Early Language Learning & Multilingual Education Network

ABSTRACT

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In this presentation I will introduce the concept of policy literacy and explore its application to early childhood language learning and multilingualism.  The presentation is informed by four decades of close observation and scholarly documentation of how policy making functions and theories of power and ideology that have shaped how policy making functions in democratic interest group societies. The talk is also informed by direct experience of policy advising, advocacy and implementation in a range of different socio-legal settings. 

 

It is a commonplace assertion in academic settings that policy makers rarely read research and that the gap between the professional worlds and interests of officials, researchers and practitioners, constitute a veritable gulf of incomprehension and occasional hostility. As citizen taxpayers as much as professional educators we should all deplore the suggestion that our research and professional experience cannot shape policy directly and that officials and politicians are not amenable to influence in their policy designs.  So, how can effective communication between, on the one hand, researchers, professional associations, and educators and, on the other, policy officials, decision makers, media and politicians, be improved, and make effective?

 

Research on early language learning and multilingual education has consistently demonstrated cognitive, social, and economic benefits of multilingualism (Cummins, 2021; Zein and Coady, 2021). In this presentation I will explore the trajectory of policy making, from problem definition, to intention, implementation and experience and track influence points for research where empirical evidence and teacher experience can be most powerful.  Policy literacy consists of utilising a knowledge of decisional and agitational processes to  build the significant untapped potential for researchers and educators to influence language policy in the interests of Early Language Learning and Multilingual Education in Early Childhood.

Scholars and practitioners have underutilized power to shape educational frameworks and by engaging more strategically with policymakers, media, and advocacy networks, experts can help shift public discourse and institutional priorities toward more inclusive and evidence-based language policies.

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REFERENCES

Cummins, J. (2021), Rethinking the Education of Multilingual Learners.  Multilingual Matters

 

Zein, S and M. Coady, (2021), Early Language Learning Policy in the 21st Century: An International Perspective. Springer.

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BIO

Dr Joseph (Joe) Lo Bianco is Professor Emeritus in language and literacy at the Faculty of Education, University of Melbourne, Australia.  He is a language policy specialist combining academic research and hands-on policy engagement. His theoretical and analytical studies of language problems and policy solutions have been conducted in many parts of the world especially in South and Southeast Asia, Oceania, North America, Europe and in some African countries (South Africa and Tunisia) as well as immigrant and Indigenous languages in Australia. He has led multicounty language problem solving teams in Southeast Asia for UNESCO and UNICEF.