Healing the “Broken Rubric” of Identity: How Can Caribbean Language Policies Help?

• In Event: Poster Session 7
  In Poster Session: Culture, Leadership, and Education in Africa and the Caribbean

Abstract

Post-colonial Caribbean states face the challenge of fostering national identity given the region’s history of slavery and migration, and in the face of current forces of globalization. In light of the above, this paper critically analyses language policy documents of two Caribbean states, Jamaica and the unitary state of Trinidad and Tobago, and evaluates the stance, expressed or implied, in these documents towards identity formation in the nation states. The issue is important because language policies that ignore, or superficially address, the issue of ‘identity’ in the Caribbean limit the potential of such initiatives to resolve longstanding dilemmas and address current realities in education systems as they are structured.

Author

• Iris Pamela Hewitt-Bradshaw, The University of Trinidad and Tobago