LLEN member awarded Reading Australia Fellowship

Congratulations to Libby Baker who has been awarded the 2025 Reading Australia Fellowship, a $15,000 annual grant supporting experienced English and literacy teachers to research ways of enriching the teaching of Australian literature.

Libby’s project is focussed on diversity in children’s picture books, analysing how race, gender, disability, and age are represented in main characters. Using a functional approach, the research will study both images and written texts to identify how different social groups are portrayed.

The findings will provide teachers and librarians with practical insights and recommendations to select and promote inclusive texts, supporting more equitable classroom practice and strengthening national engagement with diverse Australian stories.

Libby is teacher and literacy consultant as well as a member of the LLEN Professional Learning and Materials Publications consortium. For more information, contact Libby at https://libbybakerliteracy.com/