(Re)imagining linguistically sustaining early education in Queensland, Australia

Abstract: This PhD project uses a critical, post-structural nlens to examine the role of language in early education policy and practice. While Australia has been home to multilingual and multicultural communities for over 65,000 years, recognition for language diversity in education has largely been ignored, undermined by monoglossic policy and discourses. This mixed-methods project will expose such contradictions in early education policy; but also aims to “think otherwise” through an exploration of “positive deviance” in Queensland classrooms. By combining these top down and bottom up perspectives, and building on sociolinguistic theories of language ideologies and culturally and linguistically sustaining pedagogies, this project ultimately seeks to (re)imagine an education system that embraces and sustains the linguistic and cultural strengths of all students.

Project member: Naomi Fillmore