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Addressing Indigenous language loss by unsettling the racialized linguistic hierarchies entrenched in Canada’s language policies
No full textThis article aims to contribute to the discussion about language policy in Canada and to provide policy makers and the general public with a broad historical and social context in which to situate these policies. As is widely known, Canada’s Indigenous languages are critically endangered, which has detrimental consequences for Indigenous communities. As a result, Indigenous communities and the Canadian federal government have both been working towards solutions to the challenge of Indigenous language loss. In this paper it will be argued that there are racialized linguistic hierarchies entrenched in Canada’s language policies which result in social, cultural, and economic inequities between different language groups; that these inequities are issues of rights that need to be addressed according to Canada’s national and international commitments; and that the proposed policy solutions for addressing Indigenous language loss would be most effective if they reflected an unsettling of these linguistic hierarchies. First, this article will demonstrate the social, cultural, and economic effects of the linguistic hierarchies in Canada’s language policies on French as a non-dominant official language, on non-Indigenous non-official settler languages, and on the Indigenous languages of Canada. The consequences for policy will then be discussed in terms of language rights, linguistic human rights, international and national commitments and constitutional issues, and practical considerations for language policy planning and implementation will be suggested. It will be concluded that in planning legislation to satisfy the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action, it would be helpful to consider the relations between Indigenous languages and the other minority languages of Canada and to decolonize and break down the linguistic hierarchies in place in order to prevent further gaps between policy and realit
Within a Room
No full textIn the face of an injustice toward a child, what is the responsibility of an early childhood educator? What are the risks if we speak out? What are the risks if we remain silent, if we do nothing? “Courage, Hannah Arendt (1958/1998) suggests, which we often think of as a quality of the ‘hero,’ is already present in the willingness to act and speak, to insert oneself into the world and begin a story” (Berger, 2010, p. 73). “Lynne is conscientious in her work but she is shy.” I find it quite interesting that this comment/label written about me on my report card 52 years ago by my kindergarten teacher entered my thoughts out of somewhere while I was contemplating how to tell this particular story about taking risks in my practice as an early childhood educator, and how I let go of normal. If indeed I am normally shy, I most definitely let go of my personal and professional normal in a family drop-in program in which I am the only early childhood educator-facilitator. It happened one busy morning in front of parents, grandparents, care providers, and children from infancy to five years old. People had been engaged in relation with each other and the mostly unconventional materials in the intentionally unstructured, untimed, and nontraditionally run program that is situated within a room in an urban elementary school.
Managing the Impacts of Full-Day Kindergarten on Rural Child Care Centres in Ontario
No full textEvidence suggests that the introduction of full-day kindergarten (FDK) in Ontario poses challenges to the child care sector; however, there is a dearth of information on the unique struggles faced by the rural child care sector as a result of the implementation of FDK. Furthermore, little is known about survival strategies adopted by rural child care centres. Telephone interviews with seven consolidated municipal service managers (CMSMs), who are responsible for service planning and support, revealed the actions taken to aid rural communities. Telephone interviews with nine rural child care centre directors/operators highlighted their strategies for managing the challenges presented by FDK and revealed the most pressing problems facing the rural child care sector.
