Sami are Indigenous languages spoken by the Sami people in the northern parts of Scandinavia and Russia. All Sami languages are endangered because of historically aggressive assimilation policies. Currently Sami communities are working actively with language revitalisation processes. This article examines pupils' access to knowledge in and about…

This article critically examines bilingual, intercultural education policies and practices in El Salvador and Mexico. In the context of legacies of assimilation and neoliberal homogenization, certain kinds of citizenship become prioritized over others. This is visible where performances of local identity clash with state mandates about educational…

Spanish-speaking parents choose to enroll their children in either an English only or English-Spanish dual immersion program when presented with both choices. This ethnographic study explored parent's perceptions of the purpose, advantages, and disadvantages of learning in school in English only or in a dual English-Spanish. Through focus group…

With the passage of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001, the United States spent millions upon millions of dollars in a largely unsuccessful effort to close the academic achievement gap between American-Indian and some other ethnic minorities and mainstream Americans. NCLB's focus on teacher quality and evidence-based curriculum and…

Background Context: In most immigrant-receiving societies, an important question, both for researchers and policy makers, has been the weighing of the relative efficiency of different formulas in the learning of the host language by immigrant students, especially the potential impact of specific services on social integration and the role of…

This study examined the unique patterns of integration into U.S. culture of four Asian Indian families, noting how these patterns shaped the identities and experiences of children within the families. Families from a local Asian Indian cultural organization agreed to participate. Parents and children completed open-ended, semi-structured…

Traces the history of usage of two indigenous languages of Scotland: Gaelic, used largely in the Highlands, and Scots, which developed in parallel with English and is often unrecognized as a separate language because of mutual comprehensibility. Examines changing attitudes toward these languages in educational policy and practices, and current…

This theme issue, devoted to the relationship between language, culture, and identity, contains three articles, all by Anne Turnbaugh Lockwood, and a commentary by Florence L. Johnson. The first article, entitled "The Heart of Culture," reports on an interview with Henry T. Trueba, an educator specializing in the roles of language, culture, and…

Objective evidence indicates that despite public fears and the claims of those who would make English the official language of the United States, it is not English, but minority tongues that are threatened in this country today. In the last 5 years, educators have noticed a sharp decline in native language skills among Native American children.…

Examines literacy practices at Genoa Industrial Indian School (Nebraska), 1884-1934, one of the largest federal Indian boarding schools. Focuses on literary texts that students read, particularly "Stiya: A Carlisle Indian Girl at Home" and "Ramona"; student essays about preservation versus extinction of Indian languages and…

Problems faced by Koreans in the United States are identified and analyzed in this paper, and some pragmatic remedies are offered. First, the acculturation process is slow--the mean of the Koreans' sojourn in the United States is only 6.5 years, whereas complete acculturation takes several generations. Second, although most Korean emigres learned…

Dr. Robert W. Young discusses what led him to work in the Navajo Nation and to begin studying Navajo, the method he used for developing a Navajo orthography, his professional relationship with Dr. William Morgan, the system they used to develop an English-Navajo dictionary, his views on language loss, and his greatest accomplishment--a reservation…

Less than 200 years ago, nearly every Cherokee could read and write the Cherokee language because of the syllabary form of writing invented by Sequoyah. Language use declined due to government boarding school policies that forbade use of the Cherokee language. Isolated communities and medicine people kept the language alive. Current efforts to…

Extensive interviews examined how school processes influenced home language practices of 45 Latino families in Canada. Parents felt that Spanish maintenance fostered family unity, Latino identity, and professional advancement, but assimilative pressures sometimes caused doubts about openly speaking Spanish at home. Strategies parents used to…

This document contains the English and Spanish texts of an annual publication which examines political, social, environmental, and educational issues concerning indigenous peoples around the world in 2001-02. Part 1 describes current situations and events in 11 world regions: the Arctic; North America; Mexico and Central America; South America;…