Microsoft Word - WICKERT_FORMATTED.docx


 

 
  
L I T E R A C Y  &  N U M E R A C Y  S T U D I E S  V O L  2 0  N O  2  2 0 1 2  49 
 

Vale Alison Lee 
 

ROSIE WICKERT 
  

 

Literacy educators world-wide will be saddened to hear of the death 
of Professor Alison Lee following a tough struggle with pancreatic cancer. 
Alison has been one of the editors of Literacy and Numeracy Studies since 
1994 and her commitment to ensuring its quality and its future will be much 
missed. 

Alison’s interest in literacy education goes back many years, starting 
with her early career as a secondary school English teacher. She soon 
moved into higher education as a literacy adviser for undergraduate 
students, from whence began her long standing research interest in literacy, 
pedagogy and knowledge-making. Her PhD study of gender, literacy and 
curriculum politics was recognized as outstanding by the Australian 
Association of Research in Education and was published in book form by 
Routledge soon after. After joining UTS in 1992, Alison’s interest in literacy 
pedagogy extended to numeracy and it was through her early publications 
in Literacy and Numeracy Studies that many became familiar with Alison’s 
distinctive approach.  

I know Alison as doctoral supervisor, co-author, co-editor, co-teacher 
and above all as friend. She changed my life as she opened the door to other 
ways of seeing and understanding literacy and its interconnections with the 
world. Team teaching alongside her was a wonderful experience. 

Alison is perhaps best known for her passionate interest in the 
pedagogy of doctoral education, for which she holds a national citation from 
the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC). With Carolyn 
Williams, an early (1999) article Forged in Fire: Narratives of Trauma in PhD 
Supervision Pedagogy immediately connected with the travails of doctoral 
students and gave them a sense of community. Since then she published 
widely on doctoral supervision, research writing and the changing nature of 
the doctorate. Her publication record in these areas is matched only with 
the consistently warm and generous support she offered to so many doctoral 
students in Australia. I recall how her workshops on academic writing 
revolutionized not only how participants understood what they were trying 
to achieve in their writing, but also how academic literacy support was 
conceptualized. 

Alison’s relationship with many of her doctoral students was ‘both-
ways’. They led her into their worlds too. Her interest in professional 
learning, such as the pedagogies of health was a more recent interest - in 



 V a l e  A l i s o n  L e e  
  

 

 
  
50 L I T E R A C Y  &  N U M E R A C Y  S T U D I E S   
 

particular the complex issues of implementing and sustaining change to 
professional practice. 

Without question, Alison was a life-changer. Not perhaps a term she 
would welcome but, as others have acknowledged, she changed the way 
many think about and theorise literacy and doctoral study. It is hard to 
reconcile with the fact that she has gone. But her truly impressive 
publication record ensures that she lives on. 

Vale Alison. You are much loved and will be much missed.