Examining EAL/D teachers’ practices in regional Australian multilingual classrooms through the lens of pedagogical judgement

Title
Examining EAL/D teachers’ practices in regional Australian multilingual classrooms through the lens of pedagogical judgement
Author(s)
Partridge, David
Veliz, Leonardo
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2489-7484
Email: lveliz@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:lveliz
Type of document
Journal Article
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
Routledge
Place of publication
United Kingdom
DOI
10.1080/14681366.2026.2626518
UNE publication id
une:1959.11/72183
Abstract

In culturally and linguistically diverse school settings, English as an Additional Language or Dialect (EAL/D) specialist teachers play a critical role in fostering equitable, socially just, and responsive learning environments. In Australia, EAL/D learners are students whose first language is not Standard Australian English (SAE) and who require targeted support to develop proficiency in SAE. This paper reports on a study examining EAL/D teachers’ reported pedagogical practices that nurture multilingual students’ plurilingual repertoires as acts of social justice. Framed through pedagogical judgement—encompassing action, reasoning, and responsibility—the study explored how teachers leveraged students’ cultural and linguistic resources as learning assets. Data were generated through in-depth semi-structured interviews with five EAL/D specialist teachers working with newly arrived Ezidi refugee-background students in a regional town in New South Wales. Findings indicate that teachers enacted inclusive, plurilingual practices grounded in strong pedagogical reasoning and a moral commitment to equity. Despite recognising persistent monolingual and deficit discourses, teachers actively challenged these narratives by affirming students’ linguistic and cultural identities.

Link
Citation
Pedagogy, Culture and Society, p. 1-22
ISSN
1747-5104
1468-1366
Start page
1
End page
22

Files:

NameSizeformatDescriptionLink