Language, Minority Education and Gender

Taken-for-granted language policies and practices in education often oppress those of little power. In reviewing the international literature on this vital subject, this book examines three groups who seem most affected by unfair language practices in education: women and girls; minority cultural groups; and minority social groups. The author confirms that reforms are urgently needed in the approaches that schools and school systems everywhere adopt when treating matters of language use. Chapters 1 and 2 deal with the interplay between language and power in education, and between language policy and social justice. Chapters 3 to 6 range across classrooms, schools, and school systems, exploring questions of gender and language injustice, standard and non-standard language, bilingual and second language education, and minority culture values and discourse norms. These chapters overlap their treatment wherever similar justice issues affect more than one group. For example, when the members of a minority group are girls, language injustices tend to multiply. Chapter 7 presents recommendations for school action, addressing the interests of non-dominant groups in general. Its major sections cover social justice through communicative action in schools, school language policies, and critical language awareness.