Social Justice through Multilingual Education

Edited by Dr. Tove Skutnabb-Kangas, Prof. Robert Phillipson, Prof. Ajit K. Mohanty, Minati Panda

Publication date:

20 August 2009

Publisher

Multilingual Matters

Dimensions:

234x156mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9781847691903

The principles for enabling children to become fully proficient multilinguals through schooling are well known. Even so, most indigenous/tribal, minority and marginalised children are not provided with appropriate mother-tongue-based multilingual education (MLE) that would enable them to succeed in school and society. In this book experts from around the world ask why this is, and show how it can be done. The book discusses general principles and challenges in depth and presents case studies from Canada and the USA, northern Europe, Peru, Africa, India, Nepal and elsewhere in Asia. Analysis by leading scholars in the field shows the importance of building on local experience. Sharing local solutions globally can lead to better theory, and to action for more social justice and equality through education.

PART 1: INTRODUCTION Foreword by the editors

1. Multilingual education – A Bridge Too Far? - Ajit Mohanty

PART 2: MULTILINGUAL EDUCATION: APPROACHES AND CONSTRAINTS

2. Fundamental psychological and sociological principles underlying educational success for linguistic minority students - Jim Cummins

3. MLE for global justice: Issues, approaches, opportunities - Tove Skutnabb-Kangas

4. Designing effective schooling in multilingual contexts: The strengths and limitations of bilingual ‘models’ - Carol Benson

PART 3: GLOBAL AND LOCAL TENSIONS AND PROMISES IN MLE

5. The tension between linguistic diversity and dominant English - Robert Phillipson

6. Literacy and bi/multilingual education in Africa: recovering collective memory and knowledge - Kathleen Heugh

7. Empowering Indigenous languages — What can be learned from Native American experiences? - Teresa McCarty

8. Education, multilingualism and translanguaging in the 21st century - Ofelia Garcia

9. Privileging Indigenous Knowledges: Empowering MLE in Nepal - David Hough, Ram Bahadur Thapa Magar, Amrit Yonjan-Tamang and Iina Nurmela

10. The caste system approach to multilingualism in Canada: Linguistic and cultural minority children in French immersion - Shelley K. Taylor

PART 4: MLE IN THEORY AND PRACTICE – DIVERSITY IN INDIGENOUS /TRIBAL EXPERIENCE

11. The contribution of postcolonial theory to intercultural bilingual education in Perú: an Indigenous teacher training programme - Susanne Jacobsen Perez

12. Reversing language shift through a Native language immersion teacher training program in Canada - Andrea Bear Nicholas

13. The ethnic revival, language and education of the Sámi, an Indigenous people, in three Nordic countries (Finland, Norway and Sweden) - Ulla Aikio-Puoskari

14. Hundreds of home languages in the country and many in most classrooms - coping with diversity in primary education in India - Dhir Jhingran

15. Overcoming the language barrier for tribal children: MLE in Andhra Pradesh and Orissa, India - Ajit Mohanty, Mahendra Kumar Mishra, N. Upender Reddy and Gumidyal Ramesh

PART 5: ANALYSING PROSPECTS FOR MLE TO INCREASE SOCIAL JUSTICE

16. Language matters, so does culture: beyond the rhetoric of culture in multilingual education - Minati Panda and Ajit Mohanty

17. MLE concepts, goals, needs and expense: English for all or achieving justice? - Tove Skutnabb-Kangas, Robert Phillipson, Minati Panda, Ajit Mohanty

About the authors

References

Subject index

Person index

Noble in purpose, this volume contains many valuable accounts of efforts toward righting longstanding inequities of education in multilingual settings around the world -- from the highlands of Nepal and tribal language communities of India, to the Sámi lands of Scandinavia, to Native North America, and more. The authors passionately portray how very deeply languages matter, for every learner and all learners.