Chapter 7: Strategies Used by Plurilingual, International Educators in the Australian Education Field

Despite Australia being a multicultural and multilingual nation, multiculturalism is not written into legislation. Thus, successive governments have reworked and reinterpreted multiculturalism and multilingualism to suit their own ideologies. For many, Australia is considered a multicultural nation with a strong monolingual mindset. This paper presents case study research findings from plurilingual, international educators (IEs) of their experiences in culturally diverse and multilingual Australian classrooms. Bourdieu’s thinking tools are utilized to analyze the experiences and beliefs of the IEs in order to examine the strategies they use when navigating the field of Australian education. By utilizing this Bourdieusian lens, elements which may not otherwise have been evident have come into perspective. Through this analysis it can be seen that; the logic of practice of the field is effective in controlling the strategies the IEs use, and; the dominant agents within the field are effective at maintaining the logic of practice of the field. Further, against the hegemony of English and the hegemonic practices present in the field, the linguistic rights of plurilingual teachers and therefore also their students are not upheld in the field. While this research was conducted in Australia, the findings apply to similar linguistically diverse contexts.