Being bilingual teacher-researchers: a case study of a research-oriented school-engaged teacher education program

Western-Anglophone universities are increasingly focusing on internationalization, but have not made languages a strategic focus. This paper argues that the bilingual competence of international students is an asset rather than a deficit. It reports a case study of the Research-Oriented School-Engaged Teacher Education (ROSETE) Program, which is an international collaborative professional development project for training bilingual teacher-researchers from China. Conceptually, this study is framed in terms of Chinese knowledge. Seven of the twenty-six teacherresearchers who have participated in this Program were interviewed about their Mandarin teaching experiences in Australian public schools, the benefits to their employment of seeing themselves as bilingual, the role of their professional research training in encouraging the uses of their bilingual capabilities in their theses, and their perspectives on using Chinese knowledge in their Master of Education (Honours) theses. Their theses were analysed to explore evidence of their bilingual competence including their use of Pin-yin, Chinese characters (hàn zì), Chinese stories, concepts and theories.