Language plays a crucial role in education; yet, while issues of language are undoubtedly relevant to all teachers, school-level language policies, which aim to provide explicit guidance underpinned by a clear set of principles, are too often conspicuous by their absence. In a range of educational contexts around the world it has been found that…

This study analyses the evolving means of China's formal language policy on Putonghua and minority languages from 1986 to 2021. This paper identifies four stages based on the shifting focus between Putonghua and minority languages: status planning of the central government (1986-1990), balance via bilingual policy (1991-2000), strong Putonghua…

This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the motivations that key policy documents have put forward as justifications for Sweden's mother-tongue instruction in immigrant and historical minority languages as a multicultural policy that has endured for nearly half a century. The diachronic development of these motivations is analysed in four…

This comparative case study explored the discourses in Ohio's Seal of Biliteracy (SoBL) policy and promotional materials, and the perceptions of stakeholders regarding its value and benefits in an urban, suburban, and rural district. In doing so, this study aimed to analyze the discourses adopted in the SoBL policy and promotional texts at the…

This scholarly investigation delves into the metamorphosis of China's language policies across three distinct epochs spanning over two millennia, tracing from ancient China to contemporary times. Employing a sociolinguistic lens, the analysis elucidates the historical trajectories of these policies, accentuating their theoretical and pragmatic…

Despite Nepal's huge linguistic diversity, maintaining minority languages and providing the mother tongue-based education to non-dominant language children are Nepal's two major obstacles. Scholars have pointed to a negative consequence of the standard language ideology on non-dominant language maintenance and mother tongue-based schooling. Using…

The dissertation focuses on the Chinese literacy experiences of different generations of Thai Chinese families in Thailand, spanning periods characterized by varying ideologies toward the Chinese language, which have either constrained or facilitated its acquisition. This qualitative work examines how evolving national policies and international…

This study compares two linguistic landscapes and the concurrent language policies of two scenarios where minority languages coexist with Spanish. On one hand, in the Archipelago of San Andres, Colombia, Spanish is in contact with an English-based Creole (Raizal Creole). Similarly, Valencian (Spain) coexists with Spanish as a national language.…

Schooling has been a site of harm for Indigenous people in settler colonial contexts, as a tool of dispossession, assimilation and separation from country and kin. However, schools have simultaneously been sites to work against this and build alternatives to settler colonial systems that nourish Indigenous futures. This article centers the…

Informed by the conceptual-analytical framework of LPP and bilingual education policy, this study addresses a unique and under-researched case of heritage language education policy for complementary Polish State Schools abroad. These are Polish governmental educational offering aimed at Polish migrants and their descendants. Data consist of two…

The paper presents some general facts about Bulgarian, which is spoken by over 8 million people all over the world and is the official language of the Republic of Bulgaria. It is shown that language diversity within the country has been relatively constant and modest over the last 90 years (with a clear dominance of Bulgarian). The focus of the…

We discuss how the colonisation of the island of Ireland has marginalised and delegitimised Gaeilge, the Irish language, and the relationship of this colonial genealogy in place to local educational institutions and the practices therein. The hegemonic and homogenising processes of British colonialism continue to reverberate in modern discourses…

By using a quantitative approach, we examined the family language policy of Turkish parents in the Netherlands. Based on our earlier ethnographic work with 20 Turkish families and interviews with 35 parents, we designed and conducted a large-scale survey among 116 first-generation and 184 second-generation parents. The findings reveal that both…

In recent decades, language revitalisation policies, programmes and initiatives have had to develop in an environment of major social, political, economic, or technological changes that have had an extraordinary impact on the governance of minority language revitalisation. In this context, we have studied the changes that have taken place in the…

What opportunities and challenges occur in reclaiming Indigenous languages within state institutions? This article considers the case of intercultural bilingual education in Ecuador. The school system is remarkable as a national-level initiative run by and for Indigenous "pueblos" and nationalities. Based primarily on two years of…