Focusing on language education policies in Bangladesh, this article shows how the policies have distracted people's attention from the harms inflicted on the country's Indigenous communities and their languages. I discuss two factors that have contributed to policy distractions in this context: a strong form of Bangla linguistic nationalism and a…

This article gives a presentation of the Swedish Language act and its application and reception by the public. Ten years have passed since its introduction, and for this reason a study was conducted by the Swedish Language council about what kind of issues were brought to governmental and local authorities by the public. By the collection of…

This paper examines minority language education in the Dutch province of Fryslân from a rights-based approach. To conduct the analysis, we employed a qualitative (legal) content analysis. We explored minority language rights at different levels to answer the following question: To what extent are international and regional standards on…

In this paper, we provide an overview of the policies that have existed in relation to Australian First Nations students' languages, and English language and literacy learning before exploring how the politics of distraction manifests in this context. We then share our findings of an analysis of Australian language education policies for First…

This article critically analyses the extent to which research in the field of English and development in the global South supports the claim that English can contribute to development. Particular reference is made to the Colombian context, which, along with several other countries in Latin America, has prioritised English language teaching in…

This polity study is about the language policy situation in the People's Republic of China (China) with a focus on one official minority language, Zhuang. The paper offers an examination of the language policy and planning (LPP) framework nationally as it relates to official minority languages, and regionally as it relates to the Zhuang minority…

The aim of this chapter is to take a critical and decolonial stance towards the experiences of Indigenous people in the urban diasporas of Brazil. We do this by discussing ethnographic data that provide insights into the impact of this migration on the construction of the identities of Indigenous Brazilians who move to urban spaces and consider…

This paper analyses divergence between national language policy on the one hand, and perceptions of it on the other. In ethnocratic Malaysia, language policy codifies the supremacy of Bahasa Malaysia as part of a broader ethnonationalist policy agenda that pedestalises the ethnic Malays and curtails the rights of Chinese and Indian-Malaysians. A…

This paper concerns itself with how policy is made in democratic nations in order to secure equal language rights. The case study assessed is Aotearoa New Zealand's 2016 Maori Language Act and the process by which it passed into legislation. The paper draws on theories of public policy change, specifically the evidence-based policy approach, and…

Even after decades of uttering platitudes about the languages of Uganda, language policy pronouncements have invariably turned out to be public relations statements rather than blueprints for action. A serious setback for the right to linguistic equality and the right to use Uganda's indigenous languages has largely hinged on the language…

In 2009, two significant script policy measures were adopted by Japan and the People's Republic of China (China hereafter), both as a response to national language needs triggered by globalisation. However, the measures chosen by the two countries were very different, Japan choosing to increase and China choosing to standardise the Chinese…

This paper examines language users' attitudes toward language reforms proposed by the Real Academia Española (RAE) (Spanish Royal Academy) in 2010 by analyzing readers' comments posted online in response to an article by "El País", the major newspaper in Spain, which presented those reforms. This project combines the theoretical notion…

Much research has focused on a linguistic view of vernacular or culturally based education programmes, while the political aspects of creating such programmes have been less frequently addressed. Throughout Oceania, formal schooling is linked to the colonial encounter, and although the legacy of colonial education continues to shape current…

Given the recent consideration by the Thai government of a national language policy, this article considers the status of Thailand's treaty obligations regarding linguistic human rights in education. It presents a general background, a brief linguistic profile of Thailand, a concise summary of the concept and importance of linguicide, and a…

This overview identifies some common features of macro-level language planning and briefly summarises the changing approaches to the analysis of macro-planning in the field. It previews six cases of language-in-education planning in response to linguistic diversity presented by the contributors to this issue. The cases show how macro-planning can…