Reflections and discussion: Tying it all together

• In Event: Language-in-education policy change: Should we pay more attention to grassroots actors and actions on behalf of non-dominant languages?

Proposal

In this presentation, I provide a thematic overview of the upcoming Kosonen and Benson (2025) edited book by highlighting key insights and questions raised across the chapters. With global contributions ranging from Argentina to Timor-Leste, the twenty-one authors investigate the agents and agency of education policies focused on non-dominant languages. My holistic analysis looks across and compares these one-country or sub-country case studies to shed light on the key contributions of the editors’ 2021 change from above-below-the side framework as well as pointing to directions for further refinement.

In my talk, I will also reflect on the volume’s contribution to ongoing discussions about the methodological challenges of language policy analysis. I will highlight, as one example, the authors’ policy maps of their country’s complex policy change trajectories. These images reveal the deep interdisciplinary knowledge needed to understand the birth, growth, and death (or birth, growth, and growth!) of policies that support non-dominant languages in education. To create these maps, which each chapter has differently depicted, multiple data points are needed– time periods, a range of actors, political shifts, policy developments, and more. These policy maps also reveal the intellectual challenge of identifying key moments in the life of a policy: When does a policy begin (initiated)? What constitutes a shift in policy direction? What evidence is needed to identify a policy trajectory? The variety of ways that the volume’s authors respond to these foundational policy questions and take up this important policy analysis work point to major contributions of this volume.

Author

• Kara Diane Brown, University of South Carolina