Inclusion, equity and intellectual equality: a case of overseas educated multilingual students in an Australian teacher education programme

Inclusive education is of considerable significance in Australia being politically recognised and promoted by federal and state governments. However, literature suggests conceptual gaps have contributed to a limited understanding by policy makers and practitioners concerning ‘what is’ and ‘who needs’ inclusion. The research this paper reports explores what type of inclusiveness multilingual students have experienced in an Australian university teacher education programme. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews with a group of pre-service teachers with overseas education backgrounds and their Anglophone academic course lecturers. An integrated inclusion model was employed in the data analysis. The research found that the teacher educators exercised efforts to demonstrate inclusiveness to this group from physical, social and psychological perspectives. However, the prior educational experience and existing knowledge of these students were ignored, either consciously or unconsciously and they were often regarded intellectually ‘less able’ than their Anglophone peers. This paper argues that engaging multilingual students from the standpoint of intellectual equality is the key to advancing inclusive teacher education in multilingual and multicultural Australia.