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This book is a timely comparison of the divergent worlds of policy implementation and policy ambition, the messy, often contradictory here-and-now reality of languages in schools and the sharp-edged, shiny, future-oriented representation of languages in policy. Two deep rooted tendencies in Australian political and social life, multiculturalism and Asian regionalism, are represented as key phases in the country’s experimentation with language education planning. Presenting data from a five year ethnographic study combined with a 40 year span of policy analysis, this volume is a rare book length treatment of the chasm between imagined policy and its experienced delivery, and will provide insights that policymakers around the world can draw on.
This innovative book provides an excellent and critical overview of the intention, interpretation and implementation of Australian language policies. Educationalists and language policymakers in countries, like Japan, destined to depend on immigrants for a human power shortage, will find this book instructive and insightful.
Joseph Lo Bianco is Professor of Language and Literacy Education at the University of Melbourne and a noted language planning scholar and researcher. He is currently President of Tsinghua Asian-Pacific Forum on Translation and Intercultural Studies and Past President of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.
Renata Aliani is an experienced researcher, programme manager and educator at the Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne.
Introduction: Aims, Limitations and Questions
Chapter 1: Remaking a Nation through Language Policy
Chapter 2: Australia’s Italian and Japanese
Chapter 3: The Research Approach and the Schools
Chapter 4: Student Subjectivity
Chapter 5: Pushing Policy to be Real