This book broaches what has become a a ~noisy silencea (TM) whereby conversations about race and ethnic relationships are understood as unbalanced, irrelevant or as too dangerous to speak about. It is concerned with the ways that race and ethnic relationships are spoken about in contemporary western societies such as Australia and the changed and confused debates that underpin those discussions. Parents and teachers at one State secondary school in Melbourne Australia speak about race and ethnic relationships as their school community is increasingly altered by globalising, technological and population change. Newspapers and public policy debates avoid discussions about race relationships even as discussions about national identity and direction are crucial themes. This book argues that race and ethnic relationships must be understood in new ways; that the analytical frameworks provided by constructivist thought and post-colonial writing must be interrogated to provide more comprehensive methodological resources to examine these relationships. Recent events, such as attacks on New York, Madrid and London, and riots in Paris and Sydney, suggest that the social world as we know it has changed. The new sense of danger which has emerged in increasingly globalised times is the re-emergence of an other identity which is no longer easily identifiable as inside or outside of who-we-are. That they could be anyone-of-us, even as their presence as an-other is made concretely and terrifyingly real, adds a new and frightening overlay to the discussion of contemporary race and ethnic relations.

a oeThis book works on so many different levels -- as a research narrative; as a story of the policyof multiculturalism in Australia; as an account of a struggle to interpret cultural differences; as an ethnography of a school dealing with profound demographic changes; and as an interpretation of how change occurs and re-shapes not only people but also institutions.a

Fazal Rizvi, Professor in Educational Policy Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA

Rethinking Languages Education assembles innovative research from experts in the fields of sociocultural theory, applied linguistics and education. The contributors interrogate innovative and recent thinking and broach controversies about the theoretical and practical considerations that underpin the implementation of effective Languages pedagogy in twenty-first-century classrooms. Crucially, Rethinking Languages Education explores established understandings about language, culture and education to provide a more comprehensive and flexible understanding of Languages education that responds to local classrooms impacted by global and transnational change, and the politics of language, culture and identity. Rethinking Languages Education focuses on questions about ways that we can develop farsighted and successful Languages education for diverse students in globalised contexts. The response to these questions is multi-layered, and takes into account the complex interactions between policy, curriculum and practice, as well as their contention and implementation. In doing so, this book addresses and integrates innovative perspectives of contemporary theory and pedagogy for Languages, TESOL and EAL/D education. It includes diverse discussions around practice, and addresses issues of the dominance of prestige Languages programs for 'minority' and 'heritage' languages, as well as discussing controversies about the current provision of English and Languages programs around the world.

Rethinking Languages Education assembles innovative research from experts in the fields of sociocultural theory, applied linguistics and education. The contributors interrogate innovative and recent thinking and broach controversies about the theoretical and practical considerations that underpin the implementation of effective Languages pedagogy in twenty-first-century classrooms. Crucially, Rethinking Languages Education explores established understandings about language, culture and education to provide a more comprehensive and flexible understanding of Languages education that responds to local classrooms impacted by global and transnational change, and the politics of language, culture and identity. Rethinking Languages Education focuses on questions about ways that we can develop farsighted and successful Languages education for diverse students in globalised contexts. The response to these questions is multi-layered, and takes into account the complex interactions between policy, curriculum and practice, as well as their contention and implementation. In doing so, this book addresses and integrates innovative perspectives of contemporary theory and pedagogy for Languages, TESOL and EAL/D education. It includes diverse discussions around practice, and addresses issues of the dominance of prestige Languages programs for 'minority' and 'heritage' languages, as well as discussing controversies about the current provision of English and Languages programs around the world.

This book provides a research narrative of the way an urban school community speaks about race and ethnic relationships in times of change. It analyses the history of multicultural policy and practice in Australia. Coverage also discusses the struggle to understand identity and race and cultural difference and presents a comprehensive methodological framework to explore the complex interactions that shape race and ethnic relationships.