CfP: Interface between Multiculturalism and Language Education in Canada
CALL FOR PAPERS for an edited collection entitled
Interface between Multiculturalism and Language Education in Canada
Edited by Samira ElAtia & Sheena Wilson (University of Alberta)
Deadline for Abstracts: January 15th, 2013
Deadline for Full Submission: August 15th, 2013
This collection will address both issues of language education and issues of multicultural education within the Canadian context, with an aim to presenting a comprehensive picture and in-depth analyses of Canadian multicultural educational model(s).
Given that language is the grounding source of all cultures, it can be argued that Canadian language and cultural policies, in their most positive incarnations, have resulted first in bilingual education programs post-1969, and have culminated in more recent years in the possibility for Canadian students to access a multilingual education, accompanied by multicultural education curricula. Nevertheless, it must be taken into consideration that the political landscape of Canada has increasingly shifted to the right since the beginning of the new millennium, particularly after the election of the minority Harper government (in 2006), and it continues to shift still further to the right under the majority Harper government (re-elected in 2010). As Harper's ministers pick and choose which conservative ethno-cultural organizations to support, financially or otherwise, in a short-term bid to amass votes, the government simultaneously erodes multiculturalism at the infrastructural and policy levels in ways that may place limitations on language education and immigration policies and which may have the potential to undermine the longer-term aspirations of ethno-cultural communities.
Therefore, the articles in this book will collectively address the impacts of the Official Languages Act and the Multiculturalism Policy and Act on Canadian education systems across the provinces and territories over the last 40-plus, as well as the impacts of the more recent rise of conservativism in Canadian politics, in terms of both the expectations for and the practical implementation of multilingual and multicultural educational mandates.
Topics may include, but are not limited to, the following areas of research:
1. How does legislation affect educational policy?
2. How are the implementations of legislations realized differently across Canada? In other words, how is multiculturalism and multilingualism implemented in Canadian classrooms, across the territories and provinces, in response to constantly transforming and diversely understood definitions of multiculturalism itself (as policy, ideology, social character etc.)?
a. Is it implemented differently or similarly in English versus French school systems/boards?
b. Is it understood similarly or differently by the diverse language and ethno-cultural groups across the country (in school, universities, community organization, etc)?
3. How do other related issues concerning race, class, religion and gender factor into language and cultural education in Canada at the elementary, secondary and post-secondary levels?
4. How do these diverse cultural and linguistic Canadian-educational cultures/backgrounds encounter one another at the post-secondary level?
5. How do these Canadian educational-cultures function (or not) in Canadian university settings, alongside the educational-cultural expectations of incoming foreign students with differing linguistic and cultural backgrounds?
6. What are the broader social-cultural and political implications for multilingual and multicultural conceptions of Canada as students and citizens educated post-1969 move into the work-force?
Submission Guidelines
We welcome both theoretical and empirical papers from contributors working on language education and cultural education in any number of languages and cultures in Canada, from either academics working across the disciplines or beyond (educators, lawyers and legal experts, etc.). The working language of the collection will be English.
Deadline for Abstracts: February 1st, 2013
Content: 250-400 words abstract with title, author’s name & contact info
Please include a short bio of 50 words, including affiliation.
Will be notified about whether abstract has been tentatively accepted (with an invitation to submit a full draft) by March 30th, 2013
Final Submission due September 15, 2013.
Final acceptance will be conditional until final peer review assessments are completed.
Please send proposals to Dr. Samira ElAtia: selatia@ualberta.ca AND Dr. Sheena Wilson: sheena.wilson@ualberta.ca. Inquiries may be sent to the same email addresses.
