Abstract
The state of language education in Australia has long been described as paradoxical. Oscillating between periods of increased attention and seeming invisibility, over the last thirty years, the language learning sector has been punctuated by a succession of aspirational declarations and funding injections with little long-term impact on its overall standing. Despite the increasingly multilingual makeup of Australian society, language education at all levels has largely remained stuck amidst monolingualising education policies and alarmist discourses. The latest instance of this paradoxical condition is a fee-reduction incentive for university students to study a language, which, in practice, stands to further weaken the language offerings in many Higher Education institutions. In this paper, we use the imagery of circularities and ripples to explore the challenges facing language education across sectors in Australia. Through data collected in Queensland secondary schools, we discuss how these challenges transcend the traditional delineation of macro-, meso-, and micro-levels of language policy and planning. We argue that challenges go both in circles within the same level (circularity) and flow outwards to other levels (ripples), which include Higher Education. For this reason, siloed approaches to funding and scholarly research contribute to a wicked state of inertia and, ultimately, diminish opportunities to break free from these cycles in the future. We conclude by acknowledging our complicit roles and ethical responsibilities as Higher Education scholars in the perpetuation of these cycles, as but a first step in engaging productively with the possibilities of leveraging these rippling circularities.
Appendix 1: Interview guiding questions
Background information and general perceptions
Could you please tell me a little bit about your background and your experience working at this school? Have you always worked in the education sector? What have been your work experiences?
Did you study a language at school? How was that experience?
Nowadays in the papers, there’s a lot of talk about emphasising Maths and Science at school as well as about the need for working on basic literacy. How do you see languages fitting in amongst these competing demands?
Do you think there are immediate and long-term benefits of language learning for secondary students?
Now talking about your school in particular
We selected your school because you have a very successful language program. To what do you attribute the success?
Has it always been successful like this or have you faced any problems or challenges?
How did you deal with these problems? Is there any discussion of strategies to address problems concerning language programs in your professional network, or in Brisbane annual conferences for principals for example? Do you have access to any resources or support?
What would make you decide to open a new language in the school?
What are some strategies to retain students in languages?
What is your system/strategy to recruit language teachers in your schools?
Based on your experience of running language program in your school, what do you think are the most important factors that hinder or facilitate language programs in general?
What recommendations or advice do you have for other schools?
Have you got any plans for your school’s future language program? What would be needed to make this happen? Do you expect any kind of support from government or elsewhere?
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