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Session Submission Summary

Highlighted Session: Policy-practice interface in multilingual education: Ideology, agency, and social justice in the Global South

Sun, March 29, 9:45 to 11:00am, Hilton, Floor: Lobby Level - Tower 3, Golden Gate 7

Group Submission Type: Highlighted Paper Session

Proposal

Multilingual education has now become a major global agenda for equity, access, and social justice in and through education. UNESCO’s recent report highlights that educational policies that deny the use of children’s mother tongue for learning purposes are major factors contributing to the global learning crisis (UNESCO, 2025). The World Bank’s (2021) study reveals that monolingual policies, which require students to learn in languages other than their mother tongue, negatively impact their educational achievement. Both UNESCO and the World Bank emphasize the importance of multilingual education policies, not only for quality and inclusive education, but also for sustainable development. However, studies from around the world have shown that nation-states continue to reinforce linguistic inequalities by reproducing the domination of colonial and national languages in education (Mohanty, 2017; Tupas, 2015).

Shaped by a global neoliberal ideology, English is increasingly replacing local languages as the perceived language of the market and internationalization (Phyak, 2016). Similarly, nation-states continue to promote at least one dominant language as a national language in education. Consequently, local Indigenous languages are rarely implemented equitably in education, although nation-states still recognize the language rights of citizens. The purpose of this panel is to discuss three major questions: What tensions exist in the policy-practice interface of multilingual education in the Global South? What ideologies shape the tensions, and how do different actors negotiate them to open and/or close the space of Indigenous/minoritized languages in education? What social justice implications do these tensions offer for Indigenous/minoritized language students?

Drawing on critical and ethnographic approaches to language policy (Tollefson, 2013; Johnson, 2013), the four papers in the panel unpack the policy-practice interface in multilingual education in the Global South, covering Morocco, India, China, Nepal and Taiwan. While examining the tensions in the policy-practice interface, the papers investigate how multilingual education policies are characterized by tension-filled, contested ideologies and agency. Situating multilingual policies within the context of local linguistic ecology, the papers also offer critical insights into understanding the complexities of enacting mother tongue education in unequal historical-structural conditions.

The first paper examines how de jure and de facto language policies are implemented and contested in practice in Morocco. Drawing on the anthropology of policy (Shore & Wright, 1997) and the ‘ethnography of language policy’ (Johnson, 2013), this paper examines the ideological tensions in Morocco’s multilingual education policy and discusses how they impact the social justice agenda. Drawing on data from classroom observations, interviews, and policy documents, it provides a multi-scalar analysis to examine the disjuncture between official discourse and local enactments. The major findings of the study reveal that Morocco’s multilingual education reforms are characterized by paradox and uneven implementation, thereby perpetuating the dominance of Arabic, French, and English. The paper contributes to debates on the policy–practice interface by showing that multilingual education in the Global South is not merely a pedagogical reform but a political project.

The second paper examines the space of Indigenous languages in multilingual education policy in Taiwan. Using the case of the Development of National Languages Act, which focuses on the revitalization of Indigenous languages, this paper explores the role of teachers in opening and closing the space for Indigenous languages in the enactment of multilingual policy. Using policy arbiter and language ideology as key theories, the paper analyzes how teachers’ agency and ideologies shape the practices of multilingual education in schools. It also illuminates how practiced language policy either fosters or hinders the legitimization of marginalized languages, emphasizing the importance of aligning language policies with linguistic human rights and epistemic justice.

In another paper, the author discusses the policy-practice mismatch in the bilingual education program in China. Using language ideology as a key theoretical framework, the paper discusses how Tibetan communities actively negotiate and reinterpret the bilingual education program to create space for the Tibetan language. Combining ethnography and document analysis, the paper unravels the tensions, strategies, and ideologies that shape language learning, identity, and cultural survival of Tibetan. The findings of the study show both opportunities and challenges of implementing a bilingual education program for Tibetan ethnic minorities. One critical finding of the study is that bilingual education can simultaneously reinforce social hierarchies and open new possibilities for Tibetan language revitalization, cultural continuity, and reimagined belonging within contested sociopolitical and linguistic contexts.

The final paper critically examines the underlying reasons that affect the enactment of multilingual education policies in India and Nepal. It focuses on how Indigenous/ethnic minority communities in India and Nepal interpret the relevance and adequacy of multilingual education policies, as well as the language ideologies they construct and perpetuate in their interpretations. The paper employs ‘language ideology’ (Kroskrity, 2009) as a theoretical lens to analyze the perspectives of Indigenous communities on multilingual education policies. Using ‘critical ethnography’ (Madison, 2011) as a methodology, the paper analyzes how Ladakhi (in India) and Yaakthung (in Nepal) Indigenous communities interpret the relevance of the multilingual education policy for Indigenous language reclamation. Based on the analysis of policy documents, interviews with Indigenous community members and teachers, and observations of classes, the paper unpacks the policy-practice interface at both the ideological and implementation levels. The study's findings reveal that both the Ladakhi and Yaakthung communities have mixed interpretations regarding the relevance of national education policies and construct the ideology of language as a right and something to be preserved.

Together, the four papers provide critical insights into understanding the intersection between multilingual education, language ideology, agency and social justice in the Global South. Collectively, they unpack how multilingual education policies can reproduce language hierarchies and how they are negotiated and interpreted by different language policy actors.

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