Examining the position of multilingualism in Australian national early childhood education curriculum through a language-as-resource lens

The position of multilingualism and home languages in the national early childhood education curriculum impacts how educators enact supporting multilingualism in everyday practices. This study conducts a critical discourse analysis on the status of multilingualism in the Australian national early childhood education curriculum, which is the Early Years Learning Framework for Australia, and the other policy documents through a multilingualism-as-resource lens. The findings reveal the complex nature of the discourse of multilingualism in the curriculum. While the national curriculum acknowledges that multilingualism involves both cultural and social communicative resources, the current study also identifies the problematic monolingual ideology underpinning policy documents in this context and the absence of recognition of multilingualism as an intellectual resource in these policy documents. In addition, the acknowledgement of multilingualism as a citizenship resource for supporting participation is largely missing from policy documents. This also reflects a superficial level of supporting multilingual children's engagement in early childhood education. This study calls for greater attention and support for multilingual children in the curriculum, enabling educators to understand the benefits of multilingualism and enact meaningful practices guided by a clear framework.