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ERIC Number: EJ1289662
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2021
Pages: 18
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0950-0782
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Neoliberal Multilingualism and "Humanitarian Connections": Discourses around Parents' Experiences with a Mandarin Chinese Immersion School
Language and Education, v35 n1 p78-95 2021
Few studies have investigated the discourses and ideologies around parents' enrollment decisions in Chinese-English immersion contexts, and how these discourses and ideologies affect their involvement with their children' bi/multilingual development. Conducted in a K-5 50/50 one-way Mandarin immersion school, this paper focuses on ethnographic interviews with parents that represent different social and cultural backgrounds. Findings demonstrate multiple ways that parents support and invest in their children's bi/multilingual development. Findings also reveal that the ideology of neoliberal multilingualism and multiculturalism permeates parents' decision-making, expectations, and investment. This ideology motivates parents to actively advocate for this school's survival and combat with the local discourse of monolingualism, which creates a space with a humanitarian emphasis with multiculturalism but also shapes the school space in a certain way. Meanwhile, tensions exist among different parent groups in terms of their perceptions toward the ultimate benefits of this immersion school and the unbalanced parental influence on local language policymaking. This case study aims to investigate the discourses and parents' ideologies in Chinese immersion education, and to offer some implications for language planning in one-way foreign language immersion contexts.
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Early Childhood Education; Elementary Education; Kindergarten; Primary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A