This article describes how young children and their families and community members came together with researchers to co-create books in children's languages about their worlds in Fiji, to foster children's multilingual literacies. The co-creation of these books in children's and families' Fijian homes and community settings connected with their…

For a demise that has been predicted for over 60 years, radio is a remarkably resilient communications medium, and one that warrants deeper examination as a vehicle for the revitalization of historically marginalized and Indigenous languages. Radio has not been eroded by the rise of new media, whether that be television, video, or newer multimodal…

This article explores language repertoires, attitudes, and practices amongst members of the East Timorese diaspora in Australia. It relies on quantitative and qualitative data gathered through a recent sociolinguistic survey, ethnographic observation, as well as on general observations of online language use. Our study reveals a complex…

Evidence shows that when young children's diverse language heritages are valued and supported, there are benefits for their linguistic and conceptual development, their sense of identity and their learning. However, there are few early learning settings in Australia which nurture young children's bilingual repertoires. And, while it is well…

Names are used every day in classrooms across the world as an important marker of personal and social identity but educators will, from time to time, encounter names that are unfamiliar or perceived as difficult to pronounce. The present study explores teachers' and students' language dispositions towards names and how naming practices impact…

This article draws on data from a research study (Torepe, 2011) that investigated the lived experiences of six Maori teachers who recently graduated from the Hoaka Pounamu (Graduate Diploma in Immersion and Bilingual Teaching) course at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. The primary objective was to gain a deeper understanding of the lived…

The early years before compulsory schooling are crucial for children's identities, including their cultural identities. This article reports on a community-collaborative educational program that aimed to promote children's positive Samoan identities in a culturally safe environment. Data were collected through ethnographic methods, including…

In the famous Djuranydjura story from North-East Arnhem Land, when the visiting 'Macassan' offers the Yol?u ancestral dog rice, shoes and blankets, he rejects them all, in favour of his own land and resources. At Gäwa homeland on Elcho Island, this powerful story is reinterpreted to include the arrival of balanda (white) teachers, and their focus…

Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia are similar in many ways. Both were colonised by English-speaking British settlers, and English is a national language in each country. In recent years, both countries have become destinations for immigrants speaking languages other than English and international fee-paying students. Both have a chequered history…

Indigenous peoples have rightful aspirations for their languages and cultures, supported under international conventions, jurisdictional treaties, laws, policies and enquiry recommendations. Additionally, the inclusion of Indigenous languages in education can impact positively on Indigenous students' learning, engagement, identity and well-being,…

This study evaluated a bilingual intervention in the key learning area of mathematics. Nine typically developing Samoan-English students received math lessons in both Samoan and English. A control group of Samoan-English students received all lessons in English. The material covered and the amount of instruction was the same for each group. The…

I have been a part of a program in Western Samoa that involves inservicing Western Samoan secondary teachers in all subjects. My part in the program has been to inservice the science teachers in the delivery of the environmental science curriculum to students in the junior secondary schools. Quite a number of the secondary teachers are upgraded…

The article outlines past and present approaches to initial literacy teaching to speakers of indigenous vernaculars in Australia and New Zealand. It comments on the implications of this experience in the wider context of teaching literacy, and of teaching English literacy in Southeast Asia as a whole. (CLK)

The project described in this paper investigated the needs and concerns identified by parents from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds as their children started school in Sydney, Australia. Six groups of parents from Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Samoan, Turkish and Vietnamese language backgrounds were interviewed about what was…