Ideologies, policies, and practices: Japanese language education in Australian secondary schools

This study explores Japanese Language Education (JLE) in Australia by untangling an interplay of language policies, practices and ideologies. It focuses on top-down policy initiatives, the bottom-up grassroots practices of secondary school Japanese language teachers (JLTs), and language ideologies in Australian society as expressed in general attitudes towards additional languages education. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on JLTs was also considered. Drawing on Language Planning and Policy and a critical sociocultural approach, this qualitative case study employed Thematic Analysis and Critical Discourse Analysis. The data consisted of selected language policy documents and secondary school JLTs’ narratives collected through online surveys (n=104) and online interviews (n=19) across Australia. The analysis revealed that JLE has been influenced by a tug-of-war between agendas responding to various political needs and societal trends, leading to significant changes in the discourses around JLE. Overall, it was found that JLE has been handled ineffectively, often lacking clear educational objectives, and suffering from frequent shifts in government attitudes towards Asia literacy and Asian languages. In demonstrating the mutual interdependence of policies, ideologies, and practices, the study revealed a tension between national agendas and the humanistic values of languages education. Influenced by ever-expanding English monolingual ideologies, themselves bolstered by neoliberal human capital and nationalistic ideologies, the policies prioritise English literacy, while endorsing the lower status of Languages through policy inaction. The COVID-19 pandemic further highlighted this lower status in the so-called ‘triage’ of subjects; Japanese was among the first subjects to be culled to mitigate student stress under pandemic pedagogy settings. Within this environment, JLTs negotiate the policies while enacting personal language ideologies. They described the ‘constant uphill battles’ required to ‘sell’ Japanese by utilising discourses such as ‘Japanese benefiting English literacy’ effectively tapping into English monolingual ideologies. Despite these challenges, the study shows that Australian JLE has proven resilient. However, the study problematises the over-reliance on JLTs’ passion in the face of inadequate policy support and raises concerns for the future of Japanese, especially in regional areas with teacher supply issues. The study concludes by calling for a reimagining of languages education in Australian schools.

Grantor dc:publisher

UNSW, Sydney

Year dc:date

2025

Author dc:creator

• Nakajima, Yutaka ; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3479-9987

• Language ideology
• Japanese langauge education
• Language policy and planning
• Australian secondary schools
• Japanese language teachers
• anzsrc-for: 470314 Japanese language
• anzsrc-for: 470401 Applied linguistics and educational linguistics
• anzsrc-for: 470411 Sociolinguistics

Statement dc:rights

• open access
• CC BY 4.0
• free_to_read

Licence

• https://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
• https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Language dc:language

en

Identifier

https://doi.org/10.26190/unsworks/31271

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:unsworks.library.unsw.edu.au:1959.4/105269