Browsing by Subject "Language Policy"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Language Education Policy in the (post/neo)Colonial Pakistan and the Life Trajectories of Low SES Students
    (2016-08) Shier, Sadaf
    Educational policies in Pakistan have been the mandate of colonial masters since British colonialism in the eighteenth century. Today, the monetary and symbolic power of international neocolonial development agencies shape Pakistani educational policies, especially those related to medium of instruction (MOI), and these policies act to strengthen a (neo)colonial hegemony. Although English is the mother tongue of fewer than 1% of Pakistanis, 52% of students were barred from higher education (HE) in Lahore, Pakistan during the last 12 years, because they failed a standardized English language exam. Moreover, most K-10 teachers in Punjab province lack functional English language skills. Nevertheless, Pakistan’s National Education Policy 2009 declared English as the MOI from grade four on-wards in order to comply with a quality education mandate of UNESCO’s Education for All (EFA). This language policy vertical case study constructs a multimodal critical discourse analysis to analyze data (including documents, government websites, Skype and face-to-face interviews, and Facebook discussions) collected in Pakistan from policymakers, administrators, teachers, and HE students, including recent graduates. The study analyzes how global educational Discourses inform, (re/de)shape and are (re/de)shaped by national, provincial and local educational discourses, and how those discourses (re/de)shape the life trajectories of post-colonial Pakistani HE students. The study illustrates how low-SES Pakistani HE students negotiate, appropriate, subordinate, and resist neocolonial oppression by language education policy. This dissertation finds that global discourses on internationalization of HE, competition through HE, and quality education through English MOI carry direct implications for academic and professional trajectories of Pakistanis. Pakistani HE students have become what Ramanathan called “the contact zone of subordination and resistance” to the hegemony of English. This contact zone is frequently skewed towards subordination, risking the academic, linguistic, and national identity of Pakistanis. Selecting English MOI directly affects language and cultural shifts, and the vitality of local languages, cultures, and knowledges. Deeper analysis of the Discourses of (mis)trust, dislocation, need and desire reveals two conflicting possibilities for the educational crisis in Pakistan. The first is a continued journey towards loss of identity and freedom; the second is genuine educational reform BY and FOR the people of Pakistan.
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    Tracing the Ideologies of State Language Roadmaps: A Discursive Analysis of Education, Economics and Equity in Language Policy
    (2021-05) Karlsson, Ashley
    Over the last fifteen years, the Language Flagship, an initiative of the National Security Education Program (NSEP), has been working with education, business, and government partners to draft state language roadmaps in support of advancing multilingualism. So far, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Rhode Island, Hawai‘i, Wisconsin and Indiana have published roadmaps with the support of NSEP. While these language roadmaps ostensibly position multilingualism as a benefit to society, there has been limited research on the language ideologies that undergird the policy proposals present in these documents. This research study draws on several qualitative data sources, including the text of current language roadmaps, ancillary artifacts related to each state roadmap initiative, and interviews with key state actors who participated in the drafting of these roadmaps to conduct a critical discourse analysis of how particular language ideologies are reproduced in language education policy. The findings of this study demonstrate convergence across several themes, including sense-making around language awareness and conscientization, the reproduction of neoliberal discourse through the language of economics and the positioning of equity within the language roadmaps. The language ideologies and orientations present in these findings provide a point of reference for interpreting the policy proposals put forth in each roadmap. Ultimately, the recommendations offered by each state roadmap establishes a particular vision of multilingualism, including who is expected to benefit from specific policy efforts. This study is significant for its potential to guide language policy actors across multiple levels in drafting, revising and implementing state policies that respond to evolving discourse on equity and attend more directly to issues of language access and opportunity.
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    “Why are you here?”: Exploring the Intersection of Education Policy and Language Revitalization in One Indigenous Language Immersion School
    (2022-08) Stemper, Kathryn
    This study explores the contextual relationships between education policy and revitalization of Indigenous languages in school settings. This qualitative study analyzes how relevant education policy is understood, implemented, and practiced at one public charter K-8 Indigenous language immersion school. Drawing on critical education policy (Diem et al., 2014) and critical language policy frameworks (Tollefson, 2006), this project utilizes Interpretive Policy Analysis (Yanow, 2000) to inquire how does and how can K-12 educational policy mediate language revitalization? Based on analysis of six interviews with school teachers and administrators, juxtaposed with review of relevant policy documents, this study addresses this question by illuminating the ways varied policies have simultaneously supported and challenged the school in this study to exist and to fulfill its mission of language and cultural revitalization and reclamation. Analysis focuses on three areas of policy that the school community has had to navigate: approval of the school’s charter authorization, teacher certification, and standardized testing. This study provides nuanced examples and discussion of how these policies have been experienced by the school community. Findings inform our understanding of the intersection between education policy and Indigenous language revitalization in school settings, and thus have implications for policy making at multiple levels.