Models of national government language-in-education policy for indigenous minority language groups

The language policies of national governments construct the ways in which languages and their relative value are perceived at the official level. Official language-in-education policies in favour of minority indigenous languages are a relatively new dimension of the language planning work of national governments. Where such policies exist, they typically replace an older, colonialist tradition of language planning which either neglected or actively opposed the use of these languages. This paper will examine some cases of language-ineducation planning which show a range of approaches to the use of indigenous languages in educational contexts. Typical approaches to language-in-education planning for indigenous minority languages include: language study as subject, vernacular literacy programs, and officialisation of the minority languages. While language planning has usually considered such approaches in terms of structures, practices and outcomes, little focus has been given to the ways in which such planning attempts construct languages at the symbolic level. This paper will examine the ways in which language planning work operates on a symbolic level to reflect and reproduce relationships between indigenous minorities and dominant language groups in which established power and economic relationships and perceptions of relative cultural capital are entrenched rather than challenged.