Nationalist border practices: a critical account of how and why an English language classroom on the US/Mexico border reproduces nationalism

National narratives in language classrooms: Documenting mezzo‐spaces between the macro and micro of national reproduction

“…When the findings are compared against the existing literature on national reproduction generally (Phillips & Smith, 2000;Wodak et al, 2009) and in language education in particular (Golden, 2000;Gulliver, 2010;Griswold, 2010;Meadows, 2014), what observations can be made? First, there is some overlap in national affordances available to individuals across contexts and locations, given that themes in this survey also appear in previous studies.…”

“…One strand of scholarship applies a discursive nationalism framework to explore national reproduction in the context of language classrooms (;Golden, 2000; Griswold, 2010; Gulliver, 2010; Meadows, 2014). In an ethnographic study of a Hebrew language classroom for immigrants to Israel, Golden (2000) demonstrates the efforts of the classroom teacher, following curricular guidance, to encourage immigrant students to adopt a national identity consistent with mainstream——and state‐friendly——views.…”

“…Griswold (2010) shows how teacher narratives in an adult ESL classroom in the United States reproduced US mainstream views at the expense of other lived realities within the nationalized space. In a further study of classroom discourse, Meadows (2014) demonstrates how classroom practices in an adult English language classroom in Mexico reproduced nationalized borders of identity and culture, which classroom participants in turn related to positions of social privilege in the wider context in which the classroom was situated.…”

“…From this stance, the nationalism—culture—language classroom nexus can be a valuable site in which to study national reproduction. There is a growing collection of studies that investigates language classroom practices for discernable links to national reproduction (;Golden, 2000; Griswold, 2010; Gulliver, 2010; Meadows, 2014). The current study will extend what education scholars have determined so far about language classrooms as sites of national reproduction.…”

Youth and Nationalism in an Indonesian Border Community

“…From a few studies of youth nationalism in border areas, most of them address multiple youth identities such as ethnicity, language, and other local custom, between two nationalities in the border areas that influence their nationalism identity (Bejarano,2005;Meadows, 2014). This study focuses on youth nationalism in a border society which have similar language and culture but distinguished by nationality which is Sebatik Island.…”