Rosemary Ross Johnston has inspired many students’ love of literature throughout her career.
Last month, her dedication to teaching and literature saw the Oxford University Press author and Professor of Education and Culture at the University of Technology, Sydney, awarded an AM in the 2019 Queen’s Birthday Honours for ‘significant service to higher education and to children’s literature’.
Here, we find out what drives Rosemary’s passion for education and literature, and why storytelling is so important for young people.
What was your response to hearing you had been awarded an AM, and what does the award mean to you?
My field of research, from my long ago PhD to more current teaching and writing, has been Australian literature, which I love. I feel moved to have been honoured with an award that is an ‘Order of Australia’.
Can you tell me about your career path?
I have been a teacher in both public and private schools and an academic for over 25 years. I had the opportunity to create a university centre that has over many years developed great teams and worked towards overcoming educational disadvantage in both remote and regional Indigenous communities, as well as over the last twenty years or so in low ICSEA (Index of Cultural, Social and Economic Advantage) schools around Greater Sydney.
What inspired you to pursue this career?
My love of young people and a strong desire to help them find and strive towards personal goals.
Why did you develop a special interest in literature?
I cannot remember when I didn’t read. When I was about seven years old, my father brought home for me a bundle of the ‘Anne’ books of LM Montgomery. I loved them – the adventures of Anne herself of course, but also the descriptions of Prince Edward Island and of her love for it, as I was already beginning to love the landscapes of Australia. Books such as these not only tuned my mind to the power of words but tuned my eyes to the beauty of the world. Later I fell in love with many of our poets and artists. It was a huge joy to me when a few years ago a colleague made it possible for me to bring Les Murray to our campus.
Do you have any secrets of successfully teaching (and specifically, teaching literature)?
Love it, and let your love shine through to students – then be generous and unselfconscious in sharing that love, and why. I never labour tedious explanations – I just want the words and ideas to captivate and embrace, then hopefully the students and I go on a journey together, trying to work out why and how the words and ideas do this. For years with my first year students I would finish a lecture with a short children’s story or poem – put on a storyteller’s cloak and turned the lights in the lecture theatre very low. I ignored the early sneers and giggles of a sophisticated few – they came around. That’s the power of words and story.
Have the ways young people approach literature, or education, changed over the time you have been working in education?
Education itself has probably become a more serious endeavour and concern for many young people. More are setting their sights on going into some sort of tertiary study, but STEM education is the flavour of the month, and the idea of ‘literature’ does not feel so relevant. But of course, as the great science writers (Paul Davies, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Brian Cox, Stephen Hawking) show, it is. I love this by Carl Sagan, ‘The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself’, and this by Brian Greene, ‘The universe – being composed of an enormous number of vibrating strings – is akin to a cosmic symphony.’ I’ve used both in my new book.
What role does/can literature play in the lives of young Australians?
There’s a lot of competition for children’s time, and many studies show that children aren’t reading as much. This is sad, as literature – stories – enhance our lives. Parents need to read stories to children whenever they can. Teachers should read a story per day to their class, at least.
What are the most satisfying elements of teaching in higher education or in schools?
Watching the power of words and of ideas touch and then open young minds. It’s inspiring to see. In my new nearly-finished book (Shifting Horizons: Educating young Australians in the 21st century) I tell a true story from my early school teaching days about a young boy from a very difficult background, who was highly disruptive. Nothing seemed to work until I gave him an exercise book and asked him to write me a story about himself – a diary. He would wait in the carpark each morning, to show me what he had written the night before.
Is there anything you would like to see change in the way Australians are taught about literature?
Literature is a grand resource in teaching both what the curriculum calls ‘Cross-curriculum Priorities’ and ‘General Capabilities’. There is no better aid to learning than the power of story. Children’s books – good ones – are no longer ‘just’ for children, and they have the additional advantage of being short and often being illustrated. Want to teach about ‘sustainability’ and the environment? Look at any of Jeannie Baker’s books. Want to teach about ‘Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia’? Look at My Place by Nadia Wheatley and Donna Rawlins, and Diana Kidd’s Onion Tears. Want to teach about ‘Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history and cultures’? Look at Do not go around the edges, by Daisy Utemorrah and Pat Torres, and The Papunya Schoolbook of Country and History. And note how these categories often overlap and intersect – for example, some of Bronwyn Bancroft’s books celebrate both the environment, and Aboriginal history and culture.
Is there anything else you would like to mention?
I would like publishers to be more courageous about what they publish for young people. JK Rowling broke into a time when books for young people were short, short chapters, simple words; her books were long, complicated, with complex words and ideas, and children loved them. Don’t play down, play up!
Rosemary Ross Johnston is a judge of the 2019 Oxford Children’s Word of the Year writing competition. She is also author of Australian Literature for Young People and co-author of Literacy: Reading, Writing and Children’s Literature.
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