Sole fighter mentality: stakeholder agency in CLIL programmes in Queensland

Abstract

This study presents an insight into content and language integrated learning (CLIL) practices in the Australian state of Queensland. The article comprises four main sections. The first section outlines the context of CLIL in Australia and Queensland; there follows a brief review of the literature on stakeholders in CLIL programmes, such as programme directors, teachers and parents; a third section presents the methods used in the study; and finally a summary of the findings will be presented. Based on semi-structured interviews, the research set out to uncover the views of programme directors of 11 different CLIL programmes regarding their pedagogical decisions and contextual experiences in a societal climate that tolerates but does not prioritise the study of second languages. The article concludes that CLIL programmes exist as individual programmes without an umbrella organisation supporting them and that, as a consequence, there is a necessity and mentality amongst programme directors to fulfil more roles than just those of leading teachers, including advocacy, recruitment and coordination of translations for teaching units. The article makes two claims: that stakeholder agency in CLIL programmes in Queensland is characterised by a ‘sole fighter mentality’; and that this mentality is fostered not only by a generally marginalised role assigned to second language learning but also by contextual factors that merge language learning with language maintenance concerns in many of the existing CLIL programmes.