Harnessing the situated nature of CLIL for teacher education through a comparative study

Abstract The dual focused approach of Content and language Integrated Learning (CLIL) has been adopted across a range of linguistic and geographical regions adding to the complexity and variety of CLIL. The presence of CLIL across different educational communities provides an important opportunity to develop CLIL as a sustainable approach to education if the situated knowledge of CLIL can be harnessed. The comparative study reported here places three cases side-by-side to illustrate how informed discussion can be generated across different educational settings. The particular focus of this study is CLIL teacher education in Finland, England, and Australia. The contribution draws attention to the role of the wider environment in the implementation and development of CLIL, and the value of new insights afforded through a situated approach to theorising CLIL.