longitudinal and cross-sectional exploration of students from refugee backgrounds (SfRBs) as they moved into, through and out of higher education from three different contexts, educational pathways and localities in Australia. While all students entering and participating in higher education may experience challenges, for SfRBs these are compounded by their linguistic and cultural diversity, instability, possible trauma and disrupted schooling. In the project presented in this article, these complexities and their relationships with transitions to higher education were captured through diverse methods and methodologies at three research sites, including longitudinal research with repeat interviews and cross-sectional, explorative methods. The opportunities provided by this methodological approach far outweighed the ethical and practical difficulties navigated by each of the research teams. The 'thick' data produced through prolonged and repeat engagements with a small cohort of participants at one site were made richer through explorations of differing social and geographical contexts across all three sites. Further, our collective interpretations of the data were made more robust through the reciprocity and reflexivity inherent in ethically researching with (not on) SfRBs and through multiple cross-site research team interactions.

This paper contributes a rich picture of how students from refugee backgrounds navigate their way into and through undergraduate studies in a regional Australian university, paying particular attention to their access to and use of different forms of support. We draw on the conceptualisation of "hot" and "cold" knowledge, offered by Ball and Vincent (1998. "'I Heard it on the Grapevine': 'Hot' Knowledge and School Choice." "British Journal of Sociology of Education" 19 (3): 377-400), and the addition of "warm" knowledge offered by Slack et al. (2014. "'Hot', 'Cold' and 'Warm' Information and Higher Education Decision Making." "British Journal of Sociology of Education" 35 (2): 204-223), to develop an understanding of how students from refugee backgrounds make choices about how they locate, select and access support for their studies. The findings of this paper suggest that students from refugee backgrounds do not view the "cold" (unfamiliar-formal) institutional support on offer as "for them"; instead they expressed a preference for the "warm" (familiar-formal) support offered via "trusted" people who act as literacy/sociocultural brokers or "hot" (familiar-informal) support of their grapevine of other students (past and present) or experienced community members.

Enabling education has a respected and established place in Australian higher education as an alternative pathway into university study. While the value of enabling education in providing access to higher education is undeniable, its provision across Australia is necessarily diverse, as individual programs respond to the needs of their local communities. This resulting diversity makes it difficult to gain insight into the field of enabling education. Given the purpose of enabling education is to prepare students for tertiary study, the role of academic literacies and language (ALL) is central for both Native English Speaker and Language Background Other Than English students, and it is to this focus that this paper attends. To shed light on the field, this paper presents the findings from a national audit of enabling education, providing a much-needed overview of the enabling programs offered across Australia, focusing on the ways that language and literacies are taught, positioned and, in some cases, disconnected from practice. Drawing on this analysis, we discuss how language and literacies are positioned as either central or periphery to the core work of enabling programs and begin a discussion which seeks to place ALL at the centre of enabling education.

Although the importance of developing students' academic literacies has been well-established, academic oracy has been forgotten. There is a paucity of attention to oracy in higher education, despite the key role played by students' oral communication in academic achievement and graduate employability. This study offers a scoping review of the international scholarly literature that does exist, to explore how oracy has been framed and discussed in higher education, and whether connections have been made with the equity agenda to widen participation to traditionally under-represented groups. Following Arksey and O'Malley's framework for scoping studies, the 31 papers reviewed suggest that oracy is framed in disparate ways, reflecting disconnected understandings of the range, breadth and possibilities for oracy teaching. An oracy as product perspective prevails in the studies, with oracy predominantly explored through monologic, monoglossic activities, assessments, and graduate attributes. The review has highlighted the need to recognise an oracy for learning perspective; to establish shared understandings of the features of oracy; and to embed the teaching of oracy practices that support all students, regardless of linguistic and educational background, within their disciplinary learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of the equity/widening participation policy landscape in Australia, scholarly exploration of alternative pathways into higher education is becoming increasingly important to inform innovative pedagogies, answer complex questions, and improve outcomes and experiences for students. This article focuses on one alternative pathway, 'enabling' education, which has a 45-year history in Australia but has, for a variety of reasons, remained on the periphery of mainstream discourses about higher education. In this article, we offer a meta-scoping study of a selection of 88 journal articles and research reports focusing on Australian Enabling education. Through an analysis of who is writing, what is written and how it is written, we attempt to unite enabling education scholars in a conversation about our field and suggest ways forward to better connect with broader conversations about higher education in Australia and move enabling programs, practitioners and the students they serve into the centre stage of Australia's equity in higher education agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enabling education is an enactment of Australia's attempts to address inequity in higher education (HE), offering free, alternative pathways to students who do not enter through the 'traditional' school–university pathway. Each Australian enabling program is different in terms of size, design, curricula and length, meaning that there is significant national variation. This is particularly the case with the entry requirements for enrolment. While many enabling programs are 'open', where no entry requirements are mandated, other programs implement prerequisite mechanisms, sometimes administered by diagnostic testing instruments. The supports and resources to meet the diverse learning needs of enabling students also vary at each institution according to program design. Access to (or a lack of) appropriate support can significantly impact on students' academic progress. Drawing from the findings of two national audits of Australian enabling programs, this article explores the benefits and challenges associated with the diverse provision and operation of enabling programs. With a particular focus on the varying approaches to entry and available supports, this article examines how specific learning needs of enabling students are identified, and what type of supports are available for them to achieve positive outcomes in their study and, hence, move on to undergraduate programs. In this article, we argue that the diverse nature of enabling program design and provision complicates understandings of what constitutes 'academic readiness' for students with implications for the transferability of their enabling qualification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although journeys into and through higher education can be challenging for all learners, students from refugee backgrounds (SfRBs) face particular difficulties due to their culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds, and pre-settlement experiences of instability, insecurity, likely trauma and interrupted education. Drawing on a longitudinal, ethnographic exploration of the educational trajectories of a group adult SfRBs living in a regional Australian city, this article questions how 'traditional' understandings of transition – as linear, ritualised and predictable – can account for the complex lived experiences of SfRBs trying to access and participate in higher education studies in a resettlement context. Working with the anthropological notion of liminality (Turner 1969; Van Gennep 1960) and the notion of 'stuck places' (Lather 1998), we offer a more nuanced understanding of how 'messy' educational transitions are experienced, and how normative notions of what transition 'should be' act to mask these experiences, leaving SfRBs 'stuck' in the liminal space of becoming a student in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While there is a growing knowledge base of how students experience their transitions into and through university, little is known about how they experience the temporal dimensions of their higher education (HE) studies, particularly for culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) students. This article draws on Australian longitudinal research that sought to track the experiences of one particularly marginalised group of adult learners – students from refugee backgrounds – as they moved into and through university study. While investigating experiences of time was not an explicit goal of this enquiry, our analysis revealed this as a dominant theme. Therefore, drawing on the conceptualisation of 'timescales', this article presents an analysis of the meeting of academic time and the temporalities of students from refugee backgrounds. Using a typology of students' social meanings of time, we found that time was experienced by the students in our study primarily as wasted/ing time; as a goal or achievement; and as compressed time. We identify areas where these perceptions, enactments and feelings about time can create significant challenges for these students, which are exacerbated by their cultural and linguistic differences with those of the host institution. We contend that these challenges are shared by other 'non-traditional' students who balance multiple responsibilities alongside their studies, and we make recommendations for how universities might better respond to their complex needs and lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the methodological and logistical complexities that underpin multi‐method, multi‐sited, multi‐phased research with vulnerable communities. The project on which we draw was a 3‐year Australian government‐funded, longitudinal and cross‐sectional exploration of students from refugee backgrounds (SfRBs) as they moved into, through and out of higher education from three different contexts, educational pathways and localities in Australia. While all students entering and participating in higher education may experience challenges, for SfRBs these are compounded by their linguistic and cultural diversity, instability, possible trauma and disrupted schooling. In the project presented in this article, these complexities and their relationships with transitions to higher education were captured through diverse methods and methodologies at three research sites, including longitudinal research with repeat interviews and cross‐sectional, explorative methods. The opportunities provided by this methodological approach far outweighed the ethical and practical difficulties navigated by each of the research teams. The 'thick' data produced through prolonged and repeat engagements with a small cohort of participants at one site were made richer through explorations of differing social and geographical contexts across all three sites. Further, our collective interpretations of the data were made more robust through the reciprocity and reflexivity inherent in ethically researching with (not on) SfRBs and through multiple cross‐site research team interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes a rich picture of how students from refugee backgrounds navigate their way into and through undergraduate studies in a regional Australian university, paying particular attention to their access to and use of different forms of support. We draw on the conceptualisation of ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ knowledge, offered by Ball and Vincent (1998. “‘I Heard it on the Grapevine’: ‘Hot’ Knowledge and School Choice.”British Journal of Sociology of Education19 (3): 377–400), and the addition of ‘warm’ knowledge offered by Slack et al. (2014. “‘Hot’, ‘Cold’ and ‘Warm’ Information and Higher Education Decision Making.”British Journal of Sociology of Education35 (2): 204–223), to develop an understanding of how students from refugee backgrounds make choices about how they locate, select and access support for their studies. The findings of this paper suggest that students from refugee backgrounds do not view the ‘cold’ (unfamiliar-formal) institutional support on offer as ‘for them’; instead they expressed a preference for the ‘warm’ (familiar-formal) support offered via ‘trusted’ people who act as literacy/sociocultural brokers or ‘hot’ (familiar-informal) support of their grapevine of other students (past and present) or experienced community members. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]