Louisiana's Complicated Relationship With Heritage French and Education: From Prohibition to Renaissance

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 11
  In Roundtable Session: Critical Issues in Sight, Sound, and Culture

Abstract

Louisiana’s unique cultural and political history of native French language prohibition and its present push to preserve ethnic and indigenous languages serve as an overlooked experiment in American education and its conflicts at the intersection of language and culture. Utilizing a neocolonial lens, this ethnographic case study in policy was developed through synthesizing various ethnographic projects focused on language and culture in local ethnic communities to provide a greater contextualization for continuing work on language preservation in Louisiana. This paper presents an overview of the current status of Louisiana’s cultural and language renaissance, its underlying political and historical dilemmas, and the ongoing issues and complications inherent in Louisiana’s ongoing strategies to advocate for heritage language education and community agency.

Author

• Jenna Michelle LaChenaye, The University of Alabama - Birmingham