David Luke Caldwell

APrf David Luke Caldwell

Associate Professor

School of Education

College of Education, Behavioural and Social Sciences

Available For Media Comment.

Dr David Caldwell is an Associate Professor in English Language and Literacy in Education Futures.
David completed his Bachelor of Teaching, Bachelor of Arts(Hons) and Master of Arts in linguistics at Deakin University (Melbourne), and his PhD in linguistics at the University of Sydney. He then completed a post in Singapore where he worked as an Assistant Professor at the National Institute of Education in the School of English Language and Literature, before joining UniSA in 2014.
David’s research applies functional linguistics to a range of contemporary contexts, with a focus on the role language plays in learning, identity and inclusion.  These contexts have included the on-field language practices of sports people, the language demands of NAPLAN and STEM, literacy practices on the APY Lands, English wordings on t-shirts in South-East Asia, the role of ‘Asia literacy’ in the Australian Curriculum, KanYe West’s hip-hop, and medical consultations between hospital patients and psychiatrists.  Drawing on these various educational sites, ‘non-traditional’ texts, and marginalized language users, David aims to disrupt prescriptive discourses of language to facilitate social inclusion, and at the same time, demonstrate the value in understanding how language works to solve real-world problems.  David is currently the co-series editor for the Bloomsbury series: Studies in Systemic Functional Linguistics and a co-conveyor of the AILA Research Network: Applied Linguistics in Sport.
David has more than 20 years experience teaching at a tertiary level, where he has taught a range of subjects in English language, literacy, and social linguistics. He has trained English language teachers for primary, secondary and tertiary level education in Australia and overseas. During his postgraduate studies, David taught in numerous primary school classrooms throughout Melbourne and Sydney. He currently provides professional learning sessions in English language and literacy to teachers and schools throughout South Australia.

Research Areas

Systemic Functional Linguistics, Social Semiotics, Genre Pedagogy in Australian Schools, Sports Discourse, Aboriginal and TSI Education, Hip-hop Culture and Pedagogy

Projects (selected)

Being heard: Remixing critical literacy for active citizenship, with Windle, J & Baak, M, Primary English Teaching Association of Australia Research Grant: CAT–2: $70 157.99

Evaluation of language and literacy levels tool, Department for Education, SA: CAT–2: $62 701.00

Student perceptions about their literacy development and language(s) practices, with Nichols, S & Yoshida, R, Adelaide Secondary School of English: CAT–2: $34 000.00

LLIS: Language for Learning Improvement: Science Pilot Project: CAT–2: Department of Education: $45 455.00

Digital literacy champions: Exemplary practice for 21st Century English Teaching: UniSA: URIPA Seed and Mentoring Grant: $14 434.80

Real Language in Real Time: Tracking the On-field Language Practices of SAASTA Students in the Aboriginal Power Cup: UniSA/Australian Government: Higher Education Participation and Partnerships Program: $94 719.00

Fresh water literacies: An interdisciplinary international study with primary teachers and researchers: UniSA: Research Themes Investment Scheme Seed Funding Grant: $34 606.00

Language, literacy and learning in cosmopolitan Asia: a study tour of Singapore’s National Institute of Education for Australian pre-service teachers: Australian Government, New Colombo Plan: $36 000.00

Year Citation
2025 Singh, N., Caldwell, D., & Mu, M. (2025). Pre-service teachers' experiences of learning grammar to support EAL/D learners. TESOL in Context, 33(2), 1-15.
DOI
2025 Caldwell, D. (2025). Memories of meaning-making: looking back at genre writing. Practical Literacy: The Early and Primary Years, 30(1), 4-7.
2024 Stahl, G., Brock, C., Sharplin, E., Caldwell, D., Young, J., & Boyd, F. (2024). 'Because the rules out there are different…': a case study of pre-service teachers' experiences in remote Australian Indigenous education. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 44(2), 326-339.
DOI
2023 Caldwell, D. (2023). Enacting power, solidarity and masculinity in sport: a discourse analysis of the language-in-action of Aboriginal boys. International Journal of Educational Research, 121(102227), 1-10.
DOI
2021 Brock, C. H., Caldwell, D., Rehbein, T. L., & Boyd, F. B. (2021). An ode to a state park: creating poetry during a summer writing camp. The Reading Teacher, 74(6), 807-811.
DOI
2021 Doran, Y. J., Caldwell, D., & Ross, A. S. (2021). Language in action: sport, mode and division of semiotic labour. Language, Context and Text, 3(2), 274-301.
DOI
2021 Soong, H., & Caldwell, D. (2021). Tensions, transformations and travel: comparative narratives of 'becoming' a cosmopolitan educator through an overseas study tour in Singapore. Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education, 13(2), 132-144.
DOI
2020 Ross, A. S., & Caldwell, D. (2020). 'Going negative': An APPRAISAL analysis of the rhetoric of Donald Trump on Twitter. Language and communication, 70, 13-27.
DOI
2020 Caldwell, D. (2020). Sounds of the game: an interpersonal discourse analysis of 'on field' language in sports media. Discourse, Context and Media, 33(100363), 1-10.
DOI
2020 Stahl, G., Brock, C., Young, J., Caldwell, D., Sharplin, E., & Boyd, F. (2020). Dispositions towards diversity: two pre-service teachers' experiences of living and teaching in a remote indigenous community. Pedagogy, culture and society, 28(4), 525-542.
DOI
2018 Paige, K., Lloyd, D., Caldwell, D., Comber, B., O'Keeffe, L., Osborne, S., & Roetman, P. (2018). Futures in primary science education-connecting students to place and ecojustice. Visions for sustainability, 9, 49-59.
DOI
2017 Caldwell, D., & White, P. R. R. (2017). That's not a narrative; this is a narrative: NAPLAN and pedagogies of storytelling. Australian journal of language and literacy, 40(1), 16-27.
2017 Caldwell, D. (2017). Printed t-shirts in the linguistic landscape: a reading from functional linguistics. Linguistic landscape, 3(2), 122-148.
DOI
2017 Caldwell, D., Cominos, N., & Gloede, K. (2017). My words, my literacy: tracking of and teaching through the on-field language practices of Australian Indigenous boys. Boyhood studies an interdisciplinary journal, 10(2), 11-36.
DOI
2015 Brock, C. H., Boyd, F. B., & Caldwell, D. (2015). Book club: A view from Mrs Nguyen's grade four classroom. Practical Literacy, 20(3), 5-8.
2015 White, P., Mammone, G., & Caldwell, D. L. (2015). Linguistically based inequality, multilingual education and a genre-based literacy development pedagogy: insights from the Australian experience. Language and Education, 29(3), 256-271.
DOI
2014 Caldwell, D. (2014). The interpersonal voice: applying appraisal to the rap and sung voice. Social semiotics, 24(1), 40-55.
DOI
2009 Caldwell, D. L. (2009). 'Working your words': appraisal in the AFL post-match interview. Australian review of applied linguistics, 32(2), 1-17.
DOI
2008 Caldwell, D. L. (2008). 'Affiliating with Rap Music: political rap or gangsta rap?'. Novitas - ROYAL, 2(1), 13-27.

Year Citation
2022 Martin, J. R., Knox, J. S., & Caldwell, D. (2022). Introduction: introducing appliable linguistics. In D. Caldwell, J. S. Knox, & J. R. Martin (Eds.), Source details - Title: Appliable Linguistics and Social Semiotics: Developing Theory from Practice (pp. 1-20). UK: Bloomsbury Academic.
2022 Caldwell, D. (2022). A hip-hop battle: describing sound in the contested academy. In D. Caldwell, J. S. Knox, & J. R. Martin (Eds.), Source details - Title: Appliable Linguistics and Social Semiotics: Developing Theory from Practice (pp. 67-80). UK: Bloomsbury Academic.
DOI
2019 Cominos, N., Caldwell, D., & Gloede, K. (2019). Brotherhood and belonging: creating pedagogic spaces for positive discourses of Aboriginal youth. In S. Habib, & M. Ward (Eds.), Source details - Title: Youth, place and theories of belonging (pp. 92-108). UK: Routledge.
DOI
2018 Soong, H., Caldwell, D., & Restall, G. (2018). Teaching Chinese language for Asia literacy: Chinese teachers' experiences teaching Australian students. In H. Cominos (Ed.), Source details - Title: Asia literacy in a global world (pp. 145-163). Singapore: Springer.
DOI
2018 Caldwell, D., & Nichols, S. (2018). Images of 'Asia literacy': an analysis of online representations. In H. Soong, & N. Cominos (Eds.), Source details - Title: Asia literacy in a global world: an Australian perspective (pp. 101-123). Singapore: Springer.
DOI
2017 Walsh, J., & Caldwell, D. (2017). The visceral and the Analytics Discourses in the Evaluation of Sports Players. In D. Caldwell, J. Walsh, E. Vine, & J. Jureidini (Eds.), The Discourse of Sport Analyses from Social Linguistics (pp. 113-130). USA: Taylor & Francis.
2016 Caldwell, D. (2016). But they didn't win the Super Bowl! Printed t-shirts as place/d resources. In S. Nichols, & C. Snowden (Eds.), Source details - Title: Languages and literacies as mobile and placed resources (pp. 10-29). United Kingdom: Routledge.
2016 Caldwell, D., Walsh, J., Vine, E. W., & Jureidini, J. (2016). Discourse, linguistics, sport and the academy. In Source details - Title: The discourse of sport: analyses from social linguistics (pp. 1-12). New York, US: Routledge.
2015 Brock, C., Caldwell, D., & Wiest, L. (2015). "I hope my writing will change your opinion": A critique of disciplinary writing instruction in a Grade Six classroom. In J. Turbill, G. Barton, & C. Brock (Eds.), Source details - Title: Teaching writing in today's classrooms: Looking back to look forward (pp. 123-137). Australia: Australian Literacy Educators' Association.
2014 Caldwell, D. (2014). A comparative analysis of the rap and the sung voice: perspectives from systemic phonology, social semiotics and music studies. In W. Bowcher, & B. Smith (Eds.), Source details - Title: Systematic phonology: recent studies in English (pp. 235-263). UK: Equinox Publishing.
2011 Caldwell, D., & Zappavigna, M. (2011). Visualising multimodal prosody. In Source details - Title: Semiotic margins: meaning in multimodalities (pp. 229-242). UK: Continuum.
2011 Caldwell, D. L., & Zappavigna, M. (2011). Visualizing multimodal patterning. In S. Dreyfus, S. Hood, & M. Stenglin (Eds.), Source details - Title: Semiotic margins: meaning in multimodalities (pp. 229-243). UK: Continuum.
2010 Caldwell, D. (2010). Making many meanings in popular rap music. In A. Mahboob, & N. Knight (Eds.), Source details - Title: Appliable linguistics (pp. 234-251). UK: Continuum.
2009 Caldwell, D. (2009). Making metre mean: identity and affiliation in the rap music of Kanye West. In M. Bednarek, & J. Martin (Eds.), Source details - Title: New discourse on language: functional perspectives on multimodality, identity, and affiliation (pp. 59-80). UK: Continuum.

Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
2025 External Supervisor Improving Argumentative English Writing Skills in Chinese Undergraduates: A Comprehensive Investigation into Rhetorical Practices Using a Genre-Based Approach Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mrs Shanshan Liang
2015 External Supervisor The Role of Case-Based Learning in the Development and Demonstration of Clinical Reasoning in Undergraduate Medical Education Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Ms Helen Fraser

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