Family Language Policy never takes place only in private but is embedded in larger discourses in society or rather in several societies to which the multilingual family is linked. One main point of contact of families and discourses on language is the education system. Previous research has shown that bilingual families orient towards teachers for…

Choosing which additional language to include in national curricula and when to begin teaching it are important educational policy decisions. The current study aims to provide a contextually embedded picture of such policymaking process in the Iranian context. More specifically, the study is intended to explain the agency mechanism of different…

While there is growing attention to language as a central issue in education for refugees, this policy area still appears to be dominated by an apolitical, technical, and instrumentalist perspective. Through a comparison of language-in-education policies in two refugee camp contexts, Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya and the refugee camps along the…

The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) has long been considered a global policy in language education. It has been borrowed and adopted by different polities across the world. However, it is still not clear why the CEFR, intended for European usage, has become a ubiquitous tool for overhauling the quality of teaching and…

This article examines Language Policy documents within higher education institutions in Sweden. Its main focus is on how national language policies and policies for internationalization of the higher education are reinterpreted as local language policy. The analysis of ideologies surrounding the prescribed language(s) in meetings of decision…

This paper deals with policymaking in the higher education sector as an activity which happens on many levels, with many and varying interests involved. As the present thematic issue highlights, language is present in higher education policymaking, whether explicitly or implicitly. This special issue's initial claim is that "Policy is what…

In 2002, English-medium degree programmes (EMDPs) became a permanent feature of German higher education (HE). While this action marked an important step towards government-supported institutionalisation of English in Germany, no formal strategy or guidelines governing the role of English in HE have been developed. To date, research in this area in…

In the 21st century, learning is at the heart of the modern world's endeavours to become a knowledge economy. It is the key to empowering individuals to be today's world producers and consumers of knowledge. It is essential in enabling people to become critical citizens and to attain self-fulfilment. It is a driver of economic competitiveness as…

The opportunity for American Indians to learn in their own way, a way of deep cultural roots and implications, must be provided in schools rather than using the educational psychology which dominates today's classrooms. The importance of adopting an Indian philosophy is stressed in this policy statement by the National Indian Brotherhood. (See…