This study compared Australian teachers' attitudes toward multicultural education in 2000 with their attitudes in 1979, focusing on: fostering community language maintenance, fostering cultural identity and prestige maintenance, and fostering the benefits of multiculturalism within the community. Participating schools included: those which had been multicultural before the advent of official multicultural policy documents in the late 1970s and continued to be so over the study period; schools that were monocultural during the 20 years; and schools that were transitional during that period. About one-quarter of the teachers and administrators who completed the survey had a non-English-speaking background (NESB). Some improvement was seen in attitudes toward language maintenance since 1979. Though respondents believed students should maintain family languages, they generally felt this was not the school's responsibility. NESB respondents were more positive regarding language maintenance. There was only marginal change since 1979 on attitudes toward the school's role in cultural maintenance, with NESB respondents much more positive on this issue. There was no change in attitudes about the maintenance of community languages being good for Australia since 1979. Though a large proportion of respondents were negative about the issue, NESB respondents were more positive. (Contains 30 references.) (SM)