Link to UN's PFII Release: Subtractive Lg Education Is a Crime Against Humanity

[Stan Anonby]

Thanks, Don,

Interesting. It doesn't surprise me that you've gotten so few responses. 
Let's hope that means that punishment for speaking mother tongue is, indeed, 
on the wane.

It certainly doesn't mean that minority languages attrition is on the wane, 
though. Which makes me think that punishment for speaking mother tongue is 
actually a minor motivator for language shift.

Stan Anonby

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Don Osborn" <dzo at bisharat.net>
To: <lgpolicy-list at ccat.sas.upenn.edu>; <ELLADVOC at asu.edu>
Cc: <aguilera at mail.h-net.msu.edu>; <s.cretella at voxhumanitatis.org>
Sent: Thursday, May 22, 2008 8:09 AM
Subject: RE: Link to UN's PFII Release: Subtractive Lg Education Is a Crime 
Against Humanity


> L2-only or subtractive bilingual education is common in Africa. Sometimes
> even where the policy is bilingual, the actual practice is instruction in
> L2.
>
> On the other hand, an important aspect of this - punishment of young
> students for speaking their mother tongue in Africa - is something that I
> have found it hard to get more current information on (although admittedly 
> I
> haven't been researching the question that assiduously). What one hears 
> are
> occasional anecdotes, and then retrospectives of people who have been
> through all that when younger.
>
> A question I posed on the Togo-L list regarding punishment for language 
> use
> received a reply from one Togolese who asserted that corporal punishment 
> or
> humiliation for use of the mother tongue in school was a thing of the 
> past.
> However, we also know that corporal punishment is still rife in schools in
> the region (a UN/IRIN report a year or two ago cited examples from Togo, 
> but
> not with reference to language). So what is the reality?
>
> My guess is that whatever the degree of current abuses related to 
> languages
> in the classroom, the situations and interests of various parties conspire
> in a way to keep it out of public view:
> * Children don't have voice to tell us
> * Teachers and administrators aren't likely to discuss their own practices
> that might be viewed negatively
> * Nor are teachers and administrators likely to expose their colleagues
> * Parents are often not in a position where they feel they have powerr to
> say anything
> * The dominant ideologies that it is for the children's own good to learn 
> in
> a certain way with regard to language and to be "corrected" in certain 
> ways
> are at the root of the problem
> * Observers generally don't notice or perhaps tacitly accept the dominant
> ideology
> * Organizations involved in development or human rights often do not see
> language as a priority issue.
>
> Personally, it was an indirect remark in passing by a correspondent about
> young kids in a school in Tanzania being too scared of being beaten for
> speaking their mother tongue to say anything (class was in Swahili) that
> catalyzed my seeking more information.
>
> I also posed the question on H-Africa and got almost no response - a
> surprise. I don't think that the question was ill-informed or taboo, but
> perhaps the subscribers (which include a lot of kowledgeable and eminent
> scholars of Africa, African and otherwise) did not really know anything
> about the current situations.
>
> The Togolese respondant I referred to above certainly was being honest 
> from
> her perspective, but likely that experience was mainly urban and among 
> elite
> groups whose children grow up with some French as well as Ewe/Mina - so 
> the
> French-only system doesn't have the same level of drawbacks as perhaps in
> other areas or among other demographics.
>
> In any event, I am still hoping for a way to find out more about current 
> use
> of punishment for speaking the mother tongue in schools of Africa.
>
> Don Osborn
>
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: owner-lgpolicy-list at ccat.sas.upenn.edu [mailto:owner-lgpolicy-
>> list at ccat.sas.upenn.edu] On Behalf Of Stan Anonby
>> Sent: Tuesday, May 20, 2008 6:34 PM
>> To: lgpolicy-list at ccat.sas.upenn.edu; ELLADVOC at asu.edu
>> Cc: aguilera at mail.h-net.msu.edu
>> Subject: Re: Link to UN's PFII Release: Subtractive Lg Education Is a
>> Crime Against Humanity
>>
>> Isn't it kind of heavy on past sins? It would be more interesting to me
>> if
>> it gave examples of language education crimes going on today.
>>
>> Stan Anonby
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Teresa McCarty" <Teresa.McCarty at asu.edu>
>> To: <lgpolicy-list at ccat.sas.upenn.edu>; <ELLADVOC at asu.edu>
>> Cc: <aguilera at MAIL.H-NET.MSU.EDU>
>> Sent: Monday, May 19, 2008 1:16 PM
>> Subject: Link to UN's PFII Release: Subtractive Lg Education Is a Crime
>> Against Humanity
>>
>>
>> > Colleagues, I am not sure the attachment "stuck" (probably not
>> allowed by
>> > the listserv, and thanks to Richard Ruiz for calling it to my
>> attention).
>> > Here is the link to this document:
>> >
>> > http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/E_C19_2008_7.pdf
>> >
>> > Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
>> > Seventh session
>> > New York, 21 April -2 May 2008
>> > Items 4 and 7 of the provisional agenda
>> > ＊
>> >
>> > Expert paper 1
>> > submitted by Lars Anders-Baer. Prepared in cooperation
>> > with Ole Henrik-Magga, Robert Dunbar and Tove Skutnabb-Kangas.
>> > FORMS OF EDUCATION OF INDIGENOUS CHILDREN AS CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY?
>> > Advance Unedited Version
>> > United Nations
>> > E/C.19/2008/7
>> > Economic and Social Council
>> > Distr.: General
>> > 8 February 2008
>> >
>> > http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/E_C19_2008_7.pdf
>> > ----------------------
>> >
>> > Original message:
>> >
>> > Please see the attached expert statement commissioned by the UN's
>> > Permanent
>> > Forum on Indigenous Issues.   It's a very strong statement, basically
>> > arguing that subtractive education for Indigenous peoples is
>> tantamount to
>> > a
>> > crime against humanity and should be sanctioned as such under
>> > international
>> > law.  Although the focus is Indigenous peoples, there are clear
>> extensions
>> > to other minoritized groups.
>> >
>> > Tove Skutnabb-Kangas, who is one of the coauthors, has urged that
>> this
>> > document be distributed widely.  It will be interesting and important
>> to
>> > see
>> > how the PFII and UN Human Rights Council respond to it.
>> >
>> > Teresa L. McCarty, Ph.D.
>> > Alice Wiley Snell Professor of Education Policy Studies
>> > Arizona State University
>> > Mary Lou Fulton College of Education
>> > Division of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies
>> > Farmer Building 120 - PO Box 872411
>> > Tempe, AZ 85287-2411
>> > PH: 480.965.6357  FAX: 480.965-1880
>> > Teresa.McCarty at asu.edu
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>
>