Invited Book Review: Language Policy and Political Issues in Education (3rd ed.). (original) (raw)
Related papers
The Odd Couple: Diverging Paths in Language Policy and Educational Practices
Perspectives in Education, 2011
This paper examines the divergences between what educational policy calls for in South African schools with regard to language and learning and what takes place in schools. It argues that South African constitutional and education policy statements employ an idea of languages as bound entities and systems, and combine this understanding of languages with discourses on language rights and of language endangerment. An alternative view studied language as practice rather than system. From this perspective the idea of ‘a language’ is a misleading shorthand for a diverse range of language varieties, genres, registers and practices. Such resources are not equally distributed among users of these resources and they carry different social weightings or valuations. This paper argues that the language assumptions in language policy ‘erase’ linguistic complexities and assume a linguistic homogeneity and stability which is inappropriate. A view of language is developed where language operates a...
Language in Society, 2014
A volume entitled Language policy risks promising more than can be delivered, even in a book like this of some 290 pages. The main reason is simply that the scope of language policy studies has extended over the years to include a very wide range of domains and levels: for example, family language policy, language policy in business and commerce, in the military, in religion, in local government, in schools, and in supranational organisations (such as the EU). And such studies take in a very wide range of locations and countries-from New Zealand to Nepal, from South Africa to Singapore. The term language policy also has an ambiguous denotation referring on the one hand to policy-making and planning activity, often but not only the province of politicians, and on the other to a relatively young academic discipline. Given this very wide scope, this book necessarily, and sensibly, has a narrower focus than the title might suggest in that it deals predominantly with language policies in education and in schools, with issues concerning multilingual education for minority groups in the United States featuring prominently. Also, as befits a volume in a series called 'Research and practice in applied linguistics', the book's main focus falls on the academic discipline of language policy studies, on its research methodologies and theoretical frameworks. It can be read, then, as a guide to doing research in the field of language policy in education. The book's overarching argument is that language policy (LP) takes place at a variety of levels-macro, meso, and micro (the onion layers of Ricento & Hornberger's (1996) metaphor), and that actors at these levels enjoy a degree of freedom or agency in creating, interpreting, appropriating, or implementing policy. Thus, language policies may emerge 'bottom-up' as well as 'top-down', with the former in particular often taking an implicit form and becoming manifest in micro-level practices, in classrooms for example. For this reason there is a fairly strong commitment to ethnography in the investigation of LP processes (e.g. those of creation and interpretation) alongside such established approaches as the discourse analysis of policy texts. Based on this foundation, the book is organised ISABELLE BUCHSTALLER, Quotatives: New trends and sociolinguistic implications.
Book review: The politics of language education: Individuals and institutions
2010
Reviewed by ROGER BARNARD, University of Waikato This is an important new book presenting nine case studies on the micropolitical agendas of individuals and institutions involved in ELT projects in various parts of the world. It opens windows on some nefarious activities usually hidden from public eyes, but which may be well understood by those who work in the academic and professional worlds of English language education. After a seven-page overview of the topic of micro-politics and a summary of the nine case studies, Alderson's first chapter sets the scene with a 37-page review of key concepts which provide a rationale for the book. He begins this with a dozen vignettes of misconduct by individuals or organisations involved in different sorts of ELT projects in various parts of the world, claiming that such "tales from the field" are simply not reported in publications about such projects a matter which he discusses from his personal experience at more length in the final chapter in the book. He argues that there is a need for honest and open descriptions of the real process and outcomes of language education in specific cases, so that an appropriate and adequate theory of the politics of language education can eventually be developed. In this respect, he is following up the point made by Fishman 1994, p. 91 that language planning needs to be informed by ethnographic studies, and later by Kaplan and Baldauf 1997 and Baldauf 2006, although, interestingly, he does not refer to any of the standard works in the area of language policy and planning by these and other authorities. His review of background sources, however, is otherwise broadly based, taking into consideration key works in psychology, general education, organisational culture, etc.
Language Education Policy and Sociolinguistics: Toward a New Critical Engagement
Language education policies are pivotal in nation-states’ negotiation of a globalizing economy and a diversifying population. But certainly in urban, non-elite schools, where pupils’ linguistic diversity is pronounced, their fixation on language separation and multi-monolingualism produces salient sites of linguistic friction. Much scholarly work has been successfully problematizing this friction, producing an avalanche of criticism and ample calls for a change in schools’ approach to pupils’ primary linguistic skills and mixed language use. This chapter argues that while such calls are pedagogically exciting and justified on principle, a significant number of them reproduce some of the main assumptions behind the policies that they denunciate, or invite problems of their own. Consequently many calls for change may underestimate the difficulties of policy implementation, exaggerate their own effects, and overstate their critical character. This necessitates a reconsideration of the received relation between sociolinguistics and language education policy, and requires that calls for change take a different tack.
The politics of langauges in education .wiley com bauthor online Library TPS asp DOI=10 1002 berj
This paper, based on some findings of a wider three-year study, sets forth the issue of languages used and taught in education as a dimension of inequality and highlights its implications for widening participation and access in the multilingual context of Pakistan. The paper takes secondary education in private and government schools in Pakistan as a point of departure, and through themes that emerge from a qualitative multiple-case studies account of 32 participants (final year graduating students and their same-sex five-to six-years older siblings) explores issues of inequality with reference to Amertya Sen's capability approach and Pierre Bourdieu's social critical theory. The findings revealed that the concurrent processes of (a) hegemony of English; (b) its discriminatory distribution through schooling; and (c) devaluation of local languages, led by the language policy and mediated through educational institutions, diminished the transformative impact of education in expanding opportunities for widening participation and access. Issues of inequality continue to haunt the underprivileged despite their secondary education. The paper highlights the importance of considering the political economy of languages chosen and taught in formal education as a means of evaluating social justice in educational contexts and considering languages in education decisions with reference to national language policy.
Introduction: Language, Identity and Educational Policies, Volume 2
Canadian Journal of Education, 2010
In Canada, as is true in several other countries and educational jurisdictions, language and identity are at the forefront of both educational debates and policy development in various governing bodies, such as the classroom, schools, school boards, postsecondary institutions, provincial, territorial and federal ministries, as well as arms-length and nongovernmental agencies (NGOs). Policymaking and implementation decisions occur at micro and macro social levels within each of these contexts. This double special issue of the Canadian Journal of Education (RCE/CJE 33[2] and [3]) presents findings of original research on language, identity, and educational policy in Canada since 2000, from a variety of theoretical perspectives, including sociolinguistics, psychology, higher education, sociology of education, policy studies, and second language education. We aim to interest a wide readership of researchers, educators, and policy makers, in the hope that the studies presented will encourage and foster a trans-disciplinary dialogue.
Introduction: Language, Identity and Educational Policies
Canadian Journal of Education, 2010
In Canada, as is true in several other countries and educational jurisdictions, language and identity are at the forefront of both educational debates and policy development in various governing bodies, such as the classroom, schools, school boards, postsecondary institutions, provincial, territorial and federal ministries, as well as arms-length and nongovernmental agencies (NGOs). Policymaking and implementation decisions occur at micro and macro social levels within each of these contexts. This double special issue of the Canadian Journal of Education (RCE/CJE 33[2] and [3]) presents findings of original research on language, identity, and educational policy in Canada since 2000, from a variety of theoretical perspectives, including sociolinguistics, psychology, higher education, sociology of education, policy studies, and second language education. We aim to interest a wide readership of researchers, educators, and policy makers, in the hope that the studies presented will encourage and foster a trans-disciplinary dialogue.
Languages in Education: A Critical Ethnography of a Micro-level Policy
Journal of NELTA, 2021
This article explores the language policy in education (henceforth, LPE) at the local level. Adopting the critical ethnography study for 6 months at Vyas Municipality, I reveal what ideological awareness the policymakers and arbiters have on LPE and how do they interpret and appropriate it in multilingual school setting. The information collected through in-depth interviews, FGD, participant observation, and document reviews have been analyzed, interpreted, and triangulated critically. The study shows three major fi ndings regarding LPE in local government; fi rst, LPE has created a public debate and ideological discrepancy in multilingual school contexts; the second, the local LPE has diverse interpretation, appropriation, and practices; and the last, the English language policy (ELP) appears as a 'black hole', which has been gradually swallowing other local and indigenous languages. However, the language policymakers and arbiters have been gradually raising critical awareness for appropriate LPE and its practices that seems a positive advancement at the local level.