ERIC Number: EJ1187855
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2018-Aug
Pages: 20
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1568-4555
EISSN: N/A
What Counts as Language Education Policy? Developing a Materialist Anti-Racist Approach to Language Activism
Flores, Nelson; Chaparro, Sofia
Language Policy, v17 n3 p365-384 Aug 2018
Language activism has been at the core of language education policy since its emergence as a scholarly field in the 1960s under the leadership of Joshua Fishman. In this article, we seek to build on this tradition to envision a new approach to language activism for the twenty-first century. In particular, we advocate a materialist anti-racist approach to language activism that broadens what counts as language education policy to include a focus on the broader racial and economic policies that impact the lives of language-minoritized communities. In order to illustrate the need for a materialist anti-racist framing of language education policy we provide portraits of four schools in the School District of Philadelphia that offer dual language bilingual education programs. We demonstrate the ways that larger societal inequities hinder these programs from serving the socially transformative function that advocates for these programs aspire toward. We end by calling for a new paradigm of language education policy that connects language activism with other movements that seek to address societal inequities caused by a myriad of factors including poverty, racism, and xenophobia.
Descriptors: Educational Policy, Language Usage, Activism, Social Justice, Racial Bias, Socioeconomic Influences, Language Minorities, Bilingual Education
Springer. Available from: Springer Nature. 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013. Tel: 800-777-4643; Tel: 212-460-1500; Fax: 212-348-4505; e-mail: customerservice@springernature.com; Web site: https://link.springer.com/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Pennsylvania (Philadelphia)
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A