This mini-ethnographic case study examined the enactment of the mother tongue (MT) medium of instruction policy in teaching information and communication technology (ICT) to preschoolers or early childhood development (ECD) learners in a Zimbabwean school. The study employed an eclectic cognitive sense-making, ethnography of language policy and…

We live undoubtedly in a digital era in which younger people have more technological knowledge and use technology more than older people who mostly must adapt their lives and practices, learning how, why, and when to use digital tools. In schools, this gap is visible if we compare the curricula for teaching the Portuguese mother tongue and…

The existence of studies that support the usefulness of tablets in primary education is encouraging. For this reason, this research analyses this device's didactic use. The present project is part of a qualitative narrative research. The data of experiences supported by the tablet were collected through nine discussion groups and a set of…

Indigenous communities worldwide face threats to their linguistic and epistemic heritage with the unabated spread of dominant colonial languages and global monocultures, such as English and the neoliberal, imperialistic worldview. There is considerable strain on the relatively few Elders and speakers of Indigenous languages to maintain cultures…

Technology has paved the way for new modalities in language learning; however, indigenous populations often lack access to these tools. This critical literature review examines how researchers have tried to overcome this hurdle by reaching out to marginalized indigenous populations and providing access to emerging technologies. We used 63 texts…

In First Nations, Métis, and Inuit (FNMI) communities, Elders are highly regarded as intergenerational transmitters of ancestral language and Indigenous knowledge. Without language revival initiatives, ancestral languages in FNMI communities are at risk of extinction. Leveraging digital technologies while collaborating with Elders can support…

Community language schools provide language and cultural education to young people. Forming a key education sector worldwide with an estimated two million enrolments, these community-run, out-of-hours schools nonetheless tend to be marginalised by 'mainstream' education and 'mainstream' educational research. There has been a dramatic increase in…

Language planning and policy (LPP), as a field of research, emerged to solve the "problem" of multilingualism in newly independent nation-states. LPP's principal emphasis was the reproduction of one-state, one-language policies. Indigenous languages were systematically erased through top-down, colonial medium-of-instruction policies,…

In 2006, the European Parliament and the Council adopted the Recommendations on Key Competences for Lifelong Learning. The framework sets out eight competences, which citizens need for 'personal fulfilment and development, active citizenship, social inclusion and employment'. Language competences play a prominent role in the framework, with two…

Heritage language families inhabit multiple languages, literacies and cultures. Enabling children to participate in heritage language and culture has beneficial effects in terms of identity, and cognitive development. Games-based technologies are opening up avenues for playful engagement with heritage language and literacy, but little is known…

This research examines three American Indian Language Development Institute (AILDI) participants who registered and completed the "Computer Applications for Indigenous Language Communities" course at the University of Arizona between summer 2003 and summer 2007, at a time when digital technology was emerging, particularly in Indigenous…

Within the discourse of language planning and policy, there is an increasing realisation of the strategic role of information and communication technologies in the promotion of indigenous African languages. The article discusses the strategic role that social software, in particular blogs and wiki, can and should play in the development of African…

This article deals with how teachers and pupils in seventh to ninth grade in Sweden look upon and relate to the incorporation of new digital technology in mother tongue education (Swedish). The result shows that both the classification and framing of the subject is being challenged by new technology, but that the awareness of the impact seems to…

On the basis of one teaching project carried out in a school, this article discusses collaborative writing in wiki platforms. It aims to find out what wiki reveals about pupils' knowledge construction, creation, and division and their collaborative writing skills. In this project, wiki is treated as a useful tool for analyzing these processes…

There are great expectations that new digital technology will become a powerful tool for developing education activities. Like many countries in Europe and worldwide, Sweden has invested a large amount of resources in new technology and new media (hereafter called digital media), and they have become a natural and important part of school…