Critical Issues of Language Policy in Multicultural Education Contexts

چکیده مقاله

With a very long history of immigration of people from many different cultural groups, the need for multicultural education and embracing diversity has become increasingly urgent. Nieto (2004) explained that the increase in cultural/ethnic diversity has caused many educators to recognize and own the need to expand their understanding of multicultural education. Multicultural education encompasses educational policies and practices   to affirm cultural pluralism  across differences in gender ,ability ,class ,race, sexuality and so forth. Educators who embrace such an approach stress the importance of cultural diversity , alternative life styles ,native cultures ,universal human rights, social justice ,equal opportunity and equal distribution of power among groups. Improvement in linguistic status and function will be seen as the touchstone for a truly multicultural language policy,a pluralistic and inclusive perspective on language and identity. On the language diversity front, the new curriculum implemented in 2001 has included minority languages as one of the school subjects with which students will receive instruction once a week. Debates on the language equality law and minority rights  and collective identity have consolidated joint efforts from scholars and administrators to implement a legal framework in accordance with international standards in order to ensure respect and protection for minorities.Steven May (2000) points out that debates on minority rights address the complexities of the languageidentity link, the controversies surrounding group-based rights. At the same time, the debates highlight the hegemonies implicit (and, at times, explicit) in the traditional (linguistic) organization of nation states. The challenge, therefore, is to rethink nation states and the national identities therein, in ways that are more plural and inclusive (p.380) . Ravich (1990) argued that multiculturalization pose a threat to the best of what U.S. education has to offer the values, beliefs,power,identity and traditions of Western civilization.

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