Voices of Authority: Education and Linguistic Difference

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This collection of case studies examines how struggles for equality unfold in policies, programmes, and practices in educational settings in multicultural contexts. Using sociolinguistic, interactional and discourse analysis, the authors examine the complex ways in which dominant ideologies of education, pedagogy, language and identity intersect in a wide variety of educational settings. They focus in particular on how those ideologies are reproduced or challenged, and on the consequences of such processes for changing or maintaining social relations of difference and inequality. Written for policy-makers, educators and anyone else interested in education and multilingualism, this book places questions of power at the centre of thinking about language and education.

Reviews

"A very welcome contribution to the debate on education and linguistic diversity. This book addresses head-on issues of fundamental importance for policy makers, teachers, parents, and children in multilingual settings across the world. Impressive in its scope and vision, I strongly recommend this book to anyone concerned with the questions which consistently surface in public debate about multilingualism."-Viv Edwards Professor, Reading and Language Information Center University of Reading, England
"In this exciting new book, the editors have collected a number of essays by linguistics and education specialists, dealing with the question of whose language is to be spoken and heard in the public and private life spheres. The focus is on educational settings in Western and worldwide contexts, as it is in the schools that the decisive battles are fought for the continuation and revitalization of the culture and language, and for the identity and equality of their participants."-Jacob Mey Professor, Institute of Language and Communication University of Southern Denmark, Odense
"In Voices of Authority [the editors] bring together a sophisticated set of studies combining sociolinguistc analysis with trenchant post-colonial social theory to gain new insights into much discussed issues of domination and resistance. The book takes an important new look at language diversity and education within a global perspective. I recommend this book as essential reading in Graduate Schools of Education. It is of particular interest to students of sociolinguistics, bilingualism, and social and language diversity, but it should be read even more widely."-Jenny Cook-Gumperz Professor of Education University of California, Santa Barbara
[b]reaks new ground in its treatment of interaction as a window into contradictions between the idealism of policy and the realism of the classroom.-Anthropology & Education Quarterly
[t]his volume is a laudable contribution to educational and sociopolitical linguistics.-Welsh Journal of Education
This volume is a welcome addition to the body of literature on multilingual education....This excellent volume addresses a very wide audience: students and scholars in the fields of education, sociolinguistics, language planning, language policy, bilingualism, as well as all others interested in the ongoing debate on education and linguisitic diversity.-bi/Multilingualism
"breaks new ground in its treatment of interaction as a window into contradictions between the idealism of policy and the realism of the classroom."-Anthropology & Education Quarterly
"this volume is a laudable contribution to educational and sociopolitical linguistics."-Welsh Journal of Education
"[b]reaks new ground in its treatment of interaction as a window into contradictions between the idealism of policy and the realism of the classroom."-Anthropology & Education Quarterly
"[t]his volume is a laudable contribution to educational and sociopolitical linguistics."-Welsh Journal of Education
"This volume is a welcome addition to the body of literature on multilingual education....This excellent volume addresses a very wide audience: students and scholars in the fields of education, sociolinguistics, language planning, language policy, bilingualism, as well as all others interested in the ongoing debate on education and linguisitic diversity."-bi/Multilingualism

Author Bio

Monica Heller is Professor in the Department of Sociology and Equity Studies and the Centre de recherches en ducation franco-ontarienne of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto./e Her most recent publications include a book, Linguistic Minorities and Modernity: A Sociolinguistic Ethnography, and articles in such journals as the Journal of Sociolinguistics, Language in Society, and Discurso y Sociedad. Marilyn Martin-Jones is Professor of Bilingualism and Education at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. She taught for 15 years in the Department of Linguistics at Lancaster University. Her most recent publication is a book (coedited with Kathryn Jones) entitled: Multilingual Literacies: Reading and Writing Different Worlds (2000). She has also published articles in a number of journals such as Applied Linguistics, Linguistics and Education, and The International Journal of the Sociology of Language.