Languages study and class privilege: The neoliberal effect in australian schools

Black, S

Languages study and class privilege: The neoliberal effect in australian schools

Black, S

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Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies, 2019, 17 (3), pp. 170 - 209
Issue Date:: 2019-12-01

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Black, S https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0825-0384	en_US
dc.date.issued	2019-12-01	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies, 2019, 17 (3), pp. 170 - 209	en_US
dc.identifier.issn	2051-0969	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/137434
dc.description.abstract	© 2019, Institute for Education Policy Studies. All rights reserved. In Australia’s highly multicultural and multilingual society the number of students studying languages in secondary schools has declined markedly in recent decades, but not for all students. For students from high socio-economic status (SES) families who attend elite private schools and academically selective high schools, studying traditional languages such as French or German remains a strong curriculum choice and languages continue to confer linguistic and cultural capital. Not so, however, for the majority of students in low SES government comprehensive high schools. For these students, the choice of studying languages is very limited, and for the languages courses that are available, participation rates are poor. Moreover, this social class disparity in the study of languages is ever widening as the result of neoliberal reforms to Australian schooling. In New South Wales, the focus of this paper, school choice and selective schooling policies have ensured that most students in low SES comprehensive high schools are unlikely to study languages beyond the mandatory state minimum of 100 hours in Year 7 or 8. This paper demonstrates the social class inequalities of differentiated languages provision by examining four government high schools in two urban areas in NSW. In each area, languages provision and its associated discourses in the local comprehensive high school are contrasted with the academically selective high school located just a few kilometres away. Recent neoliberal education policies in NSW indicate that school and languages education segregation based on social class will continue unabated.	en_US
dc.relation.ispartof	Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies	en_US
dc.title	Languages study and class privilege: The neoliberal effect in australian schools	en_US
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.citation.volume	3	en_US
utslib.citation.volume	17	en_US
utslib.for	1303 Specialist Studies in Education	en_US
utslib.for	1604 Human Geography	en_US
utslib.for	13 Education	en_US
utslib.for	16 Studies in Human Society	en_US
pubs.embargo.period	Not known	en_US
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/e-Press
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
utslib.copyright.status	open_access
pubs.issue	3	en_US
pubs.publication-status	Published	en_US
pubs.volume	17	en_US

Abstract:

© 2019, Institute for Education Policy Studies. All rights reserved. In Australia’s highly multicultural and multilingual society the number of students studying languages in secondary schools has declined markedly in recent decades, but not for all students. For students from high socio-economic status (SES) families who attend elite private schools and academically selective high schools, studying traditional languages such as French or German remains a strong curriculum choice and languages continue to confer linguistic and cultural capital. Not so, however, for the majority of students in low SES government comprehensive high schools. For these students, the choice of studying languages is very limited, and for the languages courses that are available, participation rates are poor. Moreover, this social class disparity in the study of languages is ever widening as the result of neoliberal reforms to Australian schooling. In New South Wales, the focus of this paper, school choice and selective schooling policies have ensured that most students in low SES comprehensive high schools are unlikely to study languages beyond the mandatory state minimum of 100 hours in Year 7 or 8. This paper demonstrates the social class inequalities of differentiated languages provision by examining four government high schools in two urban areas in NSW. In each area, languages provision and its associated discourses in the local comprehensive high school are contrasted with the academically selective high school located just a few kilometres away. Recent neoliberal education policies in NSW indicate that school and languages education segregation based on social class will continue unabated.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/137434