Bilingual education in the Northern Territory: Principles, policy and practice.

At the start of the 2010 school year, the number of hours of bilingual teaching in Northern Territory Two-Way schools is set to decrease by more than half. The public debate that followed the announcement of this policy change revealed a need for further research on the models, achievements and challenges of bilingual education in Indigenous communities. Acknowledging this research gap and recognising that the new policy represented a significant shift in educational practice, in June 2009 AIATSIS held a one-day symposium to debate and discuss the policy change and its implications. Issues discussed included the historical role of bilingual education; the status of research into its efficacy and practice; implications of the policy change; and bilingualism and language rights. The symposium brought together Australia's leading experts in bilingual education and practitioners in Northern Territory Indigenous schools. An AIATSIS Research Discussion Paper (No. 24) was launched at the symposium (Jane Simpson, Jo Caffery and Patrick McConvell 2009, Gaps in Australia's Indigenous Language Policy: Dismantling bilingual education in the Northern Territory). A publication from the symposium is in process.