Papers by Michiko Weinmann
Global Germany in Transnational Dialogues, Dec 10, 2019
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The development of ‘Asia literacy’ is a widely advocated goal in current educational debates of m... more The development of ‘Asia literacy’ is a widely advocated goal in current educational debates of many Western countries. Within this broader objective, the subject discipline of languages can be identified as an area within Australian and German school curricula where attempts to integrate this competency have been strongly evident since the early 2000s.
Drawing on the example of Asian languages education in the Australian and German contexts, this chapter presents a comparative case study outlining the reasons that both countries have in common for the advocacy of Asian languages learning, while identifying some key differences. While both the Australian and German curricula include statements that express an understanding that transgress traditional East–West dichotomies, overall they remain shaped by conventional imaginations of nation, language and culture. Curriculum writers need to recognise the complexities of linguistic and cultural difference more comprehensively, enabling them to move towards a broader pedagogy that shifts the teaching of Asian languages beyond Othering and limited repertoires of linguistics, pragmatics and culture.
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Curriculum Perspectives, 2017
The impact of conversations about language, multilingualism and multiculturalism in Western educa... more The impact of conversations about language, multilingualism and multiculturalism in Western education contexts—and their impact on student and teacher interaction—has been frequently remarked upon. There have been very few attempts, however, to explore the ways in which these norms and their underlying structures and behaviors play out in the practices of languages teaching. Through interrogating teachers’ conversations about their daily experience and practice, we discovered that some languages—and the teachers who spoke or taught them—were understood differently from others. These differences were produced and reproduced in complex interactions between race, class, education and Western hegemony, marking some languages and languages teachers as being more prestigious and knowledgeable than others. We argue that, in the transnational contexts of Australian schools, these discussions are framed within discourses that are raced, neo-colonial and neoliberal. They appear to be wrought within a world of dissolving national, linguistic and cultural boundaries that is experienced as unsettling and disempowering. Moreover, the languages teachers identities are shaped by the normative terms and conditions of an understanding of languages and languages education that remains rooted in parochial, monolingual and pecuniary perspectives. If we are to reorientate approaches to languages education, and develop a more sustainable and socially just approach in Australia’s multicultural schools, these conversations—and the norms and behaviors that frame them—need to be better understood.
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TESOL in Context, 2017
The factors influencing the multiple contexts of English
language provision in Australia are comp... more The factors influencing the multiple contexts of English
language provision in Australia are complex, and this issue of
TESOL in Context holds a lens to some of them: the first of the
three articles presents a historical overview of provision for English
as an Additional Language or Dialect (EAL/D, formerly English as
a Second Language or ESL) in Australia, the subject of the second
is screening for EAL kindergarten children, and the third discusses
issues of internationalisation in a K-12 school. Reading these we
are reminded that as TESOL professionals we work in an
environment of continual change, forced to respond in a frequently
ad hoc manner to a number of pressures, including federal and
state politics. As far back as 2002 Joe Lo Bianco expressed concern
(in this journal) that EAL/D learner needs were still not being met
at that time, and the three articles in this issue throw light on why
this is still too often the case, despite recent legislative emphasis on
a ‘fairer Australia’ (Australian Government, 2011) in which a
stronger acknowledgement, understanding and support for
linguistic diversity should provide the foundation for a socially just
society.
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This paper is drawn from a research project that investigates the relationship between teachers' ... more This paper is drawn from a research project that investigates the relationship between teachers' understanding of the religious identity of Asian background students, and recent Australian curriculum initiatives focused on religion and religious identification. Based on responses from an Australia-wide survey, and follow-up interviews from teachers and principals in several Australian states, the project examined the ways that Australian teachers understand, respond to and talk about the religious identities of their students, and the implications of these demands for teacher practice and education. This paper is concerned with the findings from the interview phase that for a significant number of teachers, notions of religion were often elided with culture and race, and often subsumed by broader notions of a nominal 'white' Australian culture. Research conversations appeared framed by an often Christian perspective and sense of self, as opposed to a putative and Asian religious and cultural other. We argue that a better understanding of the ways that teachers participate in discourses of representations about Asian religious identities negotiated by Australian diasporic communities has direct implications for the refinement of policy and for teacher professional learning. In the light of our findings, we further argue that there is a need for curriculum, teachers and researchers to move beyond an understanding of culture and identity that is based on monolingual, monocultural and Anglocentric perspectives that frame the foreign as the 'exotic' other, and define it through references to limited, tokenistic artefacts of culture, which are reinforced by iconic use of language to talk about culture, religion and identity.
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Multidisciplinary research perspectives in education shared experiences from Australia and China, 2016
In: Liyanage, I. and Badeng, N. (ed), Multidisciplinary research perspectives in education shared... more In: Liyanage, I. and Badeng, N. (ed), Multidisciplinary research perspectives in education shared experiences from Australia and China, Sense Publishers, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, pp.203-211.
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The literature on policy enactment identifies the pivotal role played by school leaders and class... more The literature on policy enactment identifies the pivotal role played by school leaders and classroom teachers in response to attempts to implement reforms of current practices. An intersection of teachers’ personal and professional domains, such as enactment of National Curriculum priorities that identify intercultural understanding as a cross-curricular general capability embedded across learning areas, invests individual teachers’ attitudes and beliefs with additional significance. As local policy actors at the centre of this policy mix, teachers of EAL are presented with opportunities to play important roles in reconceptualising understandings of difference that resist categorisation and promote intercultural understanding. We argue that teachers’ beliefs and their attitudes to classroom linguistic and cultural diversity may be shaped significantly by their interaction with broader policy discourses, and that these are reflected in enactments—as opposed to implementations—of intercultural understanding policy in classrooms.
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In: Halse, Christine (2015) (Ed.), Asia literate schooling in the Asian century, Routledge, Abing... more In: Halse, Christine (2015) (Ed.), Asia literate schooling in the Asian century, Routledge, Abingdon, Eng., pp.182-196.
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Languages Victoria , 2014
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Conference Presentations by Michiko Weinmann
IAFOR, The Asian Conference on Education 2016, Conference proceedings., Oct 7, 2016
The debate regarding the efficacy of WCF (Written Corrective Feedback) spans two decades. Much of... more The debate regarding the efficacy of WCF (Written Corrective Feedback) spans two decades. Much of the research to date has utilized quantitative methods to investigate students' written output, which all too often neglected learners' experiences and learner diversity. In contrast, this research employs a qualitative approach in an interpretive paradigm to explore the experiences of adult EFL students in Japan on the usefulness of WCF, its effect on their learning and how learner diversity influences the uptake of feedback. This case study investigated experiences with the following feedback modalities: focused direct WCF with content feedback, and focused indirect WCF with content feedback. The innovative exploration and incorporation of student perspectives on these experiences entailed in-depth interviews with the learners. This case study found that participants described the learning generated from WCF as minimal and that WCF did not cause the negative effects that has been posited in some of the literature to date. The need to accommodate learner diversity in the writing classroom and for learners to understand the culture the feedback is embedded in was identified. Practical pedagogical implications to create a classroom environment that promotes better utilization of content feedback and WCF are discussed.
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Thesis Chapters by Michiko Weinmann
This thesis analyses representations of cosmetic surgery in the syndicated women’s magazines Cosm... more This thesis analyses representations of cosmetic surgery in the syndicated women’s magazines Cosmopolitan and Marie Claire across three cultural contexts: Australia, Germany and Japan. Through a discourse analysis of these texts, my research focuses on how representations of cosmetic surgery influence the ways identity is constructed and how the narratives of cosmetic surgery invite or distance the reader to engage in identity construction processes. By exploring magazines in their different cultural contexts, this study also investigates how discourses of cosmetic surgery are shaped by the homogenising influences of globalisation within a ‘localising’ context of syndicated magazines. In doing so, this study aims to explore the increasing complexities of body modification and identity construction in our ‘liquid’ society (Bauman 2000, 2005).
The theoretical framework of this study draws upon three fields. The first adopts aspects of feminist theory to research the connections between body, identity and cosmetic surgery. Second, I use the theoretical framework of sociology of the body, drawing from embodiment theory and Bauman’s (2000, 2005) theory of ‘liquid life’, to analyse the complexity of body modification procedures. In conjunction with feminist and sociology frameworks, I also draw upon both Hall’s (1992, 1997) and Said’s (2003) theories of ‘otherness’, which identify the aligning of one cultural identity against another as a significant part of identity construction.
Methodologically, I utilise critical discourse analysis to analyse print texts, as well as visual and narrative elements. Although traditionally critical discourse analysis has largely focused on written texts (Talbot, 1992; Fairclough, 2003; Keller, 2004), I argue that this approach does not adequately represent the multimodality of contemporary texts (Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006). Expanding my research focus to include analysis of visual literacy components has been acknowledged as an indispensable part of critical literacy in a multimodal environment (Kress, 2003). My approach complements a further sociolinguistic research tool, narrative analysis, which enables my research to establish connections between concepts of critical discourse and narrative analysis.
Within the context of a nine year data collection, I analyse six selected articles on cosmetic surgery. My analysis highlights how discourses used in circular arguments and narratives without a conclusive ‘resolution’ might reflect the fluid identities of our times. Further, this study focuses on the opportunities afforded to readers to construct and negotiate available cosmetic surgery discourses, which highlight the versatile and often contradictory approaches of identity construction.
Through this thesis, I argue that a deeper understanding of the interconnected relationship between text, context, visuals, symbols and argument in culturally and contextually appropriate ways will afford greater power to read critically. Through critical reading, agency can be exercised in a more informed way in a complex and multicultural world, which requires identity negotiation across a plethora of culture and lifestyle choices. Cosmetic surgery is a highly invasive procedure of body modification and magazine representations argue its contingent relationship to identity construction. A deeper understanding of the discourses of cosmetic surgery will contribute to a more reflexive negotiation of the ways that women are positioned by popular texts.
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Papers by Michiko Weinmann
Drawing on the example of Asian languages education in the Australian and German contexts, this chapter presents a comparative case study outlining the reasons that both countries have in common for the advocacy of Asian languages learning, while identifying some key differences. While both the Australian and German curricula include statements that express an understanding that transgress traditional East–West dichotomies, overall they remain shaped by conventional imaginations of nation, language and culture. Curriculum writers need to recognise the complexities of linguistic and cultural difference more comprehensively, enabling them to move towards a broader pedagogy that shifts the teaching of Asian languages beyond Othering and limited repertoires of linguistics, pragmatics and culture.
language provision in Australia are complex, and this issue of
TESOL in Context holds a lens to some of them: the first of the
three articles presents a historical overview of provision for English
as an Additional Language or Dialect (EAL/D, formerly English as
a Second Language or ESL) in Australia, the subject of the second
is screening for EAL kindergarten children, and the third discusses
issues of internationalisation in a K-12 school. Reading these we
are reminded that as TESOL professionals we work in an
environment of continual change, forced to respond in a frequently
ad hoc manner to a number of pressures, including federal and
state politics. As far back as 2002 Joe Lo Bianco expressed concern
(in this journal) that EAL/D learner needs were still not being met
at that time, and the three articles in this issue throw light on why
this is still too often the case, despite recent legislative emphasis on
a ‘fairer Australia’ (Australian Government, 2011) in which a
stronger acknowledgement, understanding and support for
linguistic diversity should provide the foundation for a socially just
society.
Conference Presentations by Michiko Weinmann
Thesis Chapters by Michiko Weinmann
The theoretical framework of this study draws upon three fields. The first adopts aspects of feminist theory to research the connections between body, identity and cosmetic surgery. Second, I use the theoretical framework of sociology of the body, drawing from embodiment theory and Bauman’s (2000, 2005) theory of ‘liquid life’, to analyse the complexity of body modification procedures. In conjunction with feminist and sociology frameworks, I also draw upon both Hall’s (1992, 1997) and Said’s (2003) theories of ‘otherness’, which identify the aligning of one cultural identity against another as a significant part of identity construction.
Methodologically, I utilise critical discourse analysis to analyse print texts, as well as visual and narrative elements. Although traditionally critical discourse analysis has largely focused on written texts (Talbot, 1992; Fairclough, 2003; Keller, 2004), I argue that this approach does not adequately represent the multimodality of contemporary texts (Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006). Expanding my research focus to include analysis of visual literacy components has been acknowledged as an indispensable part of critical literacy in a multimodal environment (Kress, 2003). My approach complements a further sociolinguistic research tool, narrative analysis, which enables my research to establish connections between concepts of critical discourse and narrative analysis.
Within the context of a nine year data collection, I analyse six selected articles on cosmetic surgery. My analysis highlights how discourses used in circular arguments and narratives without a conclusive ‘resolution’ might reflect the fluid identities of our times. Further, this study focuses on the opportunities afforded to readers to construct and negotiate available cosmetic surgery discourses, which highlight the versatile and often contradictory approaches of identity construction.
Through this thesis, I argue that a deeper understanding of the interconnected relationship between text, context, visuals, symbols and argument in culturally and contextually appropriate ways will afford greater power to read critically. Through critical reading, agency can be exercised in a more informed way in a complex and multicultural world, which requires identity negotiation across a plethora of culture and lifestyle choices. Cosmetic surgery is a highly invasive procedure of body modification and magazine representations argue its contingent relationship to identity construction. A deeper understanding of the discourses of cosmetic surgery will contribute to a more reflexive negotiation of the ways that women are positioned by popular texts.
Drawing on the example of Asian languages education in the Australian and German contexts, this chapter presents a comparative case study outlining the reasons that both countries have in common for the advocacy of Asian languages learning, while identifying some key differences. While both the Australian and German curricula include statements that express an understanding that transgress traditional East–West dichotomies, overall they remain shaped by conventional imaginations of nation, language and culture. Curriculum writers need to recognise the complexities of linguistic and cultural difference more comprehensively, enabling them to move towards a broader pedagogy that shifts the teaching of Asian languages beyond Othering and limited repertoires of linguistics, pragmatics and culture.
language provision in Australia are complex, and this issue of
TESOL in Context holds a lens to some of them: the first of the
three articles presents a historical overview of provision for English
as an Additional Language or Dialect (EAL/D, formerly English as
a Second Language or ESL) in Australia, the subject of the second
is screening for EAL kindergarten children, and the third discusses
issues of internationalisation in a K-12 school. Reading these we
are reminded that as TESOL professionals we work in an
environment of continual change, forced to respond in a frequently
ad hoc manner to a number of pressures, including federal and
state politics. As far back as 2002 Joe Lo Bianco expressed concern
(in this journal) that EAL/D learner needs were still not being met
at that time, and the three articles in this issue throw light on why
this is still too often the case, despite recent legislative emphasis on
a ‘fairer Australia’ (Australian Government, 2011) in which a
stronger acknowledgement, understanding and support for
linguistic diversity should provide the foundation for a socially just
society.
The theoretical framework of this study draws upon three fields. The first adopts aspects of feminist theory to research the connections between body, identity and cosmetic surgery. Second, I use the theoretical framework of sociology of the body, drawing from embodiment theory and Bauman’s (2000, 2005) theory of ‘liquid life’, to analyse the complexity of body modification procedures. In conjunction with feminist and sociology frameworks, I also draw upon both Hall’s (1992, 1997) and Said’s (2003) theories of ‘otherness’, which identify the aligning of one cultural identity against another as a significant part of identity construction.
Methodologically, I utilise critical discourse analysis to analyse print texts, as well as visual and narrative elements. Although traditionally critical discourse analysis has largely focused on written texts (Talbot, 1992; Fairclough, 2003; Keller, 2004), I argue that this approach does not adequately represent the multimodality of contemporary texts (Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006). Expanding my research focus to include analysis of visual literacy components has been acknowledged as an indispensable part of critical literacy in a multimodal environment (Kress, 2003). My approach complements a further sociolinguistic research tool, narrative analysis, which enables my research to establish connections between concepts of critical discourse and narrative analysis.
Within the context of a nine year data collection, I analyse six selected articles on cosmetic surgery. My analysis highlights how discourses used in circular arguments and narratives without a conclusive ‘resolution’ might reflect the fluid identities of our times. Further, this study focuses on the opportunities afforded to readers to construct and negotiate available cosmetic surgery discourses, which highlight the versatile and often contradictory approaches of identity construction.
Through this thesis, I argue that a deeper understanding of the interconnected relationship between text, context, visuals, symbols and argument in culturally and contextually appropriate ways will afford greater power to read critically. Through critical reading, agency can be exercised in a more informed way in a complex and multicultural world, which requires identity negotiation across a plethora of culture and lifestyle choices. Cosmetic surgery is a highly invasive procedure of body modification and magazine representations argue its contingent relationship to identity construction. A deeper understanding of the discourses of cosmetic surgery will contribute to a more reflexive negotiation of the ways that women are positioned by popular texts.