Allocating Authority and Policing Competency: Indigenous Language Teacher Certification in the United States

This paper describes the recent increase in and diversity of regulations relating to Indigenous language teaching in the United States, and analyzes these regulations in relation to 1) the institutional format of the certification processes (characterized as mainstream versus separate), 2) the relative control of different social actors (characterized as community actors versus central authority actors), and 3) the language capacity or learning goals that the regulations support (characterized as full immersion versus limited enrichment). In addition to looking at teacher certification as an important practical component of Indigenous language education which can be managed in different ways, I consider its significance as an ideologically-driven process through which language norms and authority may be created and (following Blommaert et al., 2009) policed by various social actors. I conclude that it is valuable to consider different systems for regulating and institutionalizing language education, and the relationship between these systems and local ideologies of language education

“A treasure” and “a legacy”: Individual and Communal (Re)valuing of Isthmus Zapotec in Multilingual Mexico

Speaking Isthmus Zapotec has represented different forms of material and symbolic capital at different times and places throughout the pre-Hispanic, colonial and post-colonial history of Mexico. This chapter explores the shifting and contrasting discourses of value around the language in the current era of neoliberal multiculturalism drawing on an ethnographic study of the use of Isthmus Zapotec in educational contexts in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. The effects of educational politics across historical eras and into the present have largely devalued Isthmus Zapotec use and contributed to the material inequalities experienced by Isthmus Zapotec speakers. The social capital associated with Isthmus Zapotec remains subject to negotiation, however, as local actors continue to revalue Isthmus Zapotec through communal, genealogical and place-based discourses, as well as individualist, ahistorical and mobile discourses. This case illustrates the influence of both politico-economic trends and local agency in the negotiation of linguistic capital, and argues the importance of attending to local counter-discourses

Imagining Convivial Multilingualism: Practices, Ideologies and Strategies in Diidxazá/ Isthmus Zapotec Indigenous Language Education

This study documents practices relating to the use of Isthmus Zapotec or Diidxaza, an Indigenous language of Oaxaca, Mexico, in formal and non-formal education. Drawing on ethnographic monitoring and ethnography of language policy methodologies, I document, interpret, and ultimately engage in Isthmus Zapotec education with the aim of countering social inequalities produced through language hierarchies. Within the historical and socio-political context of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec where Isthmus Zapotec is spoken, I describe and categorize the actors, practices, and socio-political processes that currently constitute the educational language ecology. I draw on participant observation, interviews, photographs and documents collected during 17 months of ethnographic fieldwork and several subsequent visits in the Isthmus (2013-2015) in order to illustrate the linguistic landscape and the prominent practices in this domain. Increased official recognition for Indigenous languages in Mexico and state-level promotion of local languages are influencing some education practices, although exclusion of Isthmus Zapotec remains the norm. A variety of Isthmus Zapotec teachers, learners, and advocates are working to reverse this exclusionary legacy, however. The ideologies and social imaginaries of actors in two education sites are analyzed in-depth, illustrating a convivial multilingual paradigm through which teachers and learners of Isthmus Zapotec are creating inclusive communities of practice, in contrast to the exclusionary and manipulative norms in many social and educational spaces. Additionally the strategies of Isthmus Zapotec advocates across education contexts and social scales are compared, exploring how strategies of representing, connecting, and producing are employed to address language inequalities, with differing degrees of speed and visibility. I analyze my own strategies of engagement in Isthmus Zapotec education and discuss conceptual and methodological shifts in how I approach advocacy work in relation to marginalized languages. Endangered or minoritized language education will continue to hold different meanings for different actors from local to global levels; a multi-perspectival approach is necessary to develop new strategies and to support inclusive and convivial imaginaries of multilingualism in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and other contexts of language inequality

Recognizing contextual resources: Post-method approaches to building on learner's communicative repertoires

The characteristics of endangered language learners range from infants to elders, and from proficient speakers acquiring literacy to complete beginners, with all levels of linguistic competence in between. This paper discusses the need for careful consideration of learner and context characteristics, and presents two complementary frameworks that support teachers in making detailed assessments of the linguistic resources that learners possess, while avoiding the common trap of categorizing learners through deficit perspectives and perpetuating exclusionary education dynamics. The post-method movement in language teaching (Pennycook, 1989; Kumaravadivelu 1994, 2006) offers guidance for teachers facing the need to adapt their practice to learner's diverse linguistic repertoires, expectations, and to a range of education environments. Beginning with awareness of the socio-cultural context, this framework emphasizes the need to validate teachers in the creation of their own uniquely-appropriate practices, rather than fostering dependence on methods and materials prescribed from outside experts. Foreign and second language teaching methods generally fall far short of meeting the expectations or needs of endangered language learners (Hinton, 2001), and thus teachers need to be equipped to use them flexibly and to innovate in context-appropriate ways. The framework of communicative repertoires (Gumperz & Hymes, 1964; Rymes 2013) can assist teachers in the task of recognizing each learner's receptive and productive language capacities, focusing on the linguistic resources that learners possess, rather than the more common perspective that frames learners as deficient in relation to the target speaker norm. This framework can also help to identify concrete communication goals, and measure linguistic competence achieved. In addition to supporting awareness of learner characteristics and encouraging context-specific innovation, the post-method approach also attends to the potential of language education to highlight and address issues of social inequality. Social power dynamics are significant in all contexts of language education (Tollefson, 1991; Norton, 2000), however it is especially important to consider these factors when working with learners and languages that have in many cases been (or continue to be) subjected to prejudice and hostility through formal education. The post-method approach is thus particularly appropriate for practitioners of endangered language education, allowing for consideration of social factors, attention to learner's communicative repertoires, and active recognition of the many resources available for building successful communication and successful communities of learners. References Gumperz, J. & Hymes, D. (Eds.) (1964), The ethnography of communication. AA 66 (6). Hinton, L. (2001). Language revitalization: An overview. In K. L. Hale & L. Hinton (Eds.), The green book of language revitalization in practice. San Diego, CA: Academic Press. Kumarivadivelu, B. (1994), The Postmethod Condition: (E)merging Strategies for Second/Foreign Language Teaching. TESOL Quarterly, 28: 27–48. Kumarivadivelu, B. (2006). TESOL Methods: Changing tracks, challenging trends. TESOL Quarterly, 40(1), pp.59-81 Norton, B. (2000). Identity and language learning. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Pennycook, A. (1989), The Concept of Method, Interested Knowledge, and the Politics of Language Teaching. TESOL Quarterly, 23: 589–618. Rymes, B. (2013). Communicating beyond language: Everyday encounters with diversity. New York: Routledge. Tollefson, J. (1991). Planning language, planning inequality. London: Longman

Standardizing Minority Languages: Reinventing Peripheral Languages in the 21st Century

International audienc

Ways of Talking (and Acting) About Language Reclamation: An Ethnographic Perspective on Learning Lenape in Pennsylvania

The experiences of a community of people learning and teaching Lenape in Pennsylvania provide insights into the complexities of current ways of talking and acting about language reclamation. We illustrate how Native and non-Native participants in a university-based Indigenous language class constructed language, identity, and place in nuanced ways that, although influenced by essentializing discourses of language endangerment, are largely pluralist and reflexive. Rather than counting and conserving fixed languages, the actors in this study focus on locally appropriate language education, undertaken with participatory classroom discourses and practices. We argue that locally responsible, participatory educational responses to language endangerment such as this, although still rare in formal higher education, offer a promising direction in which to invest resources

Learning First: A Research Agenda for Improving Learning in Low-Income Countries

In 2011, the Center for Universal Education (CUE) at the Brookings Institution spearheaded the development of a common policy agenda on global education entitled A Global Compact on Learning: Taking Action on Education in Developing Countries. The report recommended a call to action for a diverse group of international stakeholders to come together to work toward achieving quality education for all. As a part of this larger policy agenda, CUE works with various scholars and organizations to address the many issues within the scope of the Global Compact on Learning

Strategies for activating language practices and participation in a multilingual community: Results and challenges

In Isthmus Zapotec (IZ) communities in Oaxaca, Mexico, the youths' language repertoires are increasingly dominated by Spanish, although many develop passive competencies in IZ through exposure among adult and elder generations. A program promoting the active intergenerational use of IZ has been developed as part of a large lexical documentation effort with a botany subcomponent. Beginning in 2012, this program has, from the outset, included community participation, retention of research results, and creation of learning materials, leading to an on-going effort to facilitate a year-long program of language learning opportunities. In this paper we describe strategies adopted to encourage active IZ use both within and around the documentation project. We present results of these approaches and argue that attention to language practices among all participants in revitalization and documentation initiatives is an important step towards improved program planning. Strategies within the program include privileging IZ in the research instruments and practices, and scaffolding language teaching through the creation of interdisciplinary workshops for children. The language practices of program participants resulting from these strategies are reported through analysis of recordings, ethnographic observation and interview data. Strategies outside the program activities include dissemination of bilingual learning materials and outreach to schools and cultural centers. Results are presented based on quantitative dissemination measures as well as ethnographic and interview data. We discuss how opportunities and motivations for speaking, comprehending, reading and/or writing IZ were created among participants, including the team of facilitators consisting of speakers with varying degrees of language competence, the student participants in education initiatives, outside researchers, and the wider community. Examples include speakers engaging more actively with text and intergenerational communication, passive bilinguals producing language in both spoken and written forms, and Spanish-dominant bilinguals using IZ in new domains. We also explain that the use of IZ has extended to outside researchers through their use of research tools in IZ and that the public visibility of the program has led at least some local residents to take notice of the relevance of IZ. We conclude with a discussion of the on-going challenges in making these program-induced shifts in language practice more significant and sustainable. As a series of leveled workshops are developed, current language practices will be considered as a base for new strategies aiming to maximize IZ use while drawing on the participation and varying competencies of all participants

The multilingual realities of language reclamation: Working with language contact, diversity, and change in endangered language education

Purist ideologies of language and culture – fostered and encouraged by nation-states and formal schooling in the interest of homogenisation – have become deeply embedded in language-related disciplines, including documentary linguistics, applied linguistics, and education. As a result, dialect variation, multilingual repertoires, and intergenerational change are often viewed as problems by linguists and educators, who promote an elusive monolingual speaker norm which risks excluding learners and multilingual speakers. This paper draws on an ethnographic study of Isthmus Zapotec education in Oaxaca, Mexico, to illustrate strategies for collaborative, context-appropriate endangered language education, as exemplified in the practices of two Zapotec teachers. Reclamation efforts in Oaxaca, as elsewhere in the world, are challenged by the persistence of colonial-origin ideologies that devalue Indigenous languages, view multilingualism as a handicap, and assume that languages should be autonomous and standardised. These teachers respond by prioritising the creation of an affirming and flexible learning community that recognises multilingualism and facilitates negotiation of social tensions around language contact, change, and value