Faculty of Education - Research Publications
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ItemEarly childhood educators’ viewpoints on linguistic and cultural diversity: A Q methodology analysis(Elsevier BV, 2024-02)Language and linguistic diversity play a key role in disparities in academic achievement. With around 25 % of preschool children in Australia communicating in a language other than English at home, developing a greater understanding of early childhood educators’ viewpoints towards, and engagement with, children's linguistic and cultural resources is vital. This research project asks how educators in early childhood settings view children's linguistic and cultural diversity. Employing Q methodology, the study investigated subjective viewpoints among educators at the early childhood level in Australia. Three distinct viewpoints were identified, shedding light on the complexities of language and culture related issues, as well as some of the challenges for EC educators in responding to the diverse needs of children. The findings reinforce the need for tailored pre-service and in-service professional learning that supports the development of teacher identity as well as their theoretical and pedagogical knowledge of multilingual language development.
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ItemFrom the periphery to centre stage: The mainstreaming of Italian in the Australian education system (1960s to 1990s)(Cambridge University Press, 2022-11-11)This article examines the complex drivers of change in language education that have resulted in Australia having the highest number of students learning Italian in the world. An analysis of academic and non-academic literature, policy documents, and quantitative data helps trace the trajectory of the Italian language in the Australian education system, from the 1960s to the 1990s, illustrating the interaction of different variables that facilitated the shift in Italian's status from a largely immigrant language to one of the most widely studied languages in Australia. This research documents the factors behind the successful mainstreaming of Italian into schools, which, in addition to the active support it received from the Italian community and the Italian government, also included, notably, the ability of different Australian governments to address societal transformation and to respond to the emerging practical challenges in scaling up new language education initiatives in a detailed and comprehensive manner.
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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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ItemResearching Young Lives: Methodologies, Methods, Practices and Perspectives. Volume 1.(Youth Research Centre, 2018)Within each report, each case study is a snapshot of an actual research project currently being conducted in the YRC. Our researchers are sharing their experiences and offering their advice for conducting social research in an increasingly complex and diverse societal environment. The practices presented in this series of research reports reflect the innovative and contemporary research methodologies and methods undertaken by YRC staff and students. Some of the methods illustrated here are traditional but employed in new ways; while other methodologies and methods depart from conventional research practices to cover more innovative practices to investigate and understand the multidimensional ways of being young in the twenty-first century.