A Contribution to the Decolonising the Mind Project: Student and Teacher Perspectives on Authorial Voice in Adolescent Multilingual Writers

Recent research underscores the significance of developing a strong, sustained authorial voice in multilingual adolescent writers (Blackman in Int Edu J 16(4):1, 2017; Pasqua in English Australia 52(3): 31–35, 2017; as reported by Schepen (Kimmerle’s Intercultural Philosophy and Beyond: The Ongoing Quest for Epistemic Justice, Routledge, Abingdon, 2022); Strausz in Crit Stud Secur 10(3): 144–156, 2022). The unique experiences and cultural capital of multilingual high school students have the potential to enrich and transform teaching practices, moving to a more equitable and inclusive learning environment, where authorial voices of marginalised students come through strongly and freely in their writing (Blackman in Int Edu J 16(4):1, 2017; Little in English Australia 57(1):15–27, 2022). However, research on authorial voice in the writing of adolescents, especially multilingual high school students, is scarce. This paper aims to bridge this gap and reports on intermediate findings from a longitudinal qualitative study, examining multilingual adolescents’ voice in academic writing, as they transition from a High School Preparation intensive English program to high schools in Australia. More specifically, the paper presents a contextual analysis of the student-composed texts, exploring the participants’ perspectives on authorial voice in academic writing. Findings from semi-structured interviews with the students and their teachers have important implications for curriculum design and teaching in Australian high school writing classrooms with the increasingly diverse student populations.