Global Issues in Language, Education and Development

Reviews / Votes

Naz Rasool's work combines academic rigour with sensitiveness. The first comes from a careful study of the empirical data on the use of language in the domains of education and employment; the second from an understanding of how these realities actually impact the lives of ordinary people, especially the disadvantaged. She begins with a theoretical overview of how colonialism impacts the colonized and how language is used to construct new colonial identities and networks of the distribution of power and patronage. Two historical moments have been chosen to examine major transformations in colonized countries: the first, the carving up of Africa at the Berlin Conference in 1884-1885; the second, the partition of India in 1947. The fractures and displacement following these divisions have given rise to conflicts between ethnolinguistic groups which are still with us. The colonial discourse created hierarchies, especially in relation to the acquisition of the colonial language, which is also with us. The way these elites use the education system to perpetuate their privileged status is a theme which occurs several times in the book.



Part-2 comprises case studies of Mali, South Africa and Pakistan. Contributed by scholars specializing in these areas, it provides the empirical evidence which supports the major arguments and conclusions of the book. The last part is about these conclusions, of which the most significant one is about the importance of pursuing multilingual language-in-education policies. This strategy seeks to secure indigenous cultural capital along with the development of knowledges and skills which are needed for operating in a globalized world. -- Dr Tariq Rahman, Distinguished National Professor of Sociolinguistic History, National Institute of Pakistan Studies, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan Dr Tariq Rahman, Distinguished National Professor of Sociolinguistic History, National Institute of Pakistan Studies, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan It is a rare achievement for scholarship connecting economic, cultural and educational issues to be presented so lucidly. Naz Rassool and her co-authors brilliantly unite the global and the local, the historical and the postcolonial, the theoretical and the practical, general trends and detailed specific case studies. The book maintains a coherent focus on the linguistic dimension of cultural and economic globalisation processes, and the constraints that hinder more equitable and multilingual policies in education. It should be prescribed reading for anyone concerned with educational competence-building worldwide. -- Robert Phillipson, Professor, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark Global Issues in Language, Education and Development delivers a thought-provoking and frequently sobering assessment of linguistic hegemony in multiple postcolonial contexts. It does so by melding macro-theoretical analysis and reflection with case study analysis. Rassool's perspective is a refreshing one that challenges the notion that the spread of (ex)colonial languages has been, especially in the last 20 years or so, a mostly, if not wholly, positive development characterized almost exclusively by masses of people clamouring loudly and happily for English. -- Christof Demont-Henrich * Journal of Sociolinguistics 12/05/2008 *