Faculty of Education - Research Publications
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ItemBilingual Education in Australia(Springer International Publishing, 2017)The Australian experience of bilingual education is composed of three separate audiences: Indigenous groups and their languages, immigrant groups and their languages (both of these groups seeking language maintenance and intergenerational vitality), and mainstream English speakers seeking additive language study. All these interests share a common aim of lobbying for more serious and substantial language education programs, but differ significantly in the purposes and context of their promotion of bilingual education. This chapter provides an overview of historical, political, and educational influences on forms of bilingual education that have emerged, in the context of state and national language policy and practices, to meet the needs of Indigenous Australians, migrant communities, and Anglophones.
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ItemRecognizing Diversity: The Incipient Role of Intercultural Education in Thailand(SPRINGER, 2016)Thailand has a long and consistent policy of denying concessions to a pluralist vision of its identity which would arise from formal recognition of differences, and has never embraced, at the official level, any discourse approximating multiculturalism. Instead, it has stressed the importance of minority assimilation to established and privileged norms, and succeeded in propagating a general perception of itself, both domestically and internationally, as ethnically homogenous. Despite this attempt to create an image of cultural homogeneity, as the first section of this chapter demonstrates, Thailand has a long history of diversity, from the polyethnic foundations of the Kingdom of Siam to the geophysical demarcation of its territory. Suppression of diversity in Thailand has resulted in ethnic stratification, the consequences of which reverberate throughout modern society. The second component of the chapter focuses on an education commission undertaken through the UNICEF Language, Education and Social Cohesion (LESC) Initiative, a component of the UNICEF Peacebuilding, Education and Advocacy (PBEA) Programme. Activities undertaken through the LESC Initiative, and through this particular mapping exercise, represent important groundwork in creating a dialogue around difference and how it is represented and engaged with in the Thai education system. In the context of the exercise in curriculum mapping, some reflections on the relevance of the notions of multicultural education for the specific setting and historical circumstances of Thailand are elaborated.
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ItemBringing Asia to the Home Front: The Australian Experience of Asian Language Education through National Policy(MULTILINGUAL MATTERS LTD, 2011)The East Asia and Pacific (EAP) region encompasses one-third of the world’s population and more than one-quarter of the world’s children – around 580 million children in total. The region possesses a stunning variety in geography, culture and political and economic systems and significant diversity can be seen within countries in terms of wealth, ethnicity and language. The EAP region is also diverse in terms of education provision. While some countries have achieved the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 2015, specifically, the Education For All commitments, many have not. A significant portion of the population continues to experience multiple deprivations, including access to and quality of education. Governments are making efforts to achieve ‘inclusive growth’ and working to distribute the benefits of economic development to all sections of society, as they mainstream the MDGs’ gains and its continuous application in the newly approved Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Many are increasingly recognising education as a pivotal component of inclusive growth.(From introduction)
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ItemLanguage policy and education in Australia(Springer International Publishing, 2017)Australia’s language policy history reflects the country’s complex linguistic demography and multiple policy needs and interests. Languages and language policy have played an important and evolving role in the formation of Australia as a postcolonial, immigrant, and trading nation, moving from the suppression of Indigenous languages and a preference for British English norms through colonization, to greater assertion of language rights for Indigenous and immigrant languages, and onto economically motivated language planning. The policy landscape has been intermittently shaped by decisive policies for language policy and language education policy, as well as educational interventions such as the prioritization of English literacy. This chapter provides an overview of the historical, political, and educational influences on the language policy landscape in Australia, including achievements in addressing Indigenous and community language needs, along with supporting second language acquisition more broadly in the education system. However, the absence of a national language policy contributes to a weak language policy environment, where language rights are highly politicized and the loss of collaborative language policy processes has led to fragmented and fragile language program provision.
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ItemVideoconferencing and the networked provision of language programs in regional and rural schools(Cambridge Core, 2019-05-01)The use of videoconferencing technology to support the delivery of language programs shows great potential in regional and rural settings where a lack of access to specialist teachers limits equitable access to education. In this article, we investigate the establishment of two regional and rural primary school networks in Australia for videoconferenced language learning. Adopting a perspective taken from the discipline of information systems called structuration theory, we examine how the technology they use both changes and is changed by its use in language learning, and how schools and teachers take control of technology and adapt their educational approaches. Case studies were carried out on the two networks using multiple data sources, including interviews and observation of language classes. The findings reveal that even with the same conceptual foundations and aims, divergent models of practice emerge as sustainable adaptations to localised factors. These differences are shaped by, among other things, an interplay between the quality of infrastructure, prior knowledge, and the "material properties" of the technology, including its functions, limits, and deployment in physical space. A closer look at these practices illustrates limitations and possibilities specifically for language education, but also more broadly illustrates how the success of these videoconferencing initiatives are influenced by a nuanced combination of social, educational, and technological factors.
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ItemLanguage programming in rural and regional Victoria: Making space for local viewpoints in policy development(John Benjamins Publishing, 2019-12-10)Despite decades of often ambitious policies in Australia, languages education is still characterized by intermittent commitment to the teaching of languages, with inequitable access particularly entrenched in rural and regional contexts. While research has focused on the practical and material constraints impacting on policy implementation, little research has investigated the role of the discursive terrain in shaping expectations and limitations around what seems achievable in schools, particularly, from the school principal perspective. Beginning with an overview of policy interventions and an analysis of contemporary challenges, we use Q methodology to identify and analyze viewpoints at work in similarly-positioned rural and regional schools. In doing so, we seek to determine what seems possible or impossible across settings; the role of principals in enabling and constraining pathways for the provision of school language programs, and the need for macro-level language policy to be informed by constraints specific to rural and regional contexts.
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ItemLanguages Provision in Victorian Government Schools, 2017(Victorian Department of Education and Training, 2018)Comprehensive data about the provision of Languages education in Victorian government schools has been collected centrally and published since 1991 by the Victorian Department of Education and Training (DET). This report provides an analysis of the provision of Languages education in 2017 in Victorian government schools, including the Victorian School of Languages (VSL). It also includes data about the provision of Languages education in accredited community languages schools funded by DET in 2017. The report does not include data about the provision of Languages education in non-government schools.
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ItemLanguages Provision in Victorian Government Schools, 2016(Department of Education and Training Victoria, 2017)The following analysis reviews Languages education in Victorian government primary and secondary schools over the last seven years. It provides an overview of the current state of Languages and highlights the differing patterns in the study of Languages at the primary and secondary levels.
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ItemLanguages Provision in Victorian Government Schools, 2013(Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, 2013)
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ItemNo Preview AvailableLanguages Education through Virtual conferencing: How to set up or participate in languages programs using virtual conferencing - A Manual for principals and teachers(Department of Education and Train, 2015)