Abstract
This study reports teacher attitudes towards multicultural curricula developments in a sample of New South Wales state primary schools and the assimilation orientation of the respondents prior to the publication and dissemination of the state Multicultural Education Policy document. In general, teachers were favourably disposed to non-English-speaking minority children maintaining their ethnic identity, particularly through the use of their ethnic language. However they were negatively disposed to schools being actively involved in teaching ethnic languages, and to schools extending multicultural curricula. Teachers of English as a second language were more favourably disposed to the propositions than either of the other two groups (administration and class teachers). Class teachers were less favourably inclined to community language teaching and to the development of multicultural curricula. The second part of the study measured the assimilation orientation of teachers on a three-point scale: angloconformism, interactionism and pluralism. The most popular alternative was interactionism, with pluralism being an unpopular choice. The argument is presented that little attitudinal change has occurred since the implementation of the Multicultural Education Policy.