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Language Policy and Education: Space and Place in Multilingual Post-Soviet States

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2013

Kara D. Brown
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Abstract

This article surveys recent English-language research on language policy and education in the 15 countries that are now two decades removed from Soviet hegemony. I examine how researchers employ geometric concepts such as asymmetry, parallelism, and trajectories to analyze multilingualism in this region. I then discuss the spatial turn in post-Soviet scholarship on language policy and schooling through attention to the ways language is produced in and through place, the management and experience of language in particular places, and the production of place through language and schooling. In conclusion, I argue that states have inherited schools with a Soviet-era commitment to multilingualism, but have been challenged to transform them into new types of post-Soviet plurilingual institutions—ones that generally promote the titular language, create space for instruction in minority languages, and educate in a foreign language. Evidence from these countries also speaks powerfully to the ways teachers, students, and parents use school space in dynamic ways to negotiate community boundaries and cultivate particular national identities through deliberate language practice.

Type
SECTION C: LANGUAGE POLICY AND EDUCATION IN MULTILINGUAL REGIONS
Information
Annual Review of Applied Linguistics , Volume 33 , March 2013 , pp. 238 - 257
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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References

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Hogan-Brun, G. (Ed.). (2010). Comparative Education [Special issue], 46 (1).

This special issue of Comparative Education focuses particularly on language in education in select countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Importantly, this collection reflects the shifting geopolitics of the region; countries that may be of interest to readers of this review article (e.g., Moldova, Ukraine, and the Baltic states) are included in the issue together with other European case studies rather than with those pulled exclusively from the post-Soviet sphere. In addition to Hogan-Brun's useful introductory article, the issue includes country-specific examinations of language and education policies during a period of intense transformation.

Friedman, D. A. (2009). Speaking correctly: Error correction as a language socialization practice in a Ukrainian classroom. Applied Linguistics, 31, 346–367.

This article offers a compelling example of the possibilities for researchers to use ethnographic methods to contribute to our understandings of classroom-based language practices and identity formation. In her analysis of data collected during the 2003–2004 academic year in two fifth-grade classrooms, Friedman drew on insights from language ideology and socialization to make sense of language classroom practices such as error correction. The article provides detailed linguistic evidence of the way micro-classroom interactions can contribute to the development and maintenance of broader language ideologies and identities.

Pavlenko, A. (Ed.). (2008). International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism [Special issue], 11 (3/4).

The special issue contains the most comprehensive and significant overviews of language developments and policy in post-Soviet countries. Collectively, the included scholars advanced efforts to situate these developments within sociolinguistic theory. The collection features Pavlenko's introductory article, which provides a sociohistoric background to the region and its language policies, as well as eight cases studies of countries ranging from several in Central Asia (e.g., Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan) to those along the western border of the former Soviet Union (e.g., Estonia, Lithuania, Moldova, Belarus, and Ukraine). All articles include some examination of language and education policies with various degrees of emphasis. The articles in the special issue also appear in Pavlenko's (2008a) book, Multilingualism in Post-Soviet Countries.

Pauly, M. D. (2009). Tending to the “Native word”: Teachers and the Soviet campaign for Ukrainian-language schooling, 1923–1930. Nationalities Papers, 37, 251–276.

As evidence of the continued interdisciplinary contributions to language and education policy, Pauly's research represents a significant historical contribution to our understanding of the development of Soviet-era language in education policy and the development of non-Russian schooling. By drawing on archival and newspaper sources from the 1920s and 1930s, Pauly explored educators’ daily implementation of Ukrainization in order to better understand this policy's appropriation and impact. The research presented in this article will also be included in Pauly's forthcoming book, Breaking the Tongue: Language, Education, and Power in Soviet Ukraine, 1920–1934.

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