Dr Nathan Lowien

Biography

Nathan is a Senior Lecturer in English, Literacies and Language in the School of Education at the University of New England (UNE). Nathan’s research is focused on the English curriculum and pedagogy. He investigates the interrelationship between language, literature and literacy in multimodal texts such as videogames, animated films and online advertisements. Nathan uses systemic functional linguistic and semiotic theory and multimodal critical discourse analysis research methodologies. His research contributes to multimodal theory and the applied research field of English pedagogy. Nathan is the Coordinator for the Literacy and Numeracy Test for Initial Teacher Education Students at UNE. He serves the profession through his involvement with the Australian Literacy Educators' Association (ALEA), the Australian Systemic Functional Semiotics Association (ASFLA) and is an Associate Editor of The Australian Journal of Language and Literacy. Nathan has been awarded an ALEA Associate Fellow and the 2024 ALEA Doctoral Thesis Award.

Qualifications

BEd (Primary), Grad Cert ESOL, MEd, Ph.D.

Awards

ALEA Associate Fellow (2023-2028); the ALEA Doctoral Thesis Award (2024)

Teaching Areas

English Curriculum and Pedagogy

Language, Literature and Literacy

Multimodality

Systemic Functional Linguistics/Semiotics

Research Supervision Experience

I have supervised Master’s and Ph.D. students in the following areas, and am open to receive inquiries about research supervision in any of the above or other allied areas.

• English Curriculum
• Language and Literacy
• Systemic Functional Linguistics/Semiotics
• Videogames
• Values Education

Publications

Journal articles

Bacalja, A., Nichols, T. P., Robinson, B., Bhatt, I., Kucharczyk, S., Zomer, C., Nash, B., Dupont, B., De Cock, R., Zaman, B., Bonenfant, M., Grosemans, E., Abrams, S. S., Vallis, C., Koutsogiannis, D., Dishon, G., Reed, J., Byers, T., Fawzy, R. M., … Schnaider, K. (2024). Postdigital Videogames Literacies: Thinking With, Through, and Beyond James Gee’s Learning Principles. Postdigital Science and Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42438-024-00510-3

Barton, G., Lowien, N., & Hu, Y. (2021). A critical semiotic investigation of Asian stereotypes in the short film Bao: Implications for classroom practice. Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, 44(1), 5–17.

Barton, G., Riddle, S., & Lowien, N. (2024). ““The last bastion of democracy”: teachers’ perceptions of the democratic potential of English curriculum”. English Teaching: Practice & Critique. https://doi.org/10.1108/ETPC-08-2024-0127

Lowien, N. (2016a). ‘It’s easy!’: Scaffolding literacy for teaching multimodal texts. Literacy Learning: The Middle Years, 24(1), 38–52.

Lowien, N. (2016b). The semiotic construction of values in the videogame watch dogs. English in Australia, 51(2), 41–51.

Lowien, N. (2022a). Game Time: Games for the consolidation of grammar and assessment. Practical Literacy: The Early and Primary Years, 26(1), 29–33.

Lowien, N. (2022b). Teaching the Australian Curriculum English: Pre-service teachers’ knowledge and confidence in the middle primary years. Literacy Learning: The Middle Years, 30(1), 52–64.

Lowien, N. (2022d). How Pinocchio avoids lying. Practical Literacy the Early and Primary Years, 27(3), 22–25.

Lowien, N., & Thomas, D. (2023). Generative AI Writing Tools and the Australian Curriculum: English. Practical Literacy: The Early and Primary Years, 28(3), 26–28.

Thomas, D., & Lowien, N. (2024). Developing students’ metalinguistic understandings. The Bulletin, 56(1), 19–23.

Book Chapters

Kerby, M., Baguley, M., Lowien, N., & Ayre, K. (2019). Australian Not by Blood, but by Character: Soldiers and Refugees in Australian Children’s Picture Books. In The Palgrave Handbook of Artistic and Cultural Response to War SINCE 1941. Palgrave. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96986-2_18

Riddle, S., Lowien, N., & Barton, G. (2024). English teaching for democratic futures The role of language, literacy and literature in developing creative and critical thinkers. In A. Goodwyn, J. Manuel, C. Durrant, M. Gorge, W. Sawyer, & M. Shoffner (Eds.), English language arts as an emancipatory subject (pp. 40–49).

Thesis

Lowien, N. (2022c). The Semiotic Construction of Evaluative Meaning in Videogames: Explicating the Portray of Values [The University of Southern Queensland]. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.26192/x4242

Memberships

The Australian Literacy Educators' Association (ALEA)

The Australian Systemic Functional Semiotics Association (ASFLA)

External Profiles

• Google Scholar Profile
• ORCid Profile