11. Towards Positive Peace through Bilingual Community Education: Language Efforts of Arabic-speaking Communities in New York

Zakharia, Zeena; Bishop, Laura

doi:10.21832/9781847698018-013

Cited by 6 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“… Although certain aspects of this situation are specific to Cyprus, there are parallels to what we found elsewhere—for example, in Northern Ireland (Malcolm, ) and Israel (Uhlmann, ), in complementary schools run by migrant and refugee groups in Copenhagen (Karrebæk & Ghandchi, ), as well as in a growing range of situations where people are affected by the sense or experience of existential threat (Zakharia & Bishop, ). …”

supporting

confidence: 73%

Sociolinguistics and everyday (in)securitization

Rampton

Charalambous

2019

Journal of Sociolinguistics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This Journal of Sociolinguistics dialogue starts from the perception that existential threats to national security have become an increasingly pervasive concern in daily life, spreading fear and suspicion through civil society.Communicative practices play a central role in these processes of (in)securitization, but sociolinguists appear to have paid them less attention than they deserve. So in what follows, six researchers discuss the significance of (in)securitization for our everyday experience and the implications for sociolinguistic theory and research. The dialogue opens with Ben Rampton and ConstadinaCharalambous, who introduce the concept of (in)securitization from International Relations (IR) research and sketch potential connections and challenges to standard sociolinguistic theories and concepts. Then the four papers that follow pick this up from different angles in different geographic locations. Ariana Mangual Figueroa discusses (in)securitization's radical impact on research relationships in ethnography, focusing on the US. Zeena Zakharia addresses the effects of largescale conflict on language education, both in the US and in Lebanon. Erez Levon considers the connections between nationalism and sexuality, bringing in the strategies with which gay and lesbian Israelis navigate the insecuritizing discourses they encounter. Then Rodney Jones discusses the interactional dynamics of surveillance, moving between police encounters and the internet to show the thin line between protection andprecarity. At the end of the dialogue, we address three questions, collaboratively reaffirming the urgency of these issues, the significance of (in)securitization in everyday communicative practice, and the ramifications for sociolinguistics. |

show abstract

supporting

confidence: 73%

Sociolinguistics and everyday (in)securitization

Rampton

Charalambous

2019

Journal of Sociolinguistics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Similarly, Khan points to implications for Arabic as a heritage language in London, and in particular for students’ motivation as, “just at the time when [British] intelligence and the military want their linguistic abilities more than ever, Muslims are being portrayed as a ‘suspect community,’ subjected to high levels of surveillance, scrutiny and distrust” (Charalambous et al., , p. 643; Khan, ). Zakharia and Bishop () also described very similar processes in relation to Arabic bilingual education in New York, which has been limited by policy makers from heritage to foreign language education serving a ‘security agenda,’ with negative implications for the future of these schools and the learners.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such discourses are also evident in EU documents advancing multilingualism for economic and personal development (e.g., Common European Framework of Reference for Languages). National security as a significant issue for HLE (since 9/11) . McGinnis () points out that in the U.S. context, heritage language classes are increasingly being represented as a ‘silver bullet’ against security threats; while Khan (in Charalambous et al., ) describes how, under the increasing (in)securitization of British Muslim communities, Arabic language classes are seen both as a threat and as a ‘weapon’ (see also Zakharia & Bishop, ).…”

Section: Heritage Language In Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Language Education and ‘Conflicted Heritage’: Implications for Teaching and Learning

Charalambous

2019

The Modern Language Journal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article revisits discussions of the relationship between language and heritage, bringing into the picture processes and experiences of (in)security and conflict. It draws largely on critical heritage studies literature, as well as on literature that deals with managing heritage in postconflict situations, and uses insights and concepts from this literature to inform current debates in modern language education and heritage language education in particular. Using the notion of conflicted heritage, it focuses on a particular type of language class, Turkish classes in Greek‐Cypriot educational settings, where the target language has been part of a long history of conflict. The discussion of these classes reveals the role that language education can potentially play in wider social and political processes of managing a conflicted heritage as a society attempts to move beyond a conflict‐troubled past. Finally, the article points to the implications for language education when a language is associated with a conflicted heritage and discourses of (in)security.

show abstract

“…The principal of an Arabic bilingual Islamic school in New York described the surveillance as being characterized by frequent school visits from members of the police department, the State Department, and journalists, all of whom probed the content and methods of teaching. According to the principal, the effect was to prevent the school from being able to engage students fully with current events, their sense of insecurity, and programming that could help them to see their positive role as global ambassadors out of fear that comments might be used against the school (Zakharia & Menchaca‐Bishop, ). Within this context of surveillance, teachers reported that students openly questioned their teachers about why they should learn the Arabic language (focus group, New York, 2011) and a teacher noted, “How can we teach Arabic well, when we don’t feel good about ourselves?”…”

Section: Dialectical Processes Of (In)securitizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Language and (in)securitization: Observations from educational research and practice in conflict‐affected contexts

Zakharia

2019

Journal of Sociolinguistics

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Spurred in part by violent conflict and natural disaster, the surge in global migration calls for renewed attention to the central role of language in everyday (in)securitization. In this brief response, I draw on my work in the Middle East and among Arabic‐speaking populations in the United States to offer some illustration of the instantiation of global, macro‐processes of (in)securitization and surveillance in the everyday micro‐practices of schooling—issues that are possible to “see” when language policy is the site of inquiry. In centring everyday communicative practice, sociolinguistics provides a distinctive entry point for examining the lived experience of this (in)securitization, by illuminating pervasive and mundane micro‐processes within the “extraordinary” and routinized social interactions of everyday schooling.

show abstract

11. Towards Positive Peace through Bilingual Community Education: Language Efforts of Arabic-speaking Communities in New York

Cited by 6 publications

References 0 publications

Sociolinguistics and everyday (in)securitization

Sociolinguistics and everyday (in)securitization

Language Education and ‘Conflicted Heritage’: Implications for Teaching and Learning

Language and (in)securitization: Observations from educational research and practice in conflict‐affected contexts

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About