Traces of old and new center-periphery dynamics in language-in-education policy and practice
Insights from a linguistic ethnographic study in Timor-Leste
This article reveals how center-periphery relations have unfolded, over time, in language policy processes in one nation – Timor-Leste – on the global periphery. We take a
longue durée perspective on the language policy processes at work in this historical context, showing how different regimes of language were imposed, in the past, by colonisers from distant centers – in Portugal and then in Java, Indonesia. Then, turning to the post-independence period, we show how a new order of indexicality, forged within the Resistance to the Indonesian occupation, formed the basis for current language policy in Timor-Leste, with Portuguese and Tetum as co-official languages. We also demonstrate that this agentive policy move, from the global periphery, oriented Timor-Leste to new and more complex center-periphery relations, to a ‘lusophone’ world, with Portugal and Brazil as key players. Our account of contemporary policy discourses in Timor-Leste, and of the consequences for language policy implementation, on different scales (national and local), draws on recent research of an ethnographic and multi-scalar nature conducted in Timor-Leste (
Da Costa Cabral, 2015).
Article outline
- Introduction
- Changing center-periphery relations, changing discourses about language and changes in language-in-education policy and practice
-
The eastern region of the island of Timor: Imposition of a colonial order (1514–1974)
-
The Indonesian occupation, the imposition of a new center and the East Timorese Resistance (1975–1999)
-
A new nation developing language policy in a global age: The political and discursive challenges for Timor-Leste
- A linguistic ethnographic study in Timor-Leste
- Policy discourses: National and global perspectives
- The year 6 classroom and teacher Dalia
- Talk around the textbook: Linking different ‘lusophone’ worlds
- Concluding remarks
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
-
References
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