Distraction in Australian language education policy: a call to re-centre language rights
In this paper, we provide an overview of the policies that have existed in relation to Australian First Nations students’ languages, and English language and literacy learning before exploring how the politics of distraction manifests in this context. We then share our findings of an analysis of Aus...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Journal Article |
| Published: |
Taylor & Francis
2024
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/95319 |
| _version_ | 1848766000716054528 |
|---|---|
| author | Steele, Carly Oliver, Rhonda |
| author_facet | Steele, Carly Oliver, Rhonda |
| author_sort | Steele, Carly |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | In this paper, we provide an overview of the policies that have existed in relation to Australian First Nations students’ languages, and English language and literacy learning before exploring how the politics of distraction manifests in this context. We then share our findings of an analysis of Australian language education policies for First Nations children and the media discourses which surround them. We argue that, in the context of First Nations languages and language learners, ‘language’ is conflated with either ‘literacy’ or ‘culture’ to distract from the sovereign language rights of First Nations peoples in Australia. We draw on the notion of ‘policy narrowing’ to explain this policy distraction and the ways in which it reproduces educational inequities for First Nations students in the Australian schooling system. To counter this, and the surrounding media discourses, governing educational bodies should re-centre language rights and language learner diversity in policymaking. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T11:44:11Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-95319 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T11:44:11Z |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| publisher | Taylor & Francis |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-953192024-08-09T03:48:01Z Distraction in Australian language education policy: a call to re-centre language rights Steele, Carly Oliver, Rhonda In this paper, we provide an overview of the policies that have existed in relation to Australian First Nations students’ languages, and English language and literacy learning before exploring how the politics of distraction manifests in this context. We then share our findings of an analysis of Australian language education policies for First Nations children and the media discourses which surround them. We argue that, in the context of First Nations languages and language learners, ‘language’ is conflated with either ‘literacy’ or ‘culture’ to distract from the sovereign language rights of First Nations peoples in Australia. We draw on the notion of ‘policy narrowing’ to explain this policy distraction and the ways in which it reproduces educational inequities for First Nations students in the Australian schooling system. To counter this, and the surrounding media discourses, governing educational bodies should re-centre language rights and language learner diversity in policymaking. 2024 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/95319 10.1080/14664208.2024.2358273 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Taylor & Francis fulltext |
| spellingShingle | Steele, Carly Oliver, Rhonda Distraction in Australian language education policy: a call to re-centre language rights |
| title | Distraction in Australian language education policy: a call to re-centre language rights |
| title_full | Distraction in Australian language education policy: a call to re-centre language rights |
| title_fullStr | Distraction in Australian language education policy: a call to re-centre language rights |
| title_full_unstemmed | Distraction in Australian language education policy: a call to re-centre language rights |
| title_short | Distraction in Australian language education policy: a call to re-centre language rights |
| title_sort | distraction in australian language education policy: a call to re-centre language rights |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/95319 |