“…There has been an increasing emphasis on mainstream teachers' beliefs about English as an Additional Language (EAL) Supporting EAL students in regional education contexts: "It creates a huge workload and often times disappointment" students (Mellom, Straubhaar, Balderas, Ariail, & Portes, 2018;Pettit, 2011;Reeves, 2006;Sharkey, 2018;Walker, Shafer, & Iiams, 2004), particularly given the trend to place EAL students in mainstream classrooms as opposed to providing them with specific EAL instruction (Cross, 2012;de Jong, Harper, & Coady, 2013;Edwards, 2014;Harper & de Jong, 2009;Sharkey, 2018;Somé-Guiébré, 2016;Torff & Murphy, 2018). However, the majority of studies on mainstream teacher beliefs capture the views of teachers teaching in metropolitan areas which geographically tend to have more exposure to linguistic and cultural diversity (Mellom et al, 2018;Pulinx, van Avermaet, & Agirdag, 2017). With the recent push for regional settlement in countries, such as Australia (Golebiowska, Elnasri, & Withers, 2017;Taylor, Bell, & Gerritsen, 2014), there is a need to explore teacher and principal beliefs regarding EAL students in schools in regional areas to ensure that incoming EAL students have access to adequate support.…”