Mark Fettes

Language Planning and Education

The choice of the language or languages of instruction in schools presupposes the existence of language varieties suitable for the task. In the most widespread model of schooling, such a language of instruction is expected to be highly standardized (so that many different schools can use the same curricular and human resources) and both prestigious and widely used (so that education promotes economic mobility and intergroup communication). These are not “natural” characteristics for any language: they are the result of the more-or-less conscious influence of various powerful groups and institutions on sociolinguistic norms. In its most conscious, explicit and rationalized form, such influence is known as language planning.

Imaginative transformation in teacher education

Teacher education, the process of becoming a teacher and aiding others to become teachers, is in part a journey of imaginative development. Students come to imagine teaching, and themselves as teachers, in new ways. This essay reports on an attempt to use ideas about imagination in teaching and learning as the central theme of the first semester of a one‐year teacher education program in British Columbia, Canada. Following a discussion of the theoretical and practical challenges encountered, several possible means of extending this approach are proposed. It is argued that a program thus infused by imagination may be more likely to lead to authentic professional transformation of the kind often posited as a goal of teacher education.Teacher education, the process of becoming a teacher and aiding others to become teachers, is in part a journey of imaginative development. Students come to imagine teaching, and themselves as teachers, in new ways. This essay reports on an attempt to use ideas about imagination in teaching and learning as the central theme of the first semester of a one‐year teacher education program in British Columbia, Canada. Following a discussion of the theoretical and practical challenges encountered, several possible means of extending this approach are proposed. It is argued that a program thus infused by imagination may be more likely to lead to authentic professional transformation of the kind often posited as a goal of teacher education.

Imagination and the Cognitive Tools of Place-Making.

In environmental and ecological education, a rich literature builds on the premise that place, the local natural context in which one lives, can be an emotionally engaging context for learning and the source of life-long concern for nature. A theory of imaginative education can help uncover new tools and strategies for place-based educators. Conversely, a focus on the imaginative dimensions of place-making sheds new light on the nature of imaginative development, with important implications for educational theory and practice.

Europe's Babylon: Towards a single European language?

(1991). Europes Babylon: Towards a single European language? History of European Ideas: Vol. 13, No. 3, pp. 201-213.

Critical Realism, Ecological Psychology, and Imagined Communities

Ecological thinking does not come readily or unproblematically to us moderns, for reasons to be examined in a moment. As in certain kinds of optical illusion, one must learn the trick of seeing familiar things in a new way. This gets easier with practice—but not that easy.

Orality for all: an imaginative place-based approach to oral language development

This paper reports on an innovative approach to oral language development in one British Columbia elementary school, in the context of a larger-scale research project aimed at building cultural inclusive classrooms through the development of imaginative teaching practices. A number of approximately three-week units were designed to lead students through a series of increasingly challenging oral language activities; each unit was developed on the basis of a traditional oral narrative of the Stó:lō, the aboriginal people of the region. In the tradition of design-based research, key features of the units are discussed in connection with pedagogical challenges encountered by the teachers using them. This approach to integrating oral language in the language arts curriculum was effective at promoting engagement by at least some marginalised students, but limited by cultural and political factors that were not addressed in the original research design. Conclusions are drawn for future research on imaginative oral language development.

Inclusion in Education: Challenges for Linguistic Policy and Research

Educational policy in Europe is deliberately shifting towards a more consistent focus on inclusion, meaning provisions to ensure effective education in mainstream classrooms for all students. A considerable gap exists, however, between the policy and research frameworks of the inclusion movement, on the one hand, and research and policy on language teaching and learning, on the other. This chapter explores the reasons for this, and what engagement with inclusion may imply for teaching practices in schools, for programs of teacher education, and for scholarly thinking and practice in second language acquisition and language policy. It argues that inclusion requires a rethinking of the settings, participants, and questions central to such areas of research.

The (inter)linguistic ecology of education / La (inter)lingva ekologio de la edukado

ABSTRACT The text is a revised version of a public lecture delivered in Parma, Italy, on February 9, 2010. It outlines a definition of linguistic ecology and analyzes the role of the formal education system in the linguistic ecology of modernity. The shift from solid to liquid modernity is shown to have farreaching implications for schools and for languages that in turn are bound up with the ecological health of the planet. I argue that interlinguistics can yield important insights into the linguistic ecology of transmodernity, a systemic alternative to the present sociological impasse. RESUMO La teksto estas reviziita versio de publika prelego prezentita en Parma, Italio, la 9an de februaro, 2010. Ĝi skizas difinon de lingva ekologio kaj analizas la rolon de la formala eduksistemo en la lingva ekologio de la moderneco. Montriĝas ke la transiro de solida al likva moderneco kuntrenas profundajn sekvojn por la lernejoj kaj la lingvoj, kaj ke ĉio ĉi kunplektiĝas kun la ekologia sano de la planedo. Mi argumentas, ke la interlingvistiko povas grave kontribui al nia kompreno pri la lingva ekologio de la transmoderneco, konceptita kiel sistema alternativo al la nuna sociologia sakstrato.

Esperanto and Language Awareness

Esperanto, designed as a neutral lingua franca (i.e. second language) for worldwide use, has been taught and learned for over a century, to such an extent that a flourishing oral and written culture is associated with the language. Although global linguistic hierarchies, in particular the hegemony of national languages within state borders and of a small subset of these languages in international communication, have ensured Esperanto’s virtual exclusion from educational systems, a considerable number of Esperanto teachers and learners attest to exciting educational experiences in the language. Among the latter are a range of language awareness effects, including awareness of linguistic inequality, linguistic structure, and the sociocultural functions of language. Such experiences can transform students’ perception of the world through the awakening of awareness and interest in other cultures, and lead to a reassessment of their own linguistic heritage together with the social practices and power relations in which it is enmeshed.