Negotiating Language Policies in Schools: Educators As Policymakers

Educators are at the epicenter of language policy in education. This book explores how they interpret, negotiate, resist, and (re)create language policies in classrooms. Bridging the divide between policy and practice by analyzing their interconnectedness, it examines the negotiation of language education policies in schools around the world, focusing on educators’ central role in this complex and dynamic process.
Each chapter shares findings from research conducted in specific school districts, schools, or classrooms around the world and then details how educators negotiate policy in these local contexts. Discussion questions are included in each chapter. A highlighted section provides practical suggestions and guiding principles for teachers who are negotiating language policies in their own schools.

Kate Menken is Assistant Professor of Linguistics at Queens College of the City University of New York (CUNY), and a Research Fellow at the Research Institute for the Study of Language in an Urban Society at the CUNY Graduate Center.

Ofelia García is Professor in the Ph.D. programs in Urban Education and Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Literatures and Languages at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

Foreword, Nancy H. Hornberger
1. Introduction, Kate Menken & Ofelia García
Part I: Negotiation of Language Education Policies Guided by Educators' Experiences or Identity (Individual)
2. Appropriating Language Policy on the Local Level: Working the Spaces for Bilingual Education, David Cassels Johnson and Rebecca Freeman
3. Two-Teacher Classrooms, Personalized Learning and the Inclusion Paradigm in the United Kingdom: What's in it for Learners of EAL? Angela Creese
4. "Tu Sais Bien Parler Maîtresse!": Negotiating Languages other than French in the Primary Classroom in France, Christine Hélot
5. "Angles Make Things Difficult": Teachers' Interpretations of Language Policy and Quechua Revitalization in Peru, Laura Alicia Valdiviezo
6. Towards Normalizing South African Classroom Life: The Ongoing Struggle to Implement Mother-Tongue Based Bilingual Education, Carole Bloch, Xolisa Guzula, and Ntombizanele Nkence
7. Enacting Language Policy through the Facilitator Model in a Monolingual Policy Context in the United States, Bonnie English and Manka M. Varghese
8. Between Intended and Enacted Curricula: Three Teachers and a Mandated Curricular Reform in Mainland China, Yuefeng Zhang and Guangwei Hu
Part II: Educators' Negotiation of Language Education Policies Influenced by Situation/Context/Community (Social)
9. Māori Language Policy and Practice in New Zealand Schools: Community Challenges and Community Solutions, Mere Berryman, Ted Glynn, Paul Woller, and Mate Reweti
10. (Re)Constructing Language Policy in a Shi'i School in Lebanon, Zeena Zakharia
11. Cases of Language Policy Resistance in Israel's Centralized Educational System, Elana Shohamy
12. Traversing the Linguistic Quicksand in Ethiopia, Michael Daniel Ambatchew
13. Language Policy in Education and Classroom Practices in India: Is the Teacher a Cog in the Policy Wheel? Ajit K. Mohanty, Minati Panda, and Rashim Pal
14. Chilean Literacy Education Policies and Classroom Implementation, Viviana Galdames and Rosa Gaete
Part III: Moving Forward
15. Stirring the Onion: Educators and the Dynamics of Language Education Policies (Looking Ahead), Ofelia García and Kate Menken
16. Moving Forward: Ten Guiding Principles for Teachers, Ofelia García and Kate Menken