What happens when you’re asked to teach a language you don’t speak—let alone teach? In this episode, I quiz Dr Christine Biebricher from the University of Auckland, whose research digs deep into the experience of New Zealand primary teachers tasked with teaching Mandarin out of field. We chat about courage, classroom strategies, professional identity, and why some teachers thrive while others struggle. If you’ve ever found yourself Googling “how to say hello inMandarin” five minutes before class (guilty), this one’s for you.  

Links:

https://profiles.auckland.ac.nz/c-biebricher

Biebricher, C. (2023). Out-of-field Mandarin teaching and its effects on teacher identity developments – Experiences of Aotearoa New Zealand primary school teachers. Teaching and Teacher Education, 132, 104241. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2023.104241 

Biebricher, C. (2023). Creating a sustainable Mandarin language programme in an Aotearoa New Zealand primary school – complexities and achievements. In D. Wang & M. East (Eds.), Chinese language education in Anglophonecountries: Perspectives from New Zealand (pp.149-162). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35475-5_10 -this book chapter also reports on teaching Mandarin OOF, but looks at the success story of the school

Biebricher, C., East, M., Howard, J., & Tolosa, C. (2019). Navigating intercultural language teaching in New Zealand classrooms. Cambridge Journal of Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/0305764X.2019.1581137 -This article looks at teaching Mandarin, but with a slightly different focus, i.e. intercultural language learning and struggles of implementing that into teaching/stereotypes, etc.