"What counts as language education policy? Developing a materialist Anti-racist approach to language activism"

Hello colleagues, Some of you will be interested in accessing the scholarly article that was recently selected as The International Research Foundation for English Language Education's 2019 James E. Alatis Prize for Research on Language Planning and Policy in Education Contexts by co-authors Dr. Nelson Flores and Dr. Sofia Chaparro.

Please see below for the abstract and the citation. The article will be available for free download only until February 10, 2019. Please feel free to offer your comments here.

Flores, N. & Chaparro, S. (2017). What counts as language education policy? Developing a materialist Anti-racist approach to language activism. Language Policy, 17, 365-384.

Abstract: 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.

Cheers, Susan Finn Miller

Moderator, English Language Acquisition CoP

Comments

Susan, I feel that this is an extremely important topic. I have seen how a Dual Language program works and the resuls are very positive. The children were learning each others' languages ...and helping each other! I also feel that for beginning adult ESL a bilingual approach has a similar effect on the students...and improves learning.

Thanks for adding this.