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From “special experiment” to state specialist language school: The Victorian School of Languages 1935 - 2015 Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY from SWINBURNE UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY (Faculty of Health, Arts and Design) By CATHERINE BRYANT BA (Hons) (Melb), MA (Thesis) (Melb), Grad Dip Ed (Secondary) (Monash) 2016 ii Abstract This thesis is a historical investigation of the Victorian School of Languages (VSL) in the state of Victoria, Australia. The VSL began tentatively in 1935 as a “special experiment” on the margins of state education, teaching Japanese and Italian on Saturday mornings at MacRobertson Girls’ High School in Melbourne. This was during the interwar period of “aggressive” monolingualism in Australia. In 2015, in its eightieth year, the school offers classes in 49 languages to 13,200 students in 40 centres via face-to-face classes, mostly on a Saturday morning, as well as 1,400 students via distance education. Today, scholars consider the VSL the “lynchpin of Victoria’s heritage language program.”1 It has also been recognised by linguists internationally. One overseas scholar states: “The pioneering and widely-known policies and practices in the Victorian School of Languages (VSL) in Melbourne, Australia constitute an excellent ‘good practice’ that can be adopted in the European context.”2 Despite this recognition, and the VSL’s longevity, few scholars have attempted to explain how it made the transformation from an experimental, pilot operation on the outskirts of the education system to an officially legitimated state specialist language school. This thesis aims to bring the VSL’s untold story out of the shadows and into the light. It aims to redefine the “grand narrative” of the history of Australian education to include this important institution, which has up until now, been largely ignored by scholars. In many ways, the VSL’s story can be understood as a journey towards recognition and legitimacy, not only for the school itself, but also for the many communities that it represents. This thesis is “both a story and a study”3 and it utilises a combined research methodology of historical analysis and theory. It draws extensively on primary sources such as archival documents and oral history interviews. This thesis presents a chronological narrative and an analysis of the origins, the growth and the development of the VSL. It uses several theoretical lenses to investigate the way that this non-conformist and marginalised school, together with its language communities, managed to gain and maintain legitimacy in the Victorian education system. By presenting this historical analysis of the VSL, this thesis aims to enrich the existing literature about the history of language education in Victoria, which has up until now been limited and fragmented. 1 L Willoughby, ‘Heritage LOTEs at VCE level: student perspectives on current programs’, Monash University Linguistics Papers, vol. 5, no. 1, 2006, p. 3. 2 G Extra, K Yaǧmur & Language Rich Europe, Trends in Policies and Practices in Multilingual Europe, Cambridge University Press, on behalf of the British Council, 2012, p. 38. Retrieved 10 September 2013, http://www.language-rich.eu/fileadmin/content/pdf/LRE_English_version_final_01.pdf. 3 Butterfield quoted in B Bailyn, ‘The Challenge of Modern Historiography’, The American Historical Review, vol. 87, no. 1, 1982, pp. 1-24, p. 7. iii Acknowledgements I would like to express my sincere thanks to my Principal Supervisor, Associate Professor Bruno Mascitelli at Swinburne University, who generously provided unwavering encouragement, enthusiasm, advice, feedback and support throughout my entire candidature. I would also like to express my gratitude to my second supervisor, Professor Nita Cherry at Swinburne University, for her expertise and guidance, particularly in the use of theory throughout this research project. I would also like to thank my external supervisor, Dr Hayriye Avara from Hacettepe University, Ankara, who provided support and guidance while she was a visiting language advisor at the Victorian School of Languages. This PhD would not have been able to proceed without the full support of the VSL School Council and I thank them for selecting me as the candidate to conduct this special research project. I also express my thanks to the family of the late Professor Michael Clyne, in particular Dr Irene Donohoue Clyne for agreeing to allow his name to be used for this special PhD scholarship. I am also grateful to the senior staff at the VSL, in particular Frank Merlino and Stefo Stojanovski, for their support and for opening many doors and introducing me to many staff and friends of the VSL school community. There were many members of the school community who generously shared their time to tell me their stories, donated materials and gave me access to their networks, for the data collection for this PhD. I am also grateful to the many other research participants in the broader languages education field in Victoria who also gave up their time to share their stories, experiences and knowledge of the VSL. There are several people who helped me during the data collection process, and who generously donated their time and expertise. Anne Bridges and Wendy Taylor at the Palladians Association spent many hours searching their database of former MacRobertson Girls’ High School students for women whose names appeared on the very early rolls of the Saturday language classes, and they kindly contacted many women for me. Margie Burton of the Melbourne High School Old Boys’ Association also donated many hours of her time to contact former Melbourne High School students who attended the Saturday language classes. Melbourne High School historian Alan Gregory also donated his time looking through my list of former Melbourne High School students and provided advice about their current contact details. Finally Peter Bryce, the former Principal at University High School generously spent many hours searching his school’s database of former staff and students to locate current contact information for students who attended Saturday language classes at University High School. Because of the generous help of these people, I was able to conduct interviews with several people who had attended the school in its earliest decades. Finally, the biggest thanks goes to my family, without whom I would not have been able to complete this research project. I would like to thank my husband Sam and my daughter Zoe, for their constant love, patience and support, and to my parents and my parents-in-law for generously providing endless and unwavering support for me as well as my family throughout my PhD journey. iv Declaration I, Catherine Bryant, declare that this thesis, submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy from the Faculty of Health, Arts and Design, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia: • Contains no material which has been accepted for the award to myself of any other degree or diploma, except where due reference is made in the text of this thesis; • To the best of my knowledge contains no material previously published or written by any other person except where due reference is made in the text of this thesis; • Has been approved by the Swinburne University Human Research Ethics Committee (SUHREC), Application 2012/282 and I certify that all conditions pertaining to this ethics clearance have been properly met and that annual reports and a final report have been submitted. Signed Catherine Bryant v Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................ ii Acknowledgements..................................................................................................... iii Declaration ...................................................................................................................iv Table of figures ......................................................................................................... xiii List of abbreviations..................................................................................................xiv Chapter 1. Introduction ...............................................................................................1 1.1 The research problem and its justification...........................................................................1 1.2 Aims and significance of this study.....................................................................................2 1.3 The Victorian School of Languages ....................................................................................3 1.4 The origins of this research project......................................................................................4 1.5 The research questions and the research methodology........................................................6 1.6 Outline of thesis chapters.....................................................................................................7 1.7 A clarification of key definitions and terminology..............................................................9 1.8 A note about footnotes.......................................................................................................10 Chapter 2. Literature Review....................................................................................11 2.1 Introduction........................................................................................................................11

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