Rate My Professor Katrina Tour

Katrina (Ekaterina) Tour is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Education Culture and Society, Faculty of Education, at Monash University. She commenced her career as a school teacher in Belarus, teaching English and Spanish from primary to tertiary levels before moving to Australia. Tour earned the Vice-Chancellor's Commendation for Master Thesis Excellence in 2009 and the Australian Postgraduate Award in 2010 from Monash University's Faculty of Education. In her current role, she teaches in teacher education undergraduate and postgraduate programs and serves as Course Leader for the Master of TESOL. She has designed and led professional learning activities for English as an Additional Language (EAL) teachers and provided expert advice to the Australian government on digital literacies in school EAL curricula and the Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP) sector.

Tour's research focuses on digital literacies of children and adults from refugee and migrant backgrounds, examining their use of digital technologies in EAL contexts for everyday life, learning, and employment. Her projects include leading the AMEP Digital Literacies Framework and Guide: Supporting Pedagogies for Digital Literacies in Adult EAL Contexts (2021-2022), Learning through Languages: Plurilingual Pedagogy in the English Classroom (2020-2022, funded by Department of Education Victoria), Home Languages in the English Classroom (2021-2022), and Harnessing Generative AI: Understanding the Needs of the Skills for Education and Employment Program (2023-2024). Key publications encompass 'Digital mindsets: Teachers’ technology use in personal life and teaching' (2015, Language Learning & Technology, 220 citations), 'Teachers’ self-initiated professional learning through personal learning networks' (2017, Technology, Pedagogy & Education, 171 citations), 'Teaching digital literacies in EAL/ESL classrooms: Practical strategies' (2020, TESOL Journal), 'It’s a Black Hole...: Exploring Teachers’ Narratives and Practices for Digital Literacies in the Adult EAL Context' (2021, Adult Education Quarterly, with E. Creely and P. Waterhouse), and recent works such as 'Exploring AI literacy practices and capabilities of adult EAL learners from migrant and refugee backgrounds' (2026, Language Teaching Research, accepted). She has received the Dean's Award for Teaching and Learning (2023, with colleagues), Best Paper Award (2021, with E. Creely and P. Waterhouse), Dean's Award for Programs that Enhance Learning (2016), ACTA Conference Scholarship (2018), and others. Tour's contributions advance policies and pedagogies for digital literacies in EAL/TESOL settings locally and internationally, including a public lecture on 'Digital empowerment: Building adult EAL learners’ confidence and competence in digital landscapes' (2025).