The author of this chapter argues that the failure of Spanish language education policies in the United States to educate both Latinos and non-Latinos has to do with the clash between three positions--(a) the English language, characterized by U.S. educational authorities as the unique and powerful lingua franca; (b) the Spanish language, as…

In this chapter, the authors offer a critical examination of a growing field of educational inquiry and social practice: the reclamation of Indigenous mother tongues. They use the term "reclamation" purposefully to denote that these are languages that have been forcibly subordinated in contexts of colonization. Language reclamation…

The aim of this chapter is to point to the complexities of the English language in Israel from a critical perspective, its global language status, and the manners in which it affects and interacts with a variety of local issues. The main focus is on how the presence of a global language, like English, affects a given sociolinguistic reality,…

The author of this chapter observes that post-9/11 there has been a rapid and significant retrenchment of multiculturalism as public policy, particularly within education. This apparent retrenchment of multiculturalism as public policy has been bolstered by parallel arguments for a more "cosmopolitan" approach to education within an…

This article examines the role of language policies in mediating access and equity in education. By examining a range of research and case studies on language policies, the authors explore how educational language policies serve as a central gatekeeper to education itself, as well as to quality education that may fundamentally depend on language…

This chapter offers a situated account of English and vernacular literacy practices from a postcolonial perspective. Situated in ongoing endeavors in a variety of local contexts in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India, where the author was raised and schooled, this chapter calls attention to some key educational sites through which these policy-related…

The Welsh language, which is indigenous to Wales, is one of six Celtic languages. It is spoken by 562,000 speakers, 19% of the population of Wales, according to the 2011 U.K. Census, and it is estimated that it is spoken by a further 200,000 residents elsewhere in the United Kingdom. No exact figures exist for the undoubted thousands of other…

As they wrote this article attentive to the focus of this volume of "Review of Research in Education" on "extraordinary pedagogies for working within school settings serving nondominant students" (C. Faltis & J. Abedi, 2011, personal communication), the authors held close understandings of ways in which narrative inquiry embodies potential for…

In everyday language, whether a school is described as "public" or not is determined by the way it is funded and by who is allowed to attend it. Ideally however, a public school should also be defined and evaluated by its unique goal--to renew a public by providing the young with the skills, dispositions, and perspectives required to engage with…

Schools have a seminal role in preparing a society's children for their adult responsibilities as workers, parents, friends, neighbors, and citizens. The United States, countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Brazil, India, South Africa, and other multiethnic democratic nation-states have increasingly diverse…

Access to education is one of a range of social citizenship rights that are intended to afford members of a society an opportunity to share in a basic level of social, economic, and cultural well-being and to mitigate societal inequalities. The idea that every individual has a right to education is deeply entrenched in the international discourse…

In this article, the authors attempt to show what it means to think about democracy and education "within" society, culture, and religion. They use the term religion to discuss both "religion" as a social phenomena and "religiosity" as a spiritual, aesthetic individual commitment to the transcendent, eternal, and divine. They focus on what has…

In 2000, approximately 36 million youth and adults living in Latin America and the Caribbean were reported to be unable to read or write basic texts. Of these, 20 million were women. According to official statistics, some countries in Central America (Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Honduras) have a youth and adult literacy rate of 80% or…

Young Africans born in the 1980s and early 1990s enjoy neither the same education nor the same employment opportunities as their fathers and mothers. In the past 20 years economic inequality between Africa and the rest of the world has increased. In the context of the new economic conditions created in part by economic liberalization, national…

In the past 150 years, educational systems have expanded and become integrally linked with economic, political, and social status in modern nation-states. As the stakes for education have risen, so has the call for more and improved use of scientific evidence as a basis for educational policymaking. Evidence from averaged scores on international…